So finally Mr. Sam gave up and said he washed his hands of the whole affair, and that he was going to make another start on his wedding journey, and if they wanted to be a pair of fools it wasn’t up to him—­only for heaven’s sake not to cry about it.  And then he wiped Mrs. Dicky’s eyes and kissed her, she being, as he explained, his sister-in-law now and much too pretty for him to scold.

And when the Dickys found they were not going to be separated we had more coffee all around and everybody grew more cheerful.

Oh, we were very cheerful!  I look back now and think how cheerful we were, and I shudder.  It was strange that we hadn’t been warned by Mr. Pierce’s square jaw, but we were not.  We sat around the fire and ate and laughed, and Mr. Dick arranged that Mr. Pierce should come out to him every evening for orders about the place if he accepted, and everybody felt he would—­and I was to come at the same time and bring a basket of provisions for the next day.  Of course, the instant Mr. Jennings left the young couple could go into the sanatorium as guests under another name and be comfortable.  And as soon as the time limit was up, and the place was still running smoothly, they could declare the truth, claim the sanatorium, having fulfilled the conditions of the will, and confess to Mr. Jennings—­over the long-distance wire.

Well, it promised well, I must say.  Mr. Stitt left on the ten train that morning, looking lemon-colored and mottled.  He insisted that he wasn’t able to go, but Mr. Sam gave him a headache powder and put him on the train, anyhow.

Yes, as I say, it promised well.  But we made two mistakes:  we didn’t count on Mr. Thoburn, and we didn’t know Mr. Pierce.  And who could have imagined that Mike the bath man would do as he did?

CHAPTER X

ANOTHER COMPLICATION

After luncheon, when everybody at Hope Springs takes a nap, we had another meeting at the shelter-house, this time with Mr. Pierce.  He had spent the morning tramping over the hills with a gun and keeping out of the way of people, and what with three square meals, a good night’s sleep and the exercise, he was looking a lot better.  Seen in daylight, he had very dark hair and blue-gray eyes and a very square chin, although it had a sort of dimple in it.  I used to wonder which won out, the dimple or the chin, but I wasn’t long in finding out.

Well, he looked dazed when I took him to the shelter-house and he saw Mr. Dick and Mrs. Dick and the Mr. Sams and Miss Patty.  They gave him a lawn-mower to sit on, and Mr. Sam explained the situation.

“I know it’s asking a good bit, Mr. Pierce,” he said, “and personally I can see only one way out of all this.  Carter ought to go in and take charge, and his—­er—­wife ought to go back to school.  But they won’t have it, and—­er—­there are other reasons.”  He glanced at Miss Patty.