to be left undisturbed until the day of her departure,
and it was toward this room Vera was making her way.

Except for the two servants, man and wife, engaged only a short time
before, who were presumably busy downstairs, she supposed herself alone.

Now as she approached the sitting-room, through the open door she caught
sight of the blue and silver of the walls, a pair of old blue curtains
and a tea-table decorated with a tea-service and a blue bowl of yellow
jonquils. Then an unlooked-for sensation made the girl pause within a
few feet on the far side of the threshold, almost holding her breath,
for she had the extraordinary impression that the room she had presumed
empty was already occupied.

The next instant Vera discovered that a man was standing in front of a
small mahogany desk endeavoring to break into a locked drawer. He had
not heard her approach, for he did not turn toward her, nevertheless she
immediately recognized the man and the situation. The day before, in
order to meet the expenses of the journey to France, Mrs. Burton had
drawn a large sum of money from bank, placing it in her desk for safe
keeping. To the members of her own household she had made no secret of
this, and now one of them was taking advantage of his knowledge.

Vera recognized that she must think and act quickly, or it might be
possible that all their hopes and plans for service in France would
vanish in one tragic instant.

In the bedroom in the rear of the hall she knew there was a telephone.
Yet the moments occupied in having the telephone answered and in calling
the police seemed interminable. In far less time surely the thief must
have accomplished his design!

Yet naturally after her call had been answered Vera knew she must return
to make sure and equally naturally she feared to face the man were he
still upstairs.

In the right hand corner of Mrs. Burton's dressing table was a silver
mounted pistol. This had been Captain Burton's parting gift to his wife
before his own departure for Europe a few weeks before. Vera distinctly
remembered her own and Mrs. Burton's nervousness over the gift and
Captain Burton's annoyance. They were about to make their home in a
devastated country recently occupied by the enemy and yet were afraid of
so simple a method of self-protection! Vera had shared in Captain
Burton's lecture and in his instructions.

Moreover, ordinarily she was not timid, but instead possessed a singular
feminine