see, girls, we are out on a `bear hunt.'"

But the girls did not see - only Cora looked as if she understood.
She said to Hazel:

"There is no hurry, dear. You can go with them when they come
back. They have to pass this way, don't you, Ed?"

"Would you mind, Cora," said Ed suddenly, "if the gentleman
outside asked you a few private questions?"

"A reporter!" exclaimed Ray, all excitement.

"Dear me! I do hope he won't ask for our pictures. Mother would
never permit it."

Ed smiled broadly. He looked a sort of assent, but did not
otherwise express it.

Cora stepped up to the auto, whereat the man left his place, and,
under pretext of walking along idly, and perhaps thus gaining
Cora's "private ear," he was soon out of reach of those on the
porch.

"It is like a double robbery," he said after exchanging some
preliminary remarks, "and the child is disconsolate. Her mother
is sure it was not stolen, but lost, while we feel otherwise. It
seems there is a handsome young man, a cousin of the child's,
interested. His father is a lawyer - the lawyer who has the case
against Mr. Robinson. Now this book - the promise book -