tingled with the rapid coursing of her
blood, and she felt as if she could hardly wait until the woman should
rise, so that she might look for a place that had been mended in the
skirt of her dress.

She resolved that she would ride as long as they remained in the car, and
when they left it, she would follow them to ascertain their stopping
place.

She could not catch anything more that they said, although she strained
her ears to do so.

Those few words which she had overheard had also aroused her
suspicions--"you were very imprudent to try to dispose of so many in
one place," the woman had said, and Mona believed she had referred to
diamonds; her vivid imagination pictured these people as belonging to
the gang of robbers who had been concerned in the Palmer robbery, and
now that the excitement attending it had somewhat subsided, they had
doubtless come to St. Louis to dispose of their booty; while it was the
strangest thing in the world, she thought, that she should have happened
to run across them in the way she had.

They were drawing very near the Southern Hotel, where Mona and Mrs.
Montague were stopping; but the excited girl resolved that she would not
get out--she would ride hours rather than lose sight of these two
strangers, and the chance to ascertain if that gray cloth dress was
mended--"on the back of the skirt, near the right side, among the heavy
folds." Ray had told her that was where the tear was.

But what if she should find it there? What should she do about the
matter? were questions which arose at this point to trouble her. What
could she, a weak girl, do to cause the arrest of the thieves? how was
she to prove them guilty?

At that moment the man signaled the conductor to stop the car, and Mona's
heart leaped into her throat, for they were exactly opposite her own
hotel.

The couple arose to leave the car, and Mona slowly followed them.

As the woman was about to step to the ground she gathered up her skirts
with her right hand, to prevent them from sweeping the steps of the car,
and Mona looked with eager eyes, but she could detect no mended rent.

She kept a little behind them as they crossed the sidewalk and made
straight for the entrance of the hotel, when, as they were mounting the
steps, the woman suddenly tripped and almost fell.

In the act, her skirts were drawn closely about her, and Mona distinctly
saw a place, where the plaits or folds were laid deeply over one another,
tha