CHAPTER XIV.
A CLEW Josiah Dimick has a unique faculty of grasping a situation and summing it up in an out-of-the-ordinary way.
"I think," observed Josiah to the excited group at Simmons's, "that this town owes Cy Whittaker a vote of thanks." "Thanks!" gasped Alpheus Smalley, so shocked and horrified that he put the one-pound weight on the scales instead of the half pound.

"THANKS! After what we've found out?
Well, I must say!" "Ya-as," drawled Captain Josiah, "thanks was what I said.

If it wan't for him this gang and the sewin' circle wouldn't have nothin' to talk about but their neighbors.

Our reputations would be as full of holes as a skimmer by this time.

Now all hands are so busy jumpin' on Whit, that the rest of us can feel fairly safe.