"Oh, dadda," cried the girl, desperately, "I know I was--
was a wicked creature, but I've been sorry, and suffered for
it, and I don't think 't is fair to blame me for this. 'T was not
I who brought him--"

"Silence, miss!" interrupted her mother. "Wouldst sauce
thy father in his trouble?"

"I presume you obtained the knowledge Clowes transmitted
from your daughter?" surmised the officer.

"My daughter? Not I! How could a chit of a girl know
aught of such things? Clowes got it from young Hennion,
and devil a thing had I really to do with it, write what he
pleases."

"Pray take chairs, ladies," suggested the aide, with more
politeness. "Now, sir, unravel this matter, so far as 't is
known to you."

When the squire's brief tale of how the information was
obtained and forwarded to Boston was told, the officer was
silent for some moments. Then he asked: "Hast had word
of Clowes since then?"

"Not sight or word since the night the--"

"Oh, dadda," moaned Janice, "please don't!"

"Since he attempted to steal my girl from me. And if