upposed--on the previous day made a confidant of Morley. This
supposition he took advantage of. "Mr. Morley told me that your father
had mentioned his brother."

The girl started and thought for a moment. "Oh, you mean Uncle Walter,"
she said, after a pause. "Yes, but we never talk of him."

This little speech did not ring quite true. It seemed as though the girl
wished to back up the saying of her father, whether she believed it or
not. "Is that why you pretended ignorance?" he asked.

"That was why," replied Miss Franklin, with brazen assurance.

She was lying. Giles felt certain of that, but he could not bring the
untruth home to her. He suddenly reverted to the main object of his
interview, which had to do with the possibility of Anne being in the
Priory.

"What about that coin you are looking for?"

"I am looking for no coin," she replied, quite prepared for him. "I lost
a brooch here. Have you found it?"

"Yes," replied Giles, his eyes watchfully on her face. "It is an Edward
VII. coin in the form of a brooch."

He thought Miss Franklin would contradict this, but she was perfectly
equal to the occasion. "You must have found it, since you know it so
well. Please give it to me."

"I have left it at home," he answered, although it was lying in his
pocket-book, and that next his heart. "I will give it to you to-morrow
if you tell me from whom you got it."

"I found it," she confessed, "in the churchyard."

"Ah!" A sudden light flashed into the darkness of Ware's mind. "By the
grave of that poor girl who was murdered?"

"I don't know of any murdered girl," retorted Miss Franklin, and looked
uneasy, as though she were conscious of making a mistake.

"Yes you do, and you know the lady who cleans the stone and attends to
the grave. Don't deny the truth."

Miss Franklin looked him up and down, and shrugged her clumsy shoulders.
"I don't know what you are talking about," she declared, and with that
turned on her heel. "Since you will not take yourself off like a
gentleman, I'll go myself"; and she went.

"Don't set the bloodhounds on me," called out Giles. But she never
turned her head; simply went on with a steady step until she was lost in
the gloom of the wood.

Giles waited for a time. He had an idea that she was watching. By-and-by
the feeling wore off, and knowing by this time that he was quite alone,
he also departed.

He was beginning to doubt Franklin, for this girl had evidently
something to