s was what Ransom wanted to know. But there was still
much to learn. Should he venture an additional question? No, that would
show more than a stranger's interest in a topic so purely local. Better
leave well enough alone and quit the spot before he committed himself.

Uttering some commonplace observation about the fatality attending
certain families, he nodded a friendly good-by and made for the entrance.

As he stepped below the brow of the hill he heard the first click of the
workman's hammer on the chisel with which he proposed to eliminate the
word _Anitra_ from the list of the Hazen dead.

CHAPTER IX

HUNTER'S INN

When Mr. Ransom re-entered the hotel, which he did under a swoop of wind
which turned his umbrella inside out and drenched him through in an
instant, it was to find the house in renewed turmoil, happily explained
by the landlady, whom he ran across on the stairs.

"Oh, Mr. Johnston!" she cried as she edged by him with a pile of
bed-linen on her arm. "Please excuse all this fuss. Another guest is
coming--I have just got a telegram. A famous lawyer from New York. Our
house will be full to-night."

"Where will you put him?" inquired Mr. Ransom with a good-natured air.
"There seem to be no unoccupied rooms on this hall."

"More's the pity," she sighed, with a half-inquiring, half deprecatory
look at this fortunate first comer. "I shall have to put him below, poor
man. I'm afraid he won't like it, but--" Mr. Ransom remained silent.
"But," she went on with sudden cheerfulness, "I will make it up in the
supper. That shall be as good a one as our kitchen will provide. Four
city guests all in one day! That's a good many for this quiet hotel."

"Four!" retorted Mr. Ransom as he turned towards his own door. "The
number has grown by two since I went out."

"Oh, I didn't tell you. The lady--her name's Mrs. Ransom--brings her
sister with her. The little girl who--yes, I am coming." This latter to
some perplexed domestic down the hall, who had already called her twice.
"I mustn't stand talking here," she apologized as she hurried away. "But
do take care of yourself. You are dreadful wet. How I wish the weather
would clear up!"

Mr. Ransom wished the same. To say nothing of his own inconvenience,
it was a source of anxiety to him that she should have to ride these
inevitable ten miles in such a chilling downpour. Besides, a storm of
this kind complicated matters; gave him less sense of freedom, shu