“Why did you come to Millville?” asked Louise.

“You brought me here,” he answered, with a smile.  “I caught a ride on your private car, when it left New York, not caring much where it might take me.  When I woke up the next morning the car was sidetracked at Chazy Junction, and as this is a section I have never before explored I decided to stay here for a time.  That is all of my story, I believe.”

“Quite remarkable!” declared Mr. Merrick, emphatically.  The girls, too, had been intensely interested in the strange recital.

“You seem educated,” said Patsy thoughtfully; “therefore you must have come from a good family.”

“That does not seem conclusive,” replied Thursday Smith, deprecatingly, “although I naturally hope my family was respectable.  I have been inclined to resent the fact that none of my friends or relatives has ever inquired what became of me.”

“Are you sure they have not?”

“I have watched the papers carefully.  In two years I have followed several clues.  A bricklayer disappeared, but his drowned body was finally found; a college professor was missing, but he was sixty years of age; a young man in New York embezzled a large sum and hid himself.  I followed that trail, although regretfully, but the real embezzler was caught the day I presented myself in his place.  Perhaps the most curious experience was in the case of a young husband who deserted his wife and infant child.  She advertised for him; he had disappeared about the time I had found myself; so I went to see her.”

“What was the result?” asked Beth.

“She said I was not her husband, but if he failed to come back I might take his place, provided I would guarantee to support her.”

During the laugh that followed, Thursday Smith went back to his work and an animated discussion concerning his strange story followed.

“He seems honest,” said Louise, “but I blame a man of his ability for becoming a mere tramp.  He ought to have asserted himself and maintained the position in which he first found himself.”

“How?” inquired Patsy.

“At that time he was well dressed and had a watch and diamond ring.  If he had gone to some one and frankly told his story he could surely have obtained a position to correspond with his personality.  But instead of this he wasted his time and the little capital he possessed in doing nothing that was sensible.”

“It is easy for us to criticise the man,” remarked Beth, “and he may be sorry, now, that he did not act differently.  But I think, in his place, I should have made the same attempt he did to unravel the mystery of his lost identity.  So much depended upon that.”

“It’s all very odd and incomprehensible,” said Uncle John.  “I wonder who he can be.”

“I suppose he calls himself Thursday because that was the day he first found himself,” observed Patsy.

“Yes; and Smith was the commonest name he could think of to go with it.  The most surprising thing,” added their uncle, “is the fact that a man of his standing was not missed or sought for.”