mystery. It's clothed in a maze of language. Remove the maze, and it
begins to look simple."

"Where is the maze of language in this affair?" Cub challenged.

"From what I've heard, the whole affair seems to have consisted
principally of language. Now, I tell you what we'll do. We'll go to bed
early and have a good sleep. In the morning, we'll shake this affair up
in a sieve and see if we can't get rid of everything but the main lumps
of the facts. Then we'll size them up and see what we can make of them.
In my opinion, we can get at the bottom of what you choose to regard as a
profound mystery."

"If you do, pa, you'll return my goat," said Cub.

"It's up to you, Bob," was his father's reply. "I've no desire to keep
him in my stable."




CHAPTER VII

Returning Cub's "Goat"


In the morning after breakfast Mr. Perry called a conference on deck for
the purpose of discussing "the mystery and Cub's goat", as Hal put it.

"Yes," said Bud, his sense of humor stimulated by this allusion; "all Mr.