"Another Smith!" ejaculated Dorothy who had lived long enough in the
world to find out the apparent truth of the legend, that originally all
the inhabitants of the earth were named Smith and so continued until
some of them misbehaved and were given other names by way of punishment.
No one liked Mr. Hapgood better as time went on.
"I believe he is a twentieth century werwolf, as Dorothy said," Ethel
Brown insisted. "He's a wolf turned into a man but keeping the feelings
of a wolf."
The girls found little to commend in the manners of his niece and
nothing to attract. By degrees the "botanist's" repeated questioning put
him in command of all the information the Clarks had themselves about
the clue that Stanley was hunting down. He seemed especially interested
when he learned that the search had been transferred to the vicinity of
Pittsburg.
"My sister, Mary's mother, lived near Pittsburg," he told them when he
heard it; "I know that part of the country pretty well."
For several days he was not seen either by the Clarks or by the girls
who went to the Motor Inn to attend to the flowers, and Mrs. Foster told
the Ethels that Mary had been left in her care while her uncle went away
on a business trip.
At the end of a week he appeared again at the Clarks', bringing the
young girl with him. He received the usual courteous but unenthusiastic
reception with which they always met this man who had forced himself
upon them so many times.
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