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276 live with some other folks who were very kind to me, and one rich gentleman sent me to a boarding school. While there I helped an old sailor named Billy Dill"

"Billy Dill! Well, I never! Go on, please."

"He was struck when he saw me—said I was somebody else with my mustache shaved off, and a lot more. He finally told me about you, and said you had told him about a crazy nurse and a lost child, and so I made up my mind to find you, if I could, and see if you knew anything about my past." Dave's lips began to quiver again. "Can you tell me anything?"

"I—I—perhaps so." Dunston Porter's voice was also quivering. "Can you prove this story about being found near a railroad?"

"Yes."

"About thirteen years ago?"

"Yes."

"In the eastern part of the United States?"

"Yes, near a village called Crumville. They say I said something about a bad man who wouldn't buy some candy for me. It may be that that man put me off the train."

"He did!" almost shouted Dunston Porter. "It was Sandy Margot, the worthless husband of the crazy nurse, Polly Margot, you just mentioned. She took the child and turned the boy over to her husband. Margot wanted to make money out of