"Reckon yuh done forget, mistah!" he sighed.
"Now you mean about the trouble your dad fell into on account of that old farmer; is that it, Jim?" demanded Max.
The boy nodded his head in a forlorn fashion.
"How long ago was this, Jim—about a month?" Max asked.
"Reckon she be all o' that, mistah."
"And did you hear the name of the old farmer whose house had been robbed,
Jim?"
"I never done forgot that. I seems tuh heah it whispered by every leetle wind thet blows. Wenever I waked up in the night it kim a-stealin' along past the ledge o' rock, an' makin' me shiver, I tell yuh. He was a orful hard-lookin' ole man, mistah."
"But perhaps not quite so hard as he seemed, Jim. Was that name Griffin,
Jim?" asked Max.
"Yep," piped the boy, shivering; "an heah's them two bag o' mussels, jest whar yuh left 'em."
"All right, Jim. I didn't expect they'd be stolen. Now listen to what I say, Jim."