"Joseph, I'm afraid I don't understand you. It is a printed advertisement you are telling me about, isn't it?" "Of course. I saw the first one in the _Herald_, an'--" "I thought you said some one had dealt you a blow. Tell me what there was in the advertisement." Joe repeated the words almost verbatim, and then told aunt Dorcas all the details of the flight, up to the moment they arrived at her home. Regarding the threats made by the amateur detective he remained silent, because of the promise to Dan. "There must be some terrible mistake about it all, Joseph. If you haven't committed a crime, and I feel certain you couldn't have done such a thing, then it is some other boy these lawyers are hunting for." "There's no such good luck as that, aunt Dorcas. I don't believe there's another feller in town named Joseph Potter, who's been sellin' newspapers an' then went into the fruit business. You see, that's me to a dot, an' now Plums an' Dan are in the scrape because they helped me away. Just as likely as not Dan will come here to-morrow to ask you to take him in, too, an' I've made up my mind that the princess an' I have got to leave. We're goin' away about noon, aunt Dorcas, an' some time I'll be back to pay you for bein' so good to us." The little woman looked at Joe for an instant, as if not understanding what he had said, and repeated: "Going away?" "Yes, aunt Dorcas, we've got to. Even if you was willin' we should stay, after what I've told you, I wouldn't agree to hang 'round, livin' on you, while there are two other fellers doin' the same thing." Aunt Dorcas gazed at Joe steadily during several seconds, and then said, in a decided tone: "I don't understand what you have tried to tell me; but it is certain, Joseph Potter, that you sha'n't leave my house while you are wounded so seriously." "I ain't wounded, aunt Dorcas, an' I'm as well able to go this minute as I was when I came." "It doesn't make any difference whether you are or not. I sha'n't allow you to step your foot off of these premises until I know more about this affair. It is all a mistake from beginning to end; there can be no question of that, and I'll get at the bottom of it before we are very much older. Now go straight to bed, and mind what I told you about getting up in the morning." Aunt Dorcas pulled the bandages apart sufficiently to admit of her kissing Joe on the lips, and then, putting the lamp in his hand, she led him to the stairway. "You're an awful good woman, aunt Dorcas, an' some day I'll be able to do more than tell you so." "Good night, my boy. Put this matter entirely out of your mind and go to sleep." When Joe gained the chamber once more, it was as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart. The confession which caused him so much anxiety had been made, and, instead of reproaching him for having come to her home, aunt Dorcas was the same kindly, Christianlike woman as when he first saw her.