Thing? It was a man! He had felt clothing and smelled tobacco. He heard a rustle at the top of the bank and instantly dashed for the sound. But the bank was steep and tangled with willows. He ripped his pajamas, he scratched his skin and finally he lost his footing and rolled back to the stranded dugout. He stepped aboard, pushed off and completed his journey.

Uncle Jim smote Ben’s door with his knuckles next morning, as usual, and passed on his way down the back stairs. Ben sighed in his sleep and slept on. Mrs. O’Dell came to the door twenty minutes later and was surprised to find it still closed. She knocked and received no answer. She opened the door and looked into the little room. There was Ben sound asleep, his face a picture of health and contentment. The mother smiled with love and maternal pride.

“He is so big and young, he needs a great deal of sleep,” she murmured.

Her loving glance moved from his face and she saw the front of his sleeping jacket above the edge of the sheet and her eyes widened. The breast of the jacket was ripped in three places and stained in spots and splashes with brown and green. And on one of his long arms a red scratch ran from wrist to elbow.

“Ben!” she cried.

He opened his eyes, smiled and sat up.

“Look at your arm!” she exclaimed. “And your jacket is torn! What has happened to you, Ben dear?”

Then he remembered and told her all about his midnight adventure. She sat on the edge of his bed and listened gravely. The more she heard, the graver she became.

“I bet the man I bumped into is the one who did it,” concluded Ben.

“Yes—but I can’t think what to make of it,” she said. “Something queer is going on. Perhaps an enemy of poor Mr. Sherwood’s is lurking around. I shall tell Jim, but nobody else.”

“The little girl will ask about her red pirogue some day,” said Ben. “It was a fine pirogue—the best I ever saw.”

“We must try not to let her know that it was willfully burned,” replied his mother. “The poor child has suffered quite enough without knowing that her father has an enemy mean enough to do a thing like that. We must see that no harm comes to her, Ben.”

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