"Jess will spark, old boy; you see if she doesn't"

"Jess is the best girl in the world; and she's got too much sense to object
to my helping another girl home through the snow."

"All right," chuckled Laura, in a much more cheerful mood. "But don't make
the mistake of praising Janet to Jess. That is where the crime comes in."

"Oh! Well, I won't," her brother declared thoughtfully.

"And where did you beau Janet from?" Laura asked.

"The hospital."

"Were you there to see that poor man?"

"Rich man, you mean," grinned her brother. "I took him some books and a lot
of papers. He is able to sit up and read."

"But he doesn't know who he is?"

"He declares his name is John _Something_, and that he ought to be in
Alaska right now. Says the last he knew he was in Sitka. Something happened
to him there. Whatever it was, his brain must have been affected at that
time. For he cannot remember anything about the first part of his life."

"But, Chetwood!" exclaimed Laura earnestly, "that man is not a miner. He is
not tanned. His hands are not rough. He was as well groomed, the matron
says, as any gentleman who ever was brought to the Centerport Hospital."