"My word, that's too bad, sir, ain't it?" said the woman. "Mrs.
Fairfax has went out for the night."

This was the truth. Dorothy, together with the Robinsons, had left the
house an hour before and gone away in an automobile, leaving no word of
their destination, or of when they intended to return.

Utterly baffled, and wholly at a loss to understand this unexpected
maneuver. Garrison stood for a moment staring at the woman. After
all, such a flight was in reasonable sequence, if Dorothy were guilty.
The one thing to do was to avail himself of all obtainable knowledge.

"Gone--for the night," he repeated. "Did Mrs. Fairfax seem anxious to
go?"

"I didn't see her, sir. I couldn't say, really," answered the woman.
"Mr. Theodore said as how she was ailing, sir, and they was going away.
That's all I know about it, sir."

"I'm sorry I missed them," Garrison murmured, half to himself. Then a
thought occurred to him abruptly--a bold suggestion, on which he
determined to act.

"Is my room kept ready, in case of present need like this to-night?" he
said. "Or, if not, could you prepare it?"

"It's all quite ready, sir, clean linen and all, the room next to Mrs.
Fairfax's," said the woman. "I always keeps it ready, sir."

"Very good," said Garrison, with his mind made up to remain all night
and explore the house for possible clews to anything connected with its
mysteries. "You may as well return to your apartments. I can find my
way upstairs."

"Is there anything I could get you, sir?" inquired the woman. "You
look a bit pale, sir, if you'll pardon the forwardness."

"Thank you, no," he answered gratefully. "All I need is rest." He
slipped half a dollar in her hand.

The woman switched on the lights in the hallway above.

"Good-night, sir," she said. "If you're needing anything more I hope
you'll ring."

"Good-night," said Garrison. "I shall not disturb you, I'm sure."

With ample nerve to enact the part of master, he ascended the stairs,
proceeded to the room to which he had always gone before, and waited to
hear the woman below retire to her quarters in the basement.

The room denoted nothing unusual. The roses, which he had taken from
the vase to obtain the water to sprinkle on Dorothy's face, had
disappeared. The vase was there on the table.

He crossed the floor and tried the door that led to Dorothy's boudoir.
It was locked. Without further ado, he began his explorations.

It was not w