count for his tardiness, either one of which would have

done credit to the imaginative powers of a Rider Hag-

gard or a Jules Verne; but at the end of the third

block he caught a glimpse of something which drove

all thoughts of home from his mind and came but

barely short of driving his mind out too. He was ap-

proaching the entrance to an alley. Old trees grew in the

parkway at his side. At the street corner a half block

away a high flung arc swung gently from its support-

ing cables, casting a fair light upon the alley's mouth,

and just emerging from behind the nearer fence Willie

Case saw the huge bulk of a bear. Terrified, Willie

jumped behind a tree; and then, fearful lest the animal

might have caught sight or scent of him he poked his

head cautiously around the side of the bole just in

time to see the figure of a girl come out of the alley be-

hind the bear. Willie recognized her at the first glance--

she was the very girl he had seen burying the dead man

in the Squibbs woods. Instantly Willie Case was trans-

formed again into the shrewd and death defying sleuth.

At a safe distance he followed the girl and the bear

through one alley after another until they came out upon

the road which leads south from Payson. He was across

the road when she joined Bridge and his companions.

When they turned toward the old mill he followed them,

listening close to the rotting clapboards for any chance

remark which might indicate their future plans. He

heard them debating the wisdom of remaining where

they were for the night or moving on to another loca-

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