"I was very sure of that," Neale said quickly. "Let me read it to you, sir. You see it's written on your own stationery."
"I see that," admitted the farmer. "Oh, yes; I see that."
Neale began:
"'Mr. Curtis G. Marks,
"'Principal Milton High School.
"'Dear Sir: Mr. Robert Buckham wishes to bring to your attention the fact that on May twenty-third last, a party of your girls, including the members of the first basket ball team, on their way home from Fleeting, were delayed by an accident to the car, right beside his strawberry field; and that the girls named below entered the field without permission, and picked and ate a quantity of berries, beside destroying some vines. Mr. Buckham wishes to call your serious attention to the matter and may yet take steps to punish the culprits himself.'"
Then followed the names of all the girls whom Mr. Marks considered it his duty to punish. There was no signature at all to the letter; but it purported to come from the old farmer, and to be written at his instance.
"I dunno as ye kin call it forgery," muttered Mr. Buckham; "but it's blamed mean—that's what it is! It gives me a black eye with these gals, and the gals a black eye with the teacher. Sho! it's a real mean thing to do."
"But who did it?" demanded Neale, earnestly.
"Ya-as! That's the question," returned Mr. Bob Buckham. "If we knowed that——"
"Are you sure we don't know it?"
The old man eyed him contemplatively. "You suspect somebody," he said.