"Hello!" she called; "I came up Tantalus to get some violets of the Jap down below here, and ran across a visitation headed your way and thought that I'd come on up and warn you. Haven't a minute to spare, really; needed the violets for company tea. You see, I like to get them up here, nice and fresh and blue and white, all done up in ti leaves in the good old-fashioned way."
"But wait! Don't be in such a rush!" protested Dick. "Tell me who's coming. Thank you for giving me time to take to the woods."
"No! No!" exclaimed Bert Sands, seriously; "I don't want you to take to the woods. When the Kat Mortons come clear up Tantalus just to casually drop in to see somebody, that means that they have a deep and profound reason for doing it. Take it from me, the Kat Mortons want to use you some way; and it will be much better to find out what they are after."
"But what for?" objected Dick. "Why not just avoid them and let it go at that? I don't want to be bothered with them, or with having to refuse to be made some sort of a convenience. I'd rather light out."
Bert shook her head. "I'd rather you'd stay, if you don't mind," she said. "You see, they have Carter McKnight with them, and they are ostensibly coming up for a picnic and are going to drop in on you merely because they happened to be passing. I
