iam curiously. "I opened my eyes and
you were gone. What's the matter? You look ready to cry."

"I am," replied Grace. "I could cry with sheer vexation." Then she
briefly recounted what had occurred.

"What a crusty old man," sympathized Miriam. "It would serve him right
if he did lose his old watch. Where are they sitting?"

"Down the aisle on the other side at the end," directed Grace.

Miriam turned around in her seat. "He looks capable of most anything,"
she remarked after a prolonged stare at the stranger, who was apparently
absorbed in his paper. "Are you sure, however, that you were not
mistaken, Grace? You can't always judge a man by his looks."

"You can this man," asserted Grace. "He is a polite villain of the
deepest dye, and I know it."

It was after eleven o'clock when the train pulled into Oakdale. Mrs.
Gibson's chauffeur awaited them with the big touring car, in which there
was ample room for all of them.

"Keep a sharp lookout for that man," whispered Grace to Miriam. "I want
to see if Oakdale is his destination."

The two girls lagged behind the others, eagerly scanning the platform.

"I think he must have gone on," said Miriam. "I don't see him. Don't
worry any more about him, Grace."

Then she walked on ahead.

But Grace lingered. "That looks like him now," she thought. "He is just
leaving the train. He seems to be waiting for some one."

She stood in the shadow of the station watching the man. Then she saw
another man rapidly approaching. The newcomer walked straight up to the
stranger and shook hands with him. Then the two men turned and she
obtained a full-face view of them both.

Grace gave a little gasp of surprise, for the newcomer who had shaken
the hand of the crook was Henry Hammond.

CHAPTER XX

MARIAN'S CONFESSION

Grace reached home that night with her head in a whirl. She could think
of nothing save the fact that she had seen Henry Hammond warmly welcome
a man whom she knew in her heart to be a professional crook. It formed
the first link in the chain of evidence she hoped to forge against him.
She had become so strongly imbued with the idea that Hammond was an
impostor that the incident at the station only served to confirm her
belief.

The Phi Sigma Tau were besieged with questions the next day, and at
recess the five members held forth separately to groups of eager and
admiring girls on the glories of the visit.

"Where is Marian Barber?" asked Grace of R