"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't
you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to
the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise
to look, at least?"

But Frank slowly shook his head.

"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might
never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note
was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since
there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably
do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into
little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the
porch.

It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come
back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him.

Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit
that the action was splendid in him.

"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find
their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--"

"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at
least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems
dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help."

"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving
appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present