"Oh, Mrs. Tingley! I couldn't help hearing what that man said to you. Must he discharge Jerry because Rufus Blent says so?"
"Why, my dear! Oh! I remember. You were the girl who befriended the boy in the first place?"
"Yes, I did, Mrs. Tingley. And I hope you won't let your foreman turn him off for nothing——"
"Oh! I can't interfere. It is my husband's business, of course."
"But let me tell you!" urged Ruth, and then she related all she knew about Jerry Sheming, and all about the story of the old hunter who had lived so many years on Cliff Island.
"Mr. Tingley had a good deal of trouble over that squatter," said Belle's mother, slowly. "He was crazy."
"That might be. But Jerry isn't crazy."
"But they made some claim to owning a part of the island."
"And after the old man had lived there for fifty years, perhaps he thought he had a right to it."
"Why, my child, that sounds reasonable. But of course he didn't."