约翰对爆炸一事深感怀疑，正好乔·未格来找约翰，两人分析了如何保护报社和报社人员的人身安全一事，乔提出了另一个好想法，两人一拍即合……
Neither Thursday nor Hetty allowed a word to escape concerning the placing of the bomb in the Tribune of？ce，but the explosion was public knowledge and many were bothering their heads to explain its meaning.
John Merrick，when he heard the news，looked verygrave and glanced uneasily into the unconscious faces of his three beloved nieces.A man of much worldly experience，in spite of his simple，ingenuous nature，the little man began carefully piecing togethera parts of the puzzle.Thursday Smith's defense of the girl journalists，whereby he had severely pounded some of the workmen who had insulted them，had caused the man to be denounced by the colony at Royal.Mr.Skeelty，the manager，had demanded that Smith be discharged by Mr.Merrick，and being refused，had threatened to shut off the power from the newspaper plant.Skeelty dared not carry out this threat，for fear of a lawsuit，but his men，who had urged the matter of Smith's discharge upon their manager，were of the class that seeks revenge at any cost.At this juncture Ojoy Boglin，Skeelty's partner and the owner of all the pine forest around Royal，had become the enemy of the newspaper and was aware of the feeling among the workmen.A word from Boglin，backed by Skeelty's tacit consentb，would induce the men to go to any length in injuring the Millville Tribune and all concerned in its welfare.
Considering these facts，Mr.Merrick shrewdly suspectedthat the dynamite explosion had been the work of the mill hands，yet why it was harmlessly exploded in a field was a factor that puzzled him exceedingly.He concluded，from what information he possessed，that they had merely intended this as a warning，which if disregarded might be followed by a more serious catastrophe.
The idea that such a danger threatened his nieces made the old gentleman distinctly nervous.
There were ways to evade further molestationa from the lawless element at the mill.The Hon.Ojoy could be conciliatedb；Thursday Smith discharged；or the girls could abandon their journalistic enterprise altogether.Such alternatives were mortifyingc to consider，but his girls must be protected from harm at any cost.
While he was still considering the problem，the girlsand Arthur having driven to the office，as usual，Joe Wegg rode over from Thompson's Crossing on his sorrel mare for a chat with his old friend and benefactor.It was this same young man—still a boy in years—who had once owned the Wegg Farm and disposed of d it to Mr.Merrick.
Joe was something of a mechanical genius and，whenhis father died，longed to make his way in the great world.But after many vicissitudes and failures he returned to ChazyCounty to marry Ethel Thompson，his boyhood sweetheart，and to find that one of his father's apparently foolish investments had made him rich.
Ethel was the great—granddaughter of the pioneer settler of Chazy County—Little Bill Thompson—from whom the Little Bill Creek and Little Bill Mountain had been named.It was he who ？rst established the mill at Millville；so，in marrying a descendant of Little Bill Thompson，Joe Wegg had become quite the most important resident of Chazy County，and the young man was popular and well liked by all who knew him.
After the ？rst interchange of greetings Joe questioned Mr.Merrick about the explosion of the night before，and Uncle John frankly stated his suspicions.
