"If there was much chance of that, do you think Strout would have stirred up any such suit as this?" asked Mr. Day quietly. "No.

Strout at least thinks he sees his way to making you lose the house. Jamison was his dummy--used by him in order to keep, himself out of trouble."

"Oh, Mr. Day! Don't say that"

"I say he thinks he has a chance. But he may be mistaken.

Strout is sly. This may be merely 'strike suit' started in the hope of scaring you into making a disastrous settlement with him.

He wants to get the property back. The foundations for that factory are already being laid. Property values Mullen Lane are going up."

"Oh, dear me!" sighed Mrs. Carringford, starting back toward the kitchen, "this is a wicked world."

"Nothing the matter with the world," said Mr. Day, cheerfully.

"It's some of the folks in it."

He called Mr. Randolph E. Payne's office then and talked to the successful lawyer for some time. To Janice, afterward, he would say nothing more encouraging than he had said to the widow.

"When one mixes up with a sharper like Abel Strout, one is likely to be burned before he is through. Strout is always and forever trying little, nasty, legal tricks. And Schrimpe is an instrument fitted to Strout's hand.

"Perhaps they have found some ignorant woman who really was a relative of Peter Blayne, and who may have a small claim on the property. It is enough to invalidate the deed Mrs. Carringford has and yet she will be unable to prove that Strout and his man Jamison knew about the fault in the t.i.tle.

"If he makes her sue to recover the thousand dollars she paid the legal fees will eat up that sum--and he can afford to hire lawyers and dribble along through the courts better than she can."

"Oh, Daddy!"

"Yes, I am afraid, if Strout--or, rather, Schrimpe-- has a good case it will be better to settle it out of court."

"But, dear Daddy! Mrs. Carringford has no money to pay lawyer's fees, or settle cases," urged Janice.

"True. And that is the unfortunate part of it. Let us wait and see what Mr. Payne advises after he has looked into the matter.

Whatever he says, she would better do."

This ended the matter for the time being. But all the dark clouds of trouble seemed to have lowered upon the Carringfords again. Janice Day was sorry for them, but this was a case in which she positively could not "do something" to help. She could only offer her sympathy.

CHAPTER XXVII . INFORMATION THAT IS TOO LATE

During the days immediately succeeding the fire and the Carringford's poignant trouble, Janice Day had a mental problem to solve which occupied her thoughts a good part of the time.

Daddy's broken leg was getting along nicely. With the aid of crutches he could get around very well indeed. He had even gone down to the bank in an automobile.

So Janice did not have to give him quite the close care and attention that she previously had. Daddy declared she was making a mollycoddle of him, anyway--that she babied him too much.

She had more freedom of action, therefore, and now she proceeded to put a certain plan she had made into effect. Janice had not forgotten what Bertha Warring had said regarding the information Stella Latham had hidden from her, Janice, at the time school closed.

Could it be that, after all was said and done, the Olga who had broken Mrs. Latham's dish was the same Olga that had run away with the Day's treasure-box? Was it Olga Cedarstrom, with her name changed, and Stella had known it to be so, all the time?

Really, when Janice thought of this she felt exceedingly angry with Stella. She had intended, after Stella had acted so meanly toward Amy Carringford, to let the farmer's daughter strictly alone in the future. She would have as little to do with her as it was possible, considering that she had to go to school with her. That was at first. Then her anger had cooled. Now it was aflame again.

But if Stella knew positively that the Swedish girl who had visited Mrs. Johnson had been married, and therefore her name was no longer Cedarstrom, Janice was determined to find it out.

Unpleasant as might be to ask Stella, Janice would do just this.

She knew Stella had returned from her visit to the lake sh.o.r.e resort. Janice had seen her flying past in the Latham car more than once within the week. Janice could not stop her at such times; she could not expect Stella to put herself out at all to give her any information. So she set forth one August morning to trudge through the heat and dust out to the Latham farm. There was no interurban car that would take her near there; and how she did wish daddy could afford an automobile!

Indeed, just as she turned up the road leading to the door of the Latham house a motor-car turned, too, into the road, powdering Janice with dust. The latter saw the malicious smile of Stella Latham, driving the car herself, as the farmer's daughter looked back over her shoulder at the pedestrian.

Janice kept grimly on; nor would she show Stella that she was hurt or ruffled in temper. Stella waited on the porch for her schoolmate to approach. A man came to take the car around to the garage.

"Well, what do you want?" asked Stella, when Janice came within hearing. "Are you begging more old clothes for that protegee of yours, Amy Carringford?"

"I have come on my own business, Stella," said Janice gently.

"It is something that I want to know, and you can tell me."

Stella was smiling broadly; but it was by no means a pleasant smile. She was spiteful. She had found since coming back from her summer vacation that the girls had not forgotten her behavior toward Amy Carringford and some of them still resented it. She was nowhere near as popular as she had been; and even her father's motorcar could not regain the friendship of many of her schoolmates whom she wished to be chums with.

Stella laid all this to "that sly Janice Day." She dared not so speak of Janice before her mother; for Mrs. Latham liked Janice.

Just now, however, Stella's mother was not at home, and she felt free treat Janice in any way she chose.

"Of course, you expect me to tell you everything you want to know, Janice Day," said Stella. "But I don't know why I should."

"You will tell me, won't you, Stella, if you really know that the Swedish girl who broke your mother's dish is the same girl who used to work for daddy and me?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it is the right thing to do, isn't it? You do not know what it means to us if we can find that girl--"

"And why should I care?" snapped Stella "You never did anything for me, Janice Day."

"I think I tried to--at least once," her schoolmate said mildly.

"Nothing of the kind! You did something for Amy Carringford--the pauper! You were spoons with her then, and you wanted to get her to my party. You begged an invitation for her and then dressed her up. like a freak so she could come, and--"

"That is not so, Stella," Janice interrupted with some spirit.

"But I want to talk about Olga, not about Amy."

"Go along with your old Olga!" cried the other angrily. "I wouldn't tell you anything about her if I knew."

"I shall go to Mrs. Johnson again then. And if Mrs. Johnson is not willing to tell me, I shall come back and see your mother."

"Oh! you will?" sneered Stella. "So you think the Johnsons will tell you about Olga's last name do you?"

"I will ask them."

"Good luck to you!" jeered Stella, as Janice went on through the Latham's yard. "You can ask anybody you like, but you'll get nothing out of me I a.s.sure you!"

Janice made no further reply. She was hurt to the quick, for she did not believe she deserved any such treatment from her schoolmate. And it did, too, worry Janice Day when she knew she had an enemy.

"Friends are so much nicer to make than enemies," was one of daddy's sayings; and his little daughter always bore that fact in mind when in contact with her schoolmates.