As for Ninian Sharp he did not recognize himself in the hero they all made of him, nor did even Aunt Sally presume to offer him, so wonderful a man, a nauseous dose. But she was overheard to remark to Wun Lung, who had also joined the company unforbidden by his arch enemy:

"I do believe, Wun Lungy, that if ever that there handsome young man should go and get married I'd set him up in my fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty-five piece bedquilt. I did lay out to bequeath it to Jessica, but, la! I can piece her another, just as willin' as not. What you say, Wun Lungy?"

"I slay, fool woman!"

For a time joy and surprise turned Ned and Luis speechless; yet they were sent to bed late that night, each hugging a sharp-edged train of tin cars and breathing, "Choo! choo!" as if a railway were a common sight instead of an unknown one.

But there came at last a quiet hour for mother and child, when they sat in close embrace, telling all that had befallen each during the days of separation.

"Oh! if dear Ephraim were only here, mother! I said it should not be a month before that t.i.tle deed was found, and the month will not be up until to-morrow. Poor Ephraim! It was bitter hard to leave him alone in that hospital, well-liked and cared for though he is. If it hadn't been for him I could never have gone. And the 'boys' would have made such a hero of him. Even as they did of Mr. Sharp. Can't you guess how proud they'd have been of him, mother?"

When Mrs. Trent did not reply, Jessica looked up quickly and saw that dear face so near her own still clouded by a shadow of trouble.

"Why, mother! What is it? You look as if you were not perfectly, absolutely happy, and yet how can you be else--to-night?"

"Yes, darling, I am happy. So glad and thankful that I cannot put it into words. But Ephraim? My darling, at present, not for some days, if I were you I would not talk about Ephraim. You will be happier so.

No. He is alive and getting well, so far as I know. There has been no later news than yours. Don't look so alarmed. Only this: the 'boys'

have taken some queer notion about our 'Forty-niner,' and so I say he is probably happier just where he is to-night than if he were back at Sobrante."

"Oh! mother! Another mystery? and about such a simple, honest, splendid old fellow as my Ephraim? Well, never mind. I seem to be sent into the world to solve other people's 'mysteries,' and I'll solve his."

Eventually she did. But how and when cannot be told here. This is a story which must be related another time. But for the time Jessica was happy and all went well.

THE END