“Oh, I am satisfied with it,” said Herring, putting on an air of braggadocio, seeing that the doctor was giving him a loophole by which to get out.  “I don’t see that I need—–­” but then he stopped, seeing a look in the doctor’s face like a danger signal.

“You think on the whole that it might be as well to go somewhere else for a few weeks?”

The doctor got up, and Herring took the hint and went out, saying nothing further upon the subject.

By the time Percival and the others had returned he was packing up, and when Jack and Dick came back from Riverton he had gone, and Merritt and one or two others had gone with him.

Shortly after this Jack and Percival, while in Riverton one day, came across Gabrielle, the former nurse maid for Mrs. Van der Donk, and Percival, recognizing her said shortly: 

“How do you do?  Will you tell me how you happened to put that watch in my friend’s pocket the night of the fire at your employer’s house?”

“What you say?” asked the girl in the high key customary with her.  “I do not know you, I have not meet you before.”

“But you know me,” said Jack.  “You remember the watch with the diamonds on the case that your friend gave you?  You were talking about it on the banks of the kill one afternoon and said you had lost it.  You did not lose it, did you?  Didn’t you put it in my pocket?”

“Who are you?” asked the girl, making a move to pass the boys.

“I brought the baby down from the room in the extension, and you took him from me and thanked me very much.  You remember this?  You said you would lose your place if the baby had been burned.”

“Ah, then you are the young gentleman so brave who save the babee from being burn?  Ah, yes, that was very brave.  The ladee give you the reward, yes?  That was very good.”

“Yes, but what about the watch?  You need not be afraid.  The owner has been found.”

“An, yes, and you find the watch in your pocket?  That is very droll!” and the girl began to laugh.

“Yes, it was very funny,” said Jack, “but how did it get there?”

“I put it there, me, myself.  I am afraid to carry so fine a watch and I wish to get rid of him.  When you give me the baby and are tangle in the blanket I put him in your pocket.”

“The baby?” laughed Percival.

“The babee?” said the girl with a look of scorn.  “No, the watch.  How I can put the babee in the boy pocket?  That is stupid.  It is easy to do when I am so close to the boy and he not know it.  You have the watch then.  You are be arrest, yes?”

“No, I was not arrested, and I found an owner for it.  Your friend tried to get it, but I had heard him say that he had stolen it, and I would not give it up.”

“An, and now he has go away and I do not see him.  You want that you shall arrest him?”

“No, I don’t care anything about him,” said Jack, “but I did want to know how the watch got in my pocket without my knowing it.”