e to," I assured him; "and when
I'm done with it, I'll destroy it."

"Very well," he assented, and I put it in my pocket.

There was nothing more to be discovered there, and we went away, after
warning the two men to say not a word to anyone concerning their
mistress's disappearance.

Plainly, the first thing to be done was to find the coachman who had
driven Miss Holladay and her maid away from the house; and with this
end in view, we visited all the stables in the neighborhood; but from
none of them had a carriage been ordered by her. Had she ordered it
herself from a stable in some distant portion of the city for the
purpose of concealing her whereabouts, or had it been ordered for her
by her maid, and was she really the victim of foul play? I put this
question to Mr. Royce, but he seemed quite unable to reach a
conclusion. As for myself, I was certain that she had gone away of her
own accord, and had deliberately planned her disappearance. Why? Well,
I began to suspect that we had not yet really touched the bottom of
the mystery.

We drove back to the office, and found Mr. Graham there. I related to
him the circumstances of our search, and submitted to him and to our
junior one question for immediate settlement.

"At the best, it's a delicate case," I pointed out. "Miss Holladay has
plainly laid her plans very carefully to prevent us following her. It
may be difficult to prove that she has not gone away entirely of her
own accord. She certainly has a perfect right to go wherever she
wishes without consulting us. Have we the right to follow her against
her evident desire?"

For a moment Mr. Graham did not answer, but sat tapping his desk with
that deep line of perplexity between his eyebrows. Then he nodded
emphatically.

"It's our duty to follow her and find her," he said. "It's perfectly
evident to me that no girl in her right mind would act as she has
done. She had no reason whatever for deceiving us--for running away.
We wouldn't have interfered with her. Jenkinson's right--she's
suffering with dementia. We must see that she receives proper medical
treatment."

"It might not be dementia," I suggested, "so much as undue
influence--on the part of the new maid, perhaps."

"Then it's our duty to rescue her from that influence," rejoined Mr.
Graham, "and restore her to her normal mentality."

"Even if we offend her?"

"We can't stop to think of that. Besides, she won't be offended when
she comes to her