dan. But before she reached her home, she obtained a more recent newspaper which supplemented the Butte item with the brief information that "Following the sensational reappearance yesterday of Mrs. Oliver Cullen, Mr. Lucas Cullen, Senior, had disappeared from his hotel; his family is searching for him."
Waiting her at home, she found telegraphed replies stating that letters were on the way; indeed, two letters, written since the return of Mrs. Oliver Cullen, already had arrived.
The one from Barney was exasperatingly short and indefinite. It confessed, first, that ever since the day after Ethel had returned to Wyoming, he had known that his mother was alive and that she was Mrs. Oliver Cullen; he told how Mrs. Wain had taken him to his mother and related something of his experience since; but he said little about cousin Agnes's reasons for concealing herself, what she had been doing and what she meant now to do. He said nothing whatever about his father. Why didn't he? His letter was not meant for information; it was an appeal to her to return to St. Florentin; or rather to Resurrection Rock, where he was going with his mother and where, if Ethel came, they would tell her everything.
Cousin Agnes had enclosed a card on which she had written, "Come, dear Ethel, when you can. Agnes."
Bennet, who was the author of the other letter, offered far more. He had written a volume of twenty-two pages requiring a big, business envelope and five stamps. He had prefaced his informative pages, however, with extensive expletive. In Bennet's emphatic opinion, Ethel had certainly succeeded in spilling the beans; he wished to congratulate her; if ever a family had been in bad, theirs was now. But he had to con-
