Page:Ballinger Price--Us and the Bottle Man.djvu/167

Rh, and then the Bottle Man twinkled, and said:

"Very soon you'll be able to call me Uncle Andrew."

This part seems to be nothing but explanations, which are horrid, but there were lots, and I can't help it. Of course Jerry and I sat staring in surprise, and there had to be explanations. And what do you think! Our own Bottle Man was that "Somebody Westland" that Aunt Ailsa had wept so about. The casualty list was perfectly right in saying that he was wounded and missing (though it came very late, because by that time he was in America), and she thought, of course, that he was dead, because she did n't hear from him. And he'd written to her from the French hospital and the letter never came. When he came back, all sick and wounded, to America, somebody who didn't know anything about it told him that Aunt Ailsa 149