"Certainly." Trixy turned the pages rapidly, but suddenly stopped and looked puzzled; then she exclaimed: "Somebody's hooked it, I do believe!" "Oh, don't say that!" said the Admiral, in a shaky voice. "Look again; perhaps you have pasted some other picture over it." "No I didn't. I know just where I had it in the book; it was right here, by the picture Aunt Fee made of some of the sand hills behind the fort, because they were the only two drawin's I had. And now there ain't nothin there!" The Admiral looked carefully at the page. Evidently something had been pasted there, and with childish lavishness of mucilage. It could not have dropped out, for bits of paper still adhered to the page. It was plain that some one had carefully removed the sketch. "Trixy," said the Admiral, as a suspicion came into his mind, "have you ever shown this book to Lieutenant Jermyn?" "No, never. He ain't ever at our house long enough for me to show him anything." "Have you loaned the book to any other little girl, or exchanged pictures with any one?" "No, indeed! Besides, I was keepin' that picture real careful, to remind me of somethin'--mamma told me to. She told me that whenever I looked at that picture I must remember to never again take any writin' from her portfolio and ask other people to finish it for me. I'd just like to know what's happened to that picture; I'm goin' to ask ev'rybody about it as soon as I get back home." "Oh, don't, please," said the Admiral hastily, "or you'll make me very unhappy." "What for?" "Oh, I should dislike to have your father and mother and aunt annoyed about so slight a matter--so far as I am concerned; and you wouldn't have thought of it, you know, if I hadn't spoken of it." "But they wouldn't be annoyed, and p'raps one of 'em knows where the picture is." "Eh? Which of them?" The old gentleman looked keenly over the tops of his glasses as a new thought came to him. "Why, papa, I guess, 'cause he's got a picture a good deal like it on the back of a letter that mamma wrote him, and I saw him lookin' real hard at it the other day, and I asked him what 'twas about, and he said, 'Oh, nothin'." "Aha!" "What did you say?" "Did I say something? I must have been merely clearing my throat." "What a funny lot of noises you do make this mornin'. Well, I guess I'll paste some pictures in the book." The Admiral lit a cigar, an indulgence of which he never was guilty before dinner, except when laboring under severe mental excitement. One thing at least seemed clear; the letter, with Jermyn's sketch, had not been destroyed; therefore he, the Admiral, could hope to get it, for men knew better than women the value of fifty thousand dollars, and they would forgive other men for asking pointed questions under the circumstances. But had Phil the Admiral's own sketch? If so, why had he taken it from the book? Merely to tease Trixy? Scarcely. Suddenly the Admiral smote his forehead and muttered to himself: