little joke of hers, but that she was afraid that you were offended, and she was quite woebegone over it. And so I told her that I would ask you if you would give her a little direct information about the ruins. And so, you see, the train is already laid. She will greet you with encomiums on your kindness, because she will think that she can use you. Next, she will ask you to talk to Auntie and interest her in the wonders of Pompeii; but—you will have had a chance to sound her and—you will be too busy. Pau. See? And meanwhile you may have been able to get a line on their object, if you really are clever," and she grinned engagingly.
Dick made a wry face. "Do you really think that it is as important as all that?" he asked dubiously.
"I certainly do," asserted Bert, seriously. "They are born schemers, like their shyster father; and whatever they are working, it carries some kind of a plum for the Kat sisters, you may be right down sure of that. Oh, run along, like a good little boy, and find out what their game is, and then we'll take a hand in it ourselves, if it is crooked. We've both of us some scores to settle, and if we can do a good turn to the old lady, in the process, so much the more to our credit."
So Dick got into his car, and in a mood anything but affable, he attended to his errands in town and then drove out Nuuanu to the old Morton home. He parked his car outside of the grounds and
