d the faces of his favored coterie, when I rose and calmly voted him
out of office with the majority of the stock."

"Oh!" exclaimed Maud. "There was a picture made of that scene, then?"

"To be sure. It was never shown but once to an audience of one. I sat
and chuckled to myself while the film was being run."

"Was it kept, or destroyed?" asked the girl, breathlessly.

"I ordered it preserved amongst our archives. Probably Goldstein now has
the negative out here, stored in our Hollywood vaults."

"And the date--when was it?" she demanded.

"Why, the annual meeting is always the last Thursday in January. Figure
it out--it must have been the twenty-sixth. But is the exact date
important, Miss Stanton?"

"Very," she announced. "I don't know yet the exact date that Andrews
landed in New York on his return from Vienna, but if it happened to be
later than the twenty-sixth of January--"

"I see. In that case the picture will clear me of suspicion."

"Precisely. I shall now go and wire New York for the information I
need."

"Can't you get it of Le Drieux?" asked the young man.

"Perhaps so; I'll try. But it will be better to get the date from the
steamship agent direct."

With this they shook the boy's hand, assuring him of their sympathy and
their keen desire to aid him, and then hurried away from the jail.

CHAPTER XXII

MASCULINE AND FEMININE

Uncle John and the girls, after consulting together, decided to stop at
the Hollywood studio and pick up Flo and Mrs. Montrose.

"It would be a shame to visit that lovely yacht without them," said
Patsy; "and we were all invited, you know."

"Yes, invited by a host who is unavoidably detained elsewhere," added
Uncle John.

"Still, that yacht is very exclusive," his niece stated, "and I'm sure we
are the first Americans to step foot on its decks."

They were all in a brighter mood since the interview at the jail, and
after a hurried lunch at the hotel, during which Maud related to the
others the morning's occurrences, they boarded the big Merrick
seven-passenger automobile and drove to Santa Monica Bay. Louise couldn't
leave the baby, who was cutting teeth, but Arthur and Beth joined the
party and on arrival at the beach Uncle John had no difficulty in
securing a launch to take them out to the _Arabella_.

"They won't let you aboard, though," declared the boatman. "A good
many have tried it, an' come back disjointed. There's something queer
about that c