y in doubt as to whether No. 1 was from the Scouts who had promised another surpr

ing Do

ok

ING DO

OK

ING DO

K O

The second let

urs is inspired by the rankest hypocrisy, that you have no genuine desire to do anything for our starving families. This move of yours, we know, was planned by that villainous father of your

e Careful!

ard this one lightly. Although there was no common basis for comparing the handwriting of the two missives, one being lettered in Roman capitals and the other in ordinary script, nevertheless she quickly dismissed the first suspicion that letter No. 1 was written by Clifford Long or some other Scout of Spring Lake academy.

pted to carry out their original plan, but what method should she pursue to convey to them this information? She might go at the matter bluntly

ire, to whom she might go with her story. The latter, though she came well within the requirements of the national board to fill the position which she held, was nevertheless a young woman in the sensitive sense of the phrase and could hardly be expected to give the best of e

e it. As she sat studying over the problem she suddenly became conscious of the presence of another person close beside her, and looking up she saw Helen Nash, with an expression

effort at self-control. "I didn't mean to intrude. I h

ure of these letters and I want to talk this affair over with somebody, I think I may as well talk

ssion of two chairs and soon were so deeply absorbed in the problem at

herself that right then, under those seemingly impersonal circumstances, Helen's habitual strangeness of manner was more pronounced than she had ever before known it to be. This girl of impen

t she saw in Marion's eyes caused her to blush with confusion. Unable to meet her friend's gaze

er. It ought to be turned over to

on't you think?"

r one. My guess would be that it was writ

y they both end?-the same

mmon, ordinary expression, almost like 'a,' 'an,' or 'the,' that i

n Westm

Helen admitted. "Still it doesn't convince me. You wouldn't expect the Spring Lake boys to mail a

re written by different person

hat skull-and-cross-bones letter that you are most interested. I think you can disregard the other entirely. I would say this, however,

hy

he brain. But if the person who wrote the longer one did not write the shorter one, the

le the suggestion came to her that perhaps a genius for this sort of thing accounted for her fr

clined that way. I'd rather do something in this cas

id; "and I am now convinced that you are just the person I

you can't go to them and blurt out anything so sensational. We must b

ut with just a suggestion of

icion of cowardice that might rest against her. "Still, if my advice had been a

arion in a tone o

s, Marion, but it is very natural for some of these rough miners to suspect that your plan was cooked up by your fa

ty. "I explained to them that there could hardly be any danger even if the strikers should get ugly, as the mines are some distance from where we live and any violence on the part of the miners woul

itatively. "Miners are peculiar people, especially if they are lead by radical leaders of aggressive purpose. They believe that they are a badly misused set, turning o

d wonderingly. "You are not even studying sociolog

on in her eyes and the twitch of her mouth that a big lump in her throat had interrupted

hat I found just the right person to advise me when I laid this matter before you. We will try to work