"Where did you pick him up?" I asked in astonishment. "He picked us up," said Beth. "He was wise, maybe, in discovering where we were," said Rob, "but he fell down when he tried to work off the ghost screeches on us. We recognized them at once, and ran him down inside, so our party broke up." "Come here, Pythagoras," I commanded. He obeyed promptly and fearlessly. "How did you know they were there, and when did you go over there?" "I was playing over in our house today," he replied, "and I found one of Beth's hairpins with the little stones in, in the big chair, so I knew that was where they hid last night. As soon as you went down stairs tonight, I got out the window and slid down the roof and came over to scare them." "You've missed a lot of sleep the last few nights," I said quietly, "so you will have to make it up. You can stay in bed all day tomorrow." "Hold on, Lucien!" exclaimed Rob. "Tomorrow's the big baseball game of the season, and I promised to take them all." "So much the better," I said. "He will learn to mind." Pythagoras looked as if he had been struck, and quickly put his arms across his eyes. In a moment his shoulders were heaving. At last I had found a vulnerable spot in the stoic, and I began to relent. "See here, Pythagoras," I said, "if I let you up in time to go to the game, will you promise me something?" "Anything," came in a muffled voice. "Will you promise not to spy on Beth and Rob and keep Emerald and Demetrius from doing it?" "Yes," he promised quickly, his arm coming down and his face brightening. "Sure I will, but I did want to hear what they said." "Why?" asked Rob interestedly. "We're getting up a show, and Em is going to take the part of a girl and he spoons with Tolly, and we didn't know what to have them say to each other." "I'll rehearse you on the play, and prompt you," said Beth with a little giggle. "Come on upstairs with me now," I said to Pythagoras. When I landed him at his door, he leaned up against me, and rubbed his cheek against my arm. "Thank you for letting me go to the game," he said. I found myself responding to his affectionate advance. This would clearly never do. I couldn't let another Polydore squeeze himself into my regard. "Silvia," I said abruptly, as I came into our room, "we must really make some immediate plan for disposing of the Polydores, or, at least, of 'Them Three.'" "Huldah is managing them tolerably well," demurred Silvia. "Since they depreciated in market value from five thousand per to nothing, she has resumed her former harsh treatment of them." "Well, we are not going to keep them," I replied with finality. "We are under no obligations to do so. I am going to put them in a school for boys and use the blank check Felix Polydore left to pay for their tuition."