. St. Nicholas [serial] . gtime before 1 can seewhat you are drivingat. Better begin at thebeginning. The real beginning,Tom answered, waswhen I got to lookingat this mystery just as if it was a problem in algebra. Jeffrey Kerr wasmy x. He was nt exactly an unknown quan-tity, but there was a lot about him I did ntknow. I set down the facts, and then tried towork out my x—that is, to see what had becomeof Kerr. If what my grandfather had foundmoment. Then he out and written down was right, then the thiefwhistled gently. had vanished suddenly after he had got past theIf you have sentries of Wash
. St. Nicholas [serial] . gtime before 1 can seewhat you are drivingat. Better begin at thebeginning. The real beginning,Tom answered, waswhen I got to lookingat this mystery just as if it was a problem in algebra. Jeffrey Kerr wasmy x. He was nt exactly an unknown quan-tity, but there was a lot about him I did ntknow. I set down the facts, and then tried towork out my x—that is, to see what had becomeof Kerr. If what my grandfather had foundmoment. Then he out and written down was right, then the thiefwhistled gently. had vanished suddenly after he had got past theIf you have sentries of Washingtons army. Now, this morn-found out that, ing when I was waking up I found that I wasthen you have the thinking about this problem, just as if I hadfinest Christmas been at work on it in my sleep, puzzling it outin a dream. I was still half asleep when Ifound that one thought kept on coming backand coming back. And I suppose that thoughtwas the present Santa Claus had brought meduring the night, as you said he 1 THINK I KNOW WHERE THE THIEF IS, THE BOY BEGAN. 496 TOM PAULDING. 497 I did nt say that he would, for sure, saidMr. Rapallo. I hoped that perhaps he was it that he told you ? It seems so simple, Tom continued, thatI dont see how I ever came to miss seeing itfor so long. The greatest ideas are generally the sim-plest, Uncle Dick remarked, remember that little egg trick of Co-lumbuss? And it never seemed to me quite fair either,Tom returned, because— Dont let s discuss that now, his uncleinterposed. What was your new idea ? Well, Tom went on, I found myself think-ing that as Kerr had left the American army,and as he had nt got to the British army, andas he had nt ever been seen anywhere sincethat night, or heard of by anybody,— why, per-haps the shot the sentinel had fired at him hadwounded him badly — you remember my great-grandfathers account said there was a cry ofpain after that second shot ? I remember, said Uncle Dick.
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