"Look here, Dan, I'm awful sorry if you're hungry; but Plums can't sneak into aunt Dorcas's house an' get anything without her knowin' it, not while I'm 'round. It seems kinder tough to ask her to put out more stuff, after all we've had; but since you're starvin', we'll do it, an' offer to pay for what you eat." "You mean to tell her I'm here?" "Of course. I wouldn't lie to her, not for any money." "Then I'll have to starve," Dan replied, angrily, "for I wouldn't let anybody know I was here while I'm tryin' to keep you fellers out of jail. But--" "Here comes aunt Dorcas now!" Plums exclaimed, as he turned towards the house, and, in a twinkling, the amateur detective was screened from view by the barn. "I thought you boys might be hungry, working so hard, and I brought out this plate of fresh doughnuts," the little woman said, as she placed on the grass a dish covered with a napkin. "Mr. McArthur always likes a bite of something when he is here, and it will do you good. How well you have gotten along! I wouldn't have thought you could have spaded up so much in such a short time." Joe, feeling guilty, because he was keeping from aunt Dorcas the fact that detective Dan was on the premises, was at a loss for a reply, but Plums said, promptly: "We'll be glad of 'em, aunt Dorcas, 'cause we're kinder tired jest now," and he would have begun to devour the doughnuts, but for a warning look from his comrade. "You must eat them while they are hot," aunt Dorcas said, gravely, and Joe promised to do so as soon as he had finished a certain amount of work. Then the little woman went back to her cooking, and she had hardly entered the dwelling before the amateur detective, with a hungry look in his eyes, came out, hurriedly, from his hiding-place. "Now you've got somethin' to eat without our lyin' about it, so pitch in before aunt Dorcas comes back." Dan did not need a second invitation, and an expression of deepest regret came over Plums's face, as he watched the cakes disappear with amazing rapidity. "I guess I can stand it, now, till night," the detective said, in a tone of relief, as the meal was brought to a close, because all the food had been eaten. "Are you countin' on stayin' 'round here?" Joe asked. "Of course I am. How else would you fellers get out of the scrape, if I didn't?" "Now, look here, Dan, there's no sense in anything like that. You ain't doin' any good, sneakin' 'round this house, 'cause, if the cops should come, how could you prevent their luggin' us off?" "There's a good many ways that I might pull you through," Master Fernald replied, with an air of mystery. "If you knew as much about this business as I do, you'd be mighty glad to have me stay, 'specially when it ain't costin' you a cent." "But I don't like to think of your bein' hungry, when it won't do the least little bit of good. Take my advice, an' go right back to the city." "If I should do that, it wouldn't be two hours before you'd be in jail."