There might be nothing in it after all, but he proposed to omit no precaution having a bearing on his secret mission. So he asked a husky looking boy he noticed standing around if he knew of any place in the vicinity where he could find board and lodging for a few days. “I’ll show you a place, mister.” The country boy took him around to an unpretentious cottage, where he secured what he wanted at very reasonable terms. Feeling that some excuse was in order, he explained to the elderly spinster who owned the house that he thought Elevatorville might improve his health. “You don’t look a bit sick,” she ventured, looking him over with critical consideration. “That’s right, madam; but you can’t always tell by appearances,” replied Vance with a politeness that quite charmed her. “True,” she answered. “I remember my niece Mary Ann looked the very picture of health when she came here to visit me, and before she was here a week she took down sick with liver complaint and nearly died.” “Just so, madam,” said Vance, with an amused smile. “I hope you won’t be sick, young man,” she continued anxiously; “but if you should be, I can recommend my nephew, who is the best doctor in town.” “I’ll bear your relative in mind if I should need his services,” replied the boy, stifling a grin. “I s’pose you feel kind of hungry, don’t you? Come by the train, didn’t you?” Vance admitted that he could eat a trifle if she would be so good as to prepare something. “The fire is out, but I can light it up again. I can’t promise you any delicacies, but we don’t stint ourselves. I’m right glad to get a boarder these hard times, and will make you feel at home. It’s a wonder you didn’t go right to the hotel, though if you can’t afford it you’ve done right to come here.” If the lady was surprised at Vance’s healthy appetite, she discreetly made no reference to it, beyond remarking that she was glad to see he enjoyed the meal. Vance was up early next morning, and after a satisfactory breakfast sallied out on a tour of observation. The place wore a dormant air, a surprising fact for a western river town. Vance judged that it had been struck by a temporary setback of some sort, which happened to be the fact. The boy saw the outlines of five big elevator buildings in the distance down by the river, and he strolled over in that direction. He avoided the main business streets, going toward the great Mississippi by a roundabout way that brought him to the river bank a mile above the objects that he aimed at. He smiled to himself at the idea of taking so much trouble, which in the end might prove to have been time spent to no purpose; but when he drew near to the doorway leading to the office of the first elevator he suddenly came to a different conclusion. For there, sunning himself on an inverted cask outside of the entrance, he spied a familiar figure. A quick glance at the person’s face enabled Vance to identify him.