"I got to deliver it to her. If she ain't here I'm to wait. I got to get an answer."
Alix came forward. "I am Miss Crown. Come in, my boy, and warm yourself by the fire."
"Sign here," said the boy, indicating a line in his receipt book.
While Alix was signing her name, Mrs. Strong looked the boy over. "Dear me, you must be nearly frozen, child. No overcoat on a night like this. Did you come all the way out here from the city on a bicycle?"
"Give him some coffee, Mrs. Strong," said Alix, handing back the book and receiving the envelope in return.
"I got a taxi waiting for me out in front," said the boy. "Say, what's goin' on in this burg? We been held up three times, and just now a man stopped me out here in the yard and—"
"What's the matter, Alix?" cried Mrs. Strong.
The girl was staring at the address on the envelope. Doubt, wonder, incredulity filled her eyes.
"Why,—why, Auntie,—it's David's writing! David's!" she cried. "See! Isn't it? I would recognize it—"
"Bless my soul, so it is!" exclaimed David's mother.