"I might say that lots of people drive this way--especially in summer." "He would probably have been walking," said the bespectacled man confidently. "Not many strangers walk by here, I admit." "And if he came this way--as seems probable--it was months ago. Early last spring, to be more exact." "Why," laughed Hiram, "I would not be likely to remember anybody who passed here so long ago." "Suppose he asked for work?" put in the bearded driver of the carryall. "He'd be likely to. Ted wasn't lazy." "You may remember the men who asked you for work last season?" repeated the more professional looking man with emphasis. Hiram began to think this man was a lawyer. An inquiry of importance was being made, and he grew interested. He put his head back into the house door and asked Jim Larry to get his umbrella. In a moment, when the boy had brought it, Hiram went out to the carriage to discuss the matter more at his ease. "You do remember the fellow, hey?" asked the bearded man, his little blue eyes sparkling. "I bet you do!" "I won't say 'yes' or 'no' so easily," laughed Hiram. "When was it the man was supposed to come this way?" The man on the rear seat of the carryall gave a date. It was well back in the spring. "It was after that date--soon after, we believe. We know almost positively that he came through Pringleton and was heading this way." "Heading for Sunnyside?" asked Hiram in surprise. "Is that the name of this place? I don't mean to say that he was coming to this particular farm. Only that he was walking in this direction." "Really," said Hiram, who had been trying to think of the incidents of the previous spring, "I don't know that there were many tramping people who asked me for work at that time." "Do you run this farm--a kid like you?" demanded the bewhiskered one in surprise. "Yes," Hiram said with his customary smile, "I try to. I would know if anybody came along asking for work. And at that time I was having ditching done and hired almost every man I could get." "I don't know about Ted doing ditching," said the driver of the carryall. "He was a notch above that." "At that season of the year I presume a farm worker is not likely to have his pick of jobs," the other man suggested shrewdly. "I feel almost sure I would have remembered anybody who came here and whom I did not hire if he really wanted work at that time," said the young farm manager thoughtfully. "But there was nobody by that name." "He might not have given you that name," the legal looking man said quickly. "No?" "Mr. Post knew him by that name," continued the gentleman, indicating the driver. Hiram was shocked to sudden and keen attention. But he controlled his features. He asked, after a moment, as though he had been thinking: "What did this Theodore Chester look like?" Here the bearded individual answered. The other man did not seem so familiar with the lost one's personality as was the driver of the carriage.