“Hullo!” said the jolly county clerk. “It’s only my girl and her chum. How are you, Milly?” and he pinched the cheek of the doctor’s daughter.
But Mildred was too anxious to be anything but direct. “Oh! I beg your pardon, sir,” she said, to the man in the ulster. “But are you the sheriff?”
“Of course he is!” chuckled Mr. Parker. “Have you some mysterious evidence you want to put before him——”
“That’s just what she’s got, Dad!” cried Lettie, giggling.
“I’ll be glad to take up any case Miss Mildred has to offer,” said the county official, his eyes twinkling.
“It isn’t that. I want to know about Dan and Billy Speedwell. They can’t have done anything wrong——”
“There it is again, Kimball,” exclaimed the county clerk, slapping the sheriff on the shoulder. “You start anything about Dan and Billy in this neighborhood, and even the girls will be after you.”
“But what’s their game up there at the island?”
“They have no game there,” said Mildred, with a very determined look.
“And at that old fellow’s wharf up the river. I’m not known much around that section. I’m from the other end of the county, and having only been in office six months, everybody doesn’t know I’m sheriff,” and Mr. Kimball laughed.