ed notice.

"That little snip of a Molly. You made a hit with her all right, and
she certainly don't like me. Well, delightful as it is to meet you
again, I must be going." She turned away, and then paused to add over
her shoulder. "Don't you think it would be just as safe for you to
attend to your own business, Sergeant Hamlin?"

"And let you alone?"

"Exactly; and let me alone. I am hardly the sort of woman it is safe
to play with. It will be worth your while to remember that."

He waited, motionless, until assured that she had passed down the hall
as far as the door of the dining-room. The sound of shuffling chairs
evidenced the breaking up of the party, in preparation to return to the
ballroom. If Miss McDonald's absence were to escape observation, she
would have to slip out now and rejoin the others as they left the
house. He again turned down the light, and held back the curtain.

"The way is clear now, Miss Molly."

There was no response, no movement. He stepped outside, thinking the
girl must have failed to hear him. The porch was empty. He stepped
from one end to the other, making sure she was not crouching in the
darkness, scarcely able to grasp the fact of her actual disappearance.
This, then, was why Mrs. Dupont had failed to see any one when she
glanced out. But where could the girl have gone? How gotten away? He
had heard no sound behind him; not even the rustle of a skirt to betray
movement. It was not far to the ground, five or six feet, perhaps; it
would be perfectly safe for one to lower the body over the rail and
drop. The matted prairie grass under foot would render the act
noiseless. No doubt that was exactly the way the escape had been
accomplished. Alarmed by the presence of those others, suspecting that
the woman within would insist on learning whom Hamlin was attempting to
conceal, possibly overhearing enough of their conversation to become
frightened at the final outcome, Miss McDonald, in sudden desperation,
had surmounted the rail, and dropped to the ground. The rest would be
easy--to hasten around the side of the house, and slip in through the
front door.

Assured that this must be the full explanation, the Sergeant's
cheerfulness returned. The company of officers and guests had already
filed out through the hall; he could hear voices laughing and talking
in the street, and the band tuning up their instruments across in the
dance hall. He would go over and make