"Mr. Rimmon has failed!" said Sammy, who had heard enough of his brother's question to reply. "They say his accounts at the post office are short, and that he has gone off with all of the money he could get hold of. He has beat Johnson Jewett out of two thousand dollars." "Hold on, Sam Lewis! That can't be true!" "It is; everybody says so." "It seems to me, my son, that we have enough to think of at home without troubling ourselves about Mr. Rimmon, or any one else." "So we have, mother, but Mr. Rimmon's troubles concern us. At least, I have depended on his help to meet these enemies of ours. I am at a loss to know who could have sent that message, but I am sure no harm will come of it." "Why should they say you were dead, Dix?" "It's all a mystery, mother, and I will confess that the worst part of it is, I don't seem near to a solution." "What shall we do?" "There is but one thing we can do, mother; and that is to keep our eyes and ears open, and go along about our business." "I should feel better if your father was in a different state of mind." "Can you not think of any possible reason for his present condition? He was not always so." "Indeed he was not. John Lewis was considered one of the likeliest young men in Munroe County when I married him. I wish we had always stayed there. But he thought he could better his fortune by emigrating to Boone Lick." "How long did you live there?" "Three years. You were a baby when we came away." "Didn't father do as well as he had expected?" "No; and, besides, he got into trouble with a family by the name of Raggles, and——" "What was the first name of that man, mother?" asked Little Snap, showing excitement. "I never knew exactly, but I think it was Nick. I know there was a big family." "Did you ever hear of an Absalom Raggles?" "I have heard your father speak the name. I think he was a cousin of the others." "Did father ever have trouble with him?" "Never, that I know of. Hark! I believe there is some one at the door." "It is a noise at the barn. I must go out and see if Sammy has cared for the horses properly. It has been a hard day for them. Come, cheer up, mother, and it will come out all right." "But aren't you going to eat any supper?" "When I come in, perhaps. To speak the truth, I am not hungry." Little Snap talked until late in the night with his mother, and when they retired both felt in better spirits. "At last I have got a clew," he said to himself. "I can't realize it, but it looks as if Ab Raggles had something to do with all this trouble. Just now I am bothered to know what these stories mean about Mr. Rimmon." Though he did not sleep much, Little Snap was on hand at the post office the following morning, where he found a large crowd of men collected. He noticed prominent among them Sheriff Brady and Justice Claverton, who nodded their heads and whispered something to each other at sight of him.