"So seeing that old Jake was in a bit of a mess I volunteered to come over and borrow the necessary tools from you. It took quite a weight off his mind, I assure you, for he started off whistling, and shouted to me to give his regards to Sitting Crow." Jack and Jean, as usual, were with us at the time and from a corner where he was out of the range of Spoof's vision Jack was semaphoring me an improvised hush signal. "Too bad the day is so dull," Jack said, looking out of our window in the direction of Jake's homestead. "Can't see a thing. His shack may be burned by this time. Perhaps Jake and Bella Donna are already on their way here for shelter." "Oh, surely not!" exclaimed Jean. "Surely that would not happen!" "Quite possible," her brother insisted, with the firmness of one who is prepared for the worst. "When the cogitation nut works loose you never know what may happen. And the worst of it is we haven't a left-hand wrench on the place." "You haven't!" said Spoof, plainly concerned, "I say, that's rather rotten." "Isn't it? Your best chance is Burke. Burke has quite a lay-out of tools, and, besides, he's an ingenious beggar. No doubt he will be able to fix you up." Marjorie had already drawn a cup of hot tea, and Spoof drank it while he stood. "Ah, that's better," said he, as she took the empty cup from his hand. "Wonderful how a cup of tea bucks a fellow up, isn't it? Now I must get along. Fancy old Jake on his back under the stove holding that nut in place with his fingers!" "Or with Bella Donna's curling tongs," Jack suggested. "Burke will fix you all right," and we waved him away. It was one of those grey winter days, and he faded out of sight in a few moments. I noticed that Jean's eyes followed Spoof until the mist had engulfed him. Then she turned quickly to Jack and me. "If there is any danger, don't you think you should go over to Jake's at once?" she said. "Not a chance," her brother assured her. "But I'd give a dollar to be at Burke's." "At Burke's? Why?" "Because, little Miss Innocence, of two facts. First, there is no such thing as a cogitation nut, and second, there is no such thing as a left-hand monkey wrench." "But Jake came for it--he told Spoof----" "Exactly. That's why he told him." For a moment Jean's face was a puzzle as her mind unravelled the mixed threads of Jake's little comedy. But suddenly her eyes blazed with a light such as I had seen in them only once before, and then, as now, it was for Spoof that light had burned. "So you sent him out on a day like this," she said, speaking slowly and through teeth that were almost closed--"you sent him out on a day like this, across the untracked snow, hunting for something that doesn't exist. He may find something he wasn't sent for." "Oh, come now, Sister, don't take it too seriously. It is just a joke."