have an object in sending such a telegram?" asked Barbara
slowly.

"Rochester, in the hope of throwing the police off his track, if he
really killed Jimmie." Kent looked straight at Helen. "It was while
searching our office safe for trace of Rochester's present address that
Ferguson obtained possession of your sealed envelope."

Helen plucked nervously at the ribbon on her gown. "Did the detective
open the envelope" she asked.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive; the red seal was unbroken."

"Tell us how the envelope came to be stolen from you," coaxed Barbara.

"We were in the little smoking porch off the dining room at the Club
de Vingt." Barbara smiled her remembrance of it, and motioned Kent to
continue. "Ferguson had just put down the envelope on the table and I
started to pick it up when cheering in the dining room distracted my
attention and I, with the others, went to see what it was about. When I
returned to the porch the envelope was no longer on the table."

"Who were with you?" questioned Helen.

"Your father, Mrs. Brewster--"

"Of course," murmured Barbara. "Go on, Harry."

"Detective Ferguson and Ben Glymer," Barbara made a wry face,
"and"--went on Kent, not heeding her, "each of these persons deny any
further knowledge of the envelope, except they declare it was lying on
the table when we all made a dash for the dining room.

"Who was the last to leave the porch?" asked Helen.

"Ben Clymer."

"And he saw no one take the envelope?"

"He declares that he had his back to the table, part of the time, but to
the best of his knowledge no one took the envelope."

"One of them must have," insisted Barbara.

"The envelope hadn't legs or wings."

"One of them did take it," agreed Kent.

"But which one is the question. Frankly, to find the answer, I must know
the contents of the envelope, Helen."

"Why?"

"Because then I will have some idea who would be enough interested in
the envelope to steal it."

Helen considered him long and thoughtfully. "I cannot answer your
question," she announced finally. She saw his face harden, and hastened
to explain. "Not through any lack of confidence in you, Harry, b-b-but,"
she stumbled in her speech. "I--I do not know what the envelope
contains."

Kent stared at her open-mouthed. "Then who requested you to lock the
envelope in Rochester's safe?" he demanded, and receiving no reply,
asked suddenly: "Was it Rochester?"

"I am not at liberty to tell y