onsense!" the old lady said, with spirit. "As for Jane, she
doesn't even know they are gone. I know who did it. It was the new
housemaid, Bella MacKenzie. Nobody else could get in. I lock up the
house myself at night, and I'm in the habit of doing a pretty thorough
job of it. They went in the last three weeks, for I counted them
Saturday three weeks ago myself. The only persons in the house in that
time, except ourselves, were Harry, Bella and Hepsibah, who's been here
for forty years and wouldn't know a pearl from a pickled onion."

"Then--what do you want me to do?" I asked. "Have Bella arrested and her
trunk searched?"

I felt myself shrinking in the old lady's esteem every minute.

"Her trunk!" she said scornfully. "I turned it inside out this morning,
pretending I thought she was stealing the laundry soap. Like as not she
has them buried in the vegetable garden. What I want you to do is to
stay here for three or four nights, to be on hand. When I catch the
thief, I want my lawyer right by."

It ended by my consenting, of course. Miss Letitia was seldom refused. I
telephoned to Fred that I would not be home, listened for voices and
decided Margery Fleming had gone to bed. Miss Jane lighted me to the
door of the guest room, and saw that everything was comfortable. Her
thin gray curls bobbed as she examined the water pitcher, saw to the
towels, and felt the bed linen for dampness. At the door she stopped and
turned around timidly.

"Has--has anything happened to disturb my sister?" she asked. "She--has
been almost irritable all day."

Almost!

"She is worried about her colored orphans," I evaded. "She does not
approve of fireworks for them on the fourth of July."

Miss Jane was satisfied. I watched her little, old, black-robed figure
go lightly down the hall. Then I bolted the door, opened all the
windows, and proceeded to a surreptitious smoke.

CHAPTER IV

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT

The windows being wide open, it was not long before a great moth came
whirring in. He hurled himself at the light and then, dazzled and
singed, began to beat with noisy thumps against the barrier of the
ceiling. Finding no egress there, he was back at the lamp again,
whirling in dizzy circles until at last, worn out, he dropped to the
table, where he lay on his back, kicking impotently.

The room began to fill with tiny winged creatures that flung themselves
headlong to destruction, so I put out the light and sat down n