Mr. Pyecroft noted that Jack was observing his raiment.  “I trust, Mr. De Peyster, you will pardon the liberty I have taken with your clothes.  My own were still wet from last night.”

“That’s all right,” said Jack.  “But, say, Matilda, have your sister eat her breakfast.  What we’ve come to talk about can wait.”

But Matilda’s sister, after all, wished no breakfast.  And solicitation could not rouse in her an appetite.

“Very well,” said Jack.  “Then to the point.  I thought we’d better all get together on the matter at once.  It’s about food.”

“Food?” queried Mr. Pyecroft, a bit blankly.

“Yes, and it’s some problem, you bet.  Here’s a house that is supposed to be empty.  And within this empty house are five adults.  Do you get me?”

“Isn’t it terrible!” cried Mary.

“Five adults,” repeated Jack.  “How are we going to get food in here for them without exciting suspicion?”

“As you say,” mused Mr. Pyecroft with a wry face, “that is certainly some problem.  My own appetite is already one magnitudinous toothache.”

Jack enlarged upon their situation.

“Since Judge Harvey tipped me off to the fact that the newspapers smelled a story, and since that reporter Mayfair and other reporters began to watch this house, I’ve had to give up going out.  We two would have starved but for what Judge Harvey and William managed to slip in to us.  Even with that, we’ve almost starved.  In fact, we’ve been driven by hunger about to the point of giving in, going out, acknowledging our marriage and taking the consequences.”

Mrs. De Peyster, face buried in the shadow, thrilled with a sudden rush of hope.  If Jack and Mary should leave the house, then half her danger would be ended!

“But, you see, since that news yesterday about mother being so sick in Europe,” Jack continued solicitously, “I feel that, in her weakened condition, the news of our marriage might be a very severe shock for her.  So for her sake we’re going to keep the thing secret for a while yet, and stick it out here.”

Mrs. De Peyster could hardly keep back a groan.

“So, now,” Jack again propounded, “what the dickens are the five of us going to do?”

Mr. Pyecroft rubbed his wide mouth for a meditative moment.  Then he smiled upon Matilda.

“It seems to me, sister dear, that we’ll have to put it up to you.”

“Up to me?” cried Matilda.

“Yes, Matilda.  You belong here; you can come and go as a matter of course.  You have a sister visiting you; also a brother, but as I have requested, the less said about his being here the better.  But you can go out and openly order provisions for yourself and our sister.  And you can give a good large order for nourishing canned goods, casually mentioning that you are laying in a supply so that you will not have to bother again soon with staples.  That, with what Judge Harvey and William can smuggle in, should keep us provided for.”