It was dreadfully humiliating and thoroughly disheartening, after all their earnest endeavor to investigate a crime that had never been committed.
Uncle John rallied his nieces on their somber faces at the dinner table, and was greatly amused when the Major, despite the appealing looks directed at him, gave Mr.Merrick a brief resume of the afternoon's developments.
"Well, I declare!" said the little man, merrily; "didn't I warn you, Louise, not to try to saddle a murder onto my new farm?
How you foolish girls could ever have imagined such a carnival of crime in connection with the Weggs is certainly remarkable." "I don't know about that, sir," returned the Major, seriously.

"I was meself inoculated with the idea, and for a while I considered meself and the girls the equals of all the Pinkertons in the country.

And when ye come to think of it, the history of poor Captain Wegg and his wife, and of Nora and Thomas as well, is out of the ordinary entirely, and, without the explanation, contained all the elements of a first-class mystery." "How did you say the Weggs lost their money ?" inquired Uncle John, turning the subject because he saw that it embarrassed his nieces.
"Why, forest fires at Almaquo, in Canada, burned down the timber they had bought," replied the Major.

"And, by the way, John, you're interested in that matter yourself, for the Pierce-Lane Lumber Company, in which you own a lot of stock, had contracted to cut the timber on a royalty." "How long ago ?" "Three years, sir." "Well, we've been cutting timber at Almaquo ever since," said Mr.
Merrick.
Louise dropped her fork with a clatter, disclosing, in this well-bred young lady, an unusual degree of excitement.
"Then there _is_ something to detect!" she cried.
"Eh?
What do you mean ?" inquired her uncle.
"If you've been cutting timber at Almaquo for three years, the trees couldn't have burned down," Louise declared, triumphantly.
"That is evident," said the Major, dryly.

"I've had it in me mind, Louise, to take that matter up for investigation; but you are so imbued with the detective spirit that there's no heading you off a trail." "Before the dessert comes on," announced Uncle John, impressively, "I want to make a statement.