to
the dining room I had glanced briefly at the picture and something had
been different about it. Now I knew what had been different.

The car had no longer been in front of the church.

* * * * *

I lit a cigarette and sat on the edge of the bed. I thought about that
picture, and simply could not bring myself to believe the accuracy of
that fleeting impression.

Aunt Matilda had slipped into my room and removed the picture while I
slept. That was obvious. Why had she done that? The fleeting impression
that I couldn't be positive about would give her a sensible reason.

I studied my memory of that picture as I had closely studied it. It had
been a remarkable picture. The more I recalled its details the more
remarkable it became. I couldn't remember any surface gloss or graining
to it, but of course I had not been looking for such things. Only an
expert photographer would notice or recognize such technical details.

My thoughts turned in the direction of Aunt Matilda--and her telegram.
Her source of income, I knew, was her part of the estate of my
grandfather, and amounted to something like thirty thousand dollars. I
knew that she was terrified of touching one cent of the capital, and
lived well within the income from good sound stocks.

* * * * *

I took her telegram out of the pocket of my coat which was hanging over
the back of a chair. COME AT ONCE STOP AM IN TERRIBLE TROUBLE ... The
only kind of terrible trouble Matilda could be in was if some swindler
talked her out of some of her capital! And that definitely would not be
easy to do. I grinned to myself at the recollection of her worrying
herself sick once over what would happen to her if there was a
revolution and the new government refused to honor the old government
bonds.

Things began to make sense. Her telegram, then those pictures moved
around in the front room, and the one she had forgotten to hide, in the
guest room. If the other pictures were anything like it, I could see how
Aunt Matilda might cash in on part of her securities to invest in what
she thought was a sure thing.

But sure things are only as good as the people in control of them. Many
a sure thing has been lost to the original investors by stupid decisions
leading to bankruptcy, and many a seemingly sure thing has fleeced a lot
of innocent victims.

Slowly, as I thought it out, I became sure that that was what had
hap