Washington telegraph., 1920-10-08
CHAPTER K.

Hartley house had a general Office
where the business of the estate was
handled. It was TO one side Of the
main entrance.
7 had promised to be an eXtraOrdin-
ary person IN meeting extraordinary
circumstances, but all l did was to 60
TO the Office and, lighting the lights, sit
there I was in the extreme detection
of a weakllng when the door opened
and Tsobel came in.
"What are you doing up?" I asked.
"Ill asl, the same thing Of you.
| What are you and the whole household
doing, awake and mOying|
told her that housebreakers had
been surprised nj work and had cS-
| capped
IF you have been disturbed I-sug-
| cested, probably your father has, also.
You had better go to his room and tell
him that the servants have been ilus-
cred by burglar scare, and then you
had better go to your mothers room
| and stay with her until things quiet
| down"
That seemed sound enough advice,
but when Isobel had gone ! was left
wondering again what 10 do next II
was out Of the question to notify the
authorities. The thieves had stolen
something which from what knew Of
it. ! preferred 70 have in thoir hands
rather than in the possession Of the
police.
Our detective agency ] could trust
but / dld not want 10 communicate
with anyone huI Mcclure the sUperin-
toudent. and there wHs 30 need Of tcle-
phoniag him uuil lH.nr FOO tine morn
ing.
The case. us I Thought IT over. came
TO This. The SD1u'9r1 and iho attur
ney. by the aid of confederate n
woman had obuiucd possession Of the
diary cuntGjuinr the secret OF Hartley
house. They would soon br heard
from. They would not disappear. We
did not have 30 pursue thom. They
would pursue us.
There was the possibility Of dealing
with them by force oNtra-lcenlIy Any
,bing we did for oUr protection had Iu
he done eEtra-logailv. ! Thought Me-
Gure could and would attend TO ,hal
and intended 10 instruct him to con-
slider murder the only process not 20
be thought Of
tried TO reconcile my ideas Of Mr..
sidnpy's character with the facts Of
the family's terrible dilemma. What
could a man Of so just and honorable.
kindly and charming q naturc-as re-
yealed ia his old ago-have done, even
In ii hot aHd passionate youth, which
he could not face now What crime
could he have committed which not
only constituted danger to his sccuT-
itv but remained % source Of satisfac-
ton to him?
For two hours I sat hy the telephone.
expecting momenturily 10 hear from
the chauffeur who had gone in pursuit
of the thieves. II was about four
o'clock I'm the morniug-therc was a
male suggestion Of light i'm the windows
when Mrs Aldrich, the housekeeper'
came to the office She was an imper-
iurboble lady Of disciplinary habit and
ordinarily unrualed dignity but now
she was disturbed.
doctor" she said, Agnes, the new
maid. cannot be found she is not in
her room. Her bed has not oeen
touched. Most of her belongings and
her suitcase are gone. ! came 70 you
with this probably unimportont do
nestle incident thinking that-well
the occurrence Of the night might
have some connection with this girl
"I think Agnes probably was in
volved IN the matter" ] said.
"We have always = 7readed to take
a new servant" sal, Mrs AldricE,
but Agnes came recommended for the
month by a very faithful girl who
wanted a months leave. Has anything
/ of great value been tnEenT'
"Nothlng Of any intrinsic value
whatever. Mrs. Aldrlch. l imagine the
robbers were alarmed before they
found any jewels or plate
That's a consolation, In any event
snld the housekeeper; "but we never
shall be able to take IN a new servant
again with any ease Of mind
The chauffeur tolephoned as Mrs,
Aldrlch went away The chase in the
night had been useless, as might be
expected, and I told him to return