dollars; When would he have a chance to get such a windfall again? Pah!
he was a fool--to copy his identical thoughts: "a gol dum
blithering idjit!"

All the way home he reflected dismally upon his lack of business
foresight, and strove to plan ways to get money "out'n thet easy mark."

"Didn't the man rob you, Uncle?" asked Louise, when the agent had
disappeared.

"Yes, dear; but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing I
realized it."

"That was what I thought. By the way, that Wegg history seems both
romantic and unusual," she said, musingly. "Don't you scent some mystery
in what the man said of it?"

"Mystery!" cried Uncle John. "Lordy, no, Louise. You've been readin' too
many novels. Romances don't grow in parts like these."

"But I think this is where they are most likely to grow, Uncle,"
persisted the girl, "just consider. A retired sea captain hides inland,
with no companions but a grinning sailor and his blind housekeeper
--except his pale wife, of course; and she is described as sad and
unhappy. Who was she, do you think?"

"I don't think," said Uncle John, smiling and patting the fair check of
his niece. "And it don't matter who she was."

"I'm sure it does. It is the key to the whole mystery. Even her baby