ere I found Alice and Mrs. Farnsworth
ministering to Elsie, who had been taken there by their order. Elsie,
sharing with Dutch the honors of the night, lay on a davenport, where
she had received first aid. Alice rose from her knees as I entered,
gathering up strips of bandages, and turned to me laughingly.

"Elsie's injuries are not serious; only disagreeable bruises in the
face. There will be no scars, I'm sure. We'll keep her at the house for
a few days until she's quite fit again. Surely any one who has
questioned Elsie's loyalty ought to be satisfied now."

"You certainly managed it very cleverly, Elsie. We're all very
grateful."

Elsie, her face covered with bandages, acknowledged my thanks by
wiggling her foot.

Mrs. Farnsworth said she would put Elsie to bed. Now, I thought, Alice
would make some sign if she knew anything that would explain Montani and
the prisoner in the tool-house. But the whole affair only moved her to
laughter and she seemed less a grown woman than ever in her white robe.
My efforts to impress her with the seriousness of the attempt to secure
the fan only added to her delight.

"How droll! How very droll! You couldn't possibly have arranged anything
that would please me more! It's delicious! As you say in America, it's
perfectly killing!"

I suggested that the holding of a prisoner without process of law might
present embarrassments.

"I know," she cried, clapping her hands joyfully. "You mean we are
likely to bump into dear old _habeas corpus_! The sheriff will come and
read a solemn paper to you and you will have to hie you to court and
produce the body of the prisoner. That will be splendid!"

"It won't be so funny if----"

I was about to say that the humor of the thing would be spoiled somewhat
if she were made a witness and there proved to be something irregular
about the fan which had caused all the trouble, but I hadn't the heart
to do it. To spoil such merriment as bubbled in her heart would be
cruel--an atrocity as base as snatching a plaything from a joyous child.

"Constance and I so love the unusual--and it is so hard to find!" she
continued. "And yet from the moment I reached the gates of these
premises things have happened! Nothing is omitted! Strange visitors;
fierce attacks upon our guards, and still the mystery deepens in the wee
sma' hours, with heroes and heroines at every turn! To think that that
absurd little Dutch was asleep in the garden and really captured