Page:The Keeper of the Bees.pdf/411

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THE INTERLOPER
393

to the incinerator. Then he watched the gathering of tomatoes and vegetables, the picking of fruit that was carried to the kitchen, and when he went over to get a better idea of what was going on, he saw in passing a window that the Scout Master was standing in the middle of the living room fitting dresses over the Bee Master’s coat hangers and hanging them up in his closet. Presently the little Scout came out to him.

Jamie was surprised at the expression on the small face. It had become absolutely inscrutable. It did not remind Jamie of anything he ever had seen. It was a trifle white, a trifle set, immobile to the last degree. It was only by looking closely that Jamie saw that the entire figure was tuned up like a fiddle string, stretched and taut and ready to respond to the note it would be called on to deliver. Suddenly, in Jamie’s heart there leapt up a feeling of confidence. The Bee Master had said that the little Scout knew. Thereupon it appealed to Jamie that it would be a wise thing on his part to stand guard while the little Scout went into action on the basis of whatever knowledge would furnish the grounds for action.

Said the Scout Master, “She is trying every key in the house on my chest and pretty soon she will find one that fits, and that chest is just wadded full of things that ain’t any of her business. That’s got Highland Mary’s things in it and little Mary’s things. It’s got marriage certificates and deeds. It’s got business papers. It’s got the signed up settlement that settles that little flapper in there