It proved to be a boy distributing notices. As the lady went outside to pick the paper up she looked around casually. The ferry-boat was nearly in and several persons were hurrying down the pier to meet it. A man in a gray suit was standing on the sidewalk but a few feet from her west porch, looking as if he were undecided about something. As she turned to go in he raised his hat and spoke. "I beg your pardon, madam, but I am looking for a lady and a little boy, friends of mine that I have got separated from. Perhaps you have--" "I saw a lady and a little child pass here a few minutes ago," she said quietly. "Are they the ones down there on the pier? I don't see very well." He looked in the direction indicated. A woman about Margaret's build with a child was hurrying toward the boat. With hasty thanks he started after them. When Margaret, trembling, came out from the inner room the lady had taken a glass that she always kept on her window ledge and turned it on the man hurrying to the dock. "What sort of looking man was this?" There was something about her quiet manner with its reserve force that quieted the frightened girl. "He had a black mustache--a very long one--and wore a gray suit. I can't remember anything else." "This is the one, I am sure. Well,--he asked me for information and I gave it to him. I should not have volunteered it ... Still, I am not sure but it was a falsehood, though it was the truth. I really suppose a thing can sometimes be both, don't you?... Here, your eyes are younger than mine--take the glass. Can you see him?" "Yes," cried Margaret, excitedly. "The boat has stopped and he is running to make it. Oh, he won't get there! They are taking in the plank!... No, they are waiting for him. He has got on! The boat is pushing off and there isn't a soul left on the dock!" "Then you are safe for a while at least. It will take him the best part of an hour to get back. What are you going to do now?" "I must leave this place--at once!" cried Margaret. "Can you tell me about the trains?" "Yes. They go to Petoskey every half hour. But this is a dummy line and ends at Petoskey. Shall you risk staying there? The place is very accessible from We-que-ton-sing." "No, I shouldn't dare to do that. We will go back to Mackinac as soon as we can get a train out of Petoskey." "I should lose no time. You could hardly be ready for the next train, which comes in fifteen minutes, but if you make the one following it will connect you with the G. R. and I. for Mackinac." "Oh, thank you so much. It is such a help to know this." At parting, Margaret pressed her lips to the elder woman's soft cheek. "You have been so good to me! I knew I could trust you!" On the porch Philip turned back. A chipmunk had just run up the steps and stood looking at them. "Are the squirrels your children?" he asked politely. "My children?" She was not used to the fanciful vagaries of a child's brain. "No, my dear, I haven't any children."