At the mention of house, both Ruth and her grandfather looked sad, and Mr. Everett answered their query about walking in that direction.
“Just now we haven’t any house. It was burned to the ground last night, and evidence seems to point to the fact that it was deliberately set on fire!”
CHAPTER III
LAFE COMES BACK
The news shocked the boys into silence for a moment, then Garry burst out indignantly:
“Well, that’s about the meanest thing I ever heard of. Are you sure that it was deliberately fired?”
“We are convinced of it,” said the old man. “The blaze started in a half a dozen places at the same time. There was nothing that we could do to save our home. As a matter of fact, we barely got out some of our clothes. Of course we have insurance, but that will never cover the loss of things that cannot be replaced,—some of my old books, for instance.”
“It seems likely that the man or men who have sent the threatening letters are the same who fired the house,” mused Garry aloud.
“Yes,” said Mr. Everett, “when we first received the letters we thought that they might be a practical joke; and later, when they still continued to come, we took it to be a means of frightening us. I thought for a time that it might be some one whose enmity I had personally incurred, but when Ruth got them too, with hints as to why they were being sent, namely, the matter of the smuggling attempt and capture a short time ago, I knew that it was some member of the band who was still at large.”
Garry pondered for a moment, Then he remarked:
“There would seem to be only two sources from which the letters would come. One is from some friend or friends of Lafe Green, and the other—but that seems almost impossible.”