way to the door the trio halted suddenly. Coming up the
stairway was the sound of hurried feet--of many pairs of feet.
The footsteps came through the hall. The trio did not breathe. The
footsteps paused before the sitting-room door. The confederates
gripped each others' arms.

"Are you sure you saw that person come in here?" they heard a voice
ask--Jack's voice.

"I'm certain." The voice that answered was Mary's.

"I'll bet it was a sneak thief," said a third voice--Mr. Pyecroft's.
"To slip into a house at a funeral, or a wedding, when a lot of people
are coming and going--that's one of their oldest tricks." He turned
the knob, and finding the door locked, shook it violently. "Open up,
in there!" he called.

The three clung to one another for support.

"Better open up!" called a fourth voice--Judge Harvey's. "For we know
you're in there!"

Breathless, the trembling conspirators clung yet more desperately.

"But how could she get in?" queried the excited voice of Mary. "I
understood that Mrs. De Peyster locked the door before she went away."

"Skeleton key," was Mr. Pyecroft's brief explanation. "Mrs. De
Peyster, we three will watch the door to see she doesn't get
out--there may have been more than one of her. You go and telephone
for a locksmith and the police."

"All right," said Mary.

"It's--it's all over!" breathed Mrs. De Peyster.

"Oh, oh! What shall we ever do?" wailed Olivetta, collapsing into a
chair.

"The police!--she mustn't go!" gasped Mrs. De Peyster. "Open the door,
Matilda, quick!" Then in a weak, quavering voice she called to her
besiegers:--

"Wait!"

After which she wilted away into the nearest chair--which chanced to
be directly beneath the awesome, unbending, blue-blue-blooded Mrs.
De Peyster of the golden frame, whose proud composure it was beyond
things mortal to disturb.

CHAPTER XXII

A FAMILY REUNION

Matilda's shaking hand unlocked the door. Jack lunged in, behind him
Mr. Pyecroft and Judge Harvey, and behind them Mary. On Jack's face
was a look of menacing justice. But at sight of the trembling turnkey
the invading party suddenly halted, and Jack's stern jaw relaxed and
almost dropped from its sockets.

"Matilda!" he exclaimed. And from behind him, like a triplicate echo,
sounded the others' "Matilda!"

"Good--good-morning, Mr. Jack," quavered Matilda, locking the door
again.

Then the four sighted Olivetta.

"What, you, Olivetta!" Jack and Judge Harvey