As soon as she was out of sight of the cottage she did run. It was quite chilly, and the salt wind in her face made her blood tingle, and all the worries of the day faded away with the last glow of the sunset. It was not until she was undressing for bed, several hours later, that she remembered her letter. Her time had been taken up thinking about the strange boy who had come so quietly to her aid. When she went to the pocket of her dress to look for it, it was not there. CHAPTER III MRS. TODD INTERVENES "What are you in such a hurry with your breakfast for, child?" Martha, her hands on her big hips, stood in the doorway between the dining-room and the kitchen, and looked at Janet with mild curiosity. It was a gray, misty morning, with a salty taste and feel to everything. Janet looked up from her place where, with the assistance of Boru, she was finishing the last strip of bacon on her plate. "I want to go over to the Waters' to see how Roy is," she explained only half truthfully, for her thoughts were almost entirely centered on the hope of finding the letter she had lost the night before. "Well, dearie me, that's no reason for bolting your food," Martha protested, but she let the matter drop and went back into her kitchen. Without waiting to stop at her grandmother's room, Janet hurried out of the house and started for the village. She kept her eyes on the road, but the Waters' cottage was reached without a sign of the missing white envelope. Harry was lurking in the doorway of the barn, and Janet called a cheery greeting to him. There was no sign of the boy with the torn straw hat. "How's my patient" she asked. "Ah, he's all right." Harry was still a little resentful, for he was thinking of the snake. Janet had completely forgotten it. Roy, at the first sound of her voice, got up from his place in the hay and wagged his tail. Janet knelt and inspected the paw. "It's a whole lot better, isn't it, old fellow?" she asked as she patted him. "Keep it clean and don't walk on it," she advised seriously. Harry, watching her, laughed. "You'd think Roy was a human being to hear you go on. He doesn't know what you're talking about," he said. Janet did not reply, but she smiled into the dog's eyes, and Harry had an uncomfortable feeling that they were both laughing at him. As she talked, Janet made a careful search for the letter but it was nowhere to be seen, and with a sinking feeling at her heart she realized that some one must have found it. But whom? She knelt on the floor beside Roy, and the thought worried her brain. If Mrs. Waters had it she would, of course, take it to Mrs. Page and then--she shrugged her shoulders. It was foolish to worry over it anyway, until something happened. It would be a simple matter to write another, but somehow the spirit that had prompted her to revolt the day before was gone.