ere did you get it?" he exclaimed, while Mrs. Montague fell back among
the cushions of her chair and covered her face with her trembling hands,
utterly unnerved.

"That remains to be explained, together with some other things which are
no less interesting and startling," the detective returned, with an air
of triumph. "And now," raising his voice a trifle, "if a certain little
lady will show herself, I imagine we can entertain you with another act
in this strange comedy."

As he spoke the drawing-room door, which the man had left slightly ajar
when he entered, was pushed open, and Mona made her appearance with her
arms full of clothing.

She glided straight to the detective's side, and handed him something
which, with a dextrous movement, he clapped upon Mrs. Montague's bowed
head.

It was a wig of rich, dark-red hair, which fell in lovely rings about the
woman's fair forehead and white neck.

She lifted her face with a cry of terror at Mr. Rider's act, and behold!
the beautiful Mrs. Vanderbeck was before them!

Ray knew at once why Mrs. Montague had looked so strangely to him as she
arose to greet him when he entered.

Her face had been artistically made up, with certain applications of
pencil and paint, to give her the appearance of being considerably older
than she was. But he wondered how she happened to be so made up that
morning.

"That is not all," Mr. Rider resumed, as he took a costly tailor-made
dress from Mona's arm and held it up before his speechless auditors.
"Here is the robe which was so badly rent at the time that Mrs.
Vanderbeck escorted Mr. Raymond Palmer to the great Doctor Wesselhoff for
treatment, while the fragment that was torn from it will fit into the
hole. And here," taking another garment from Mona, "is a widow's costume
in which the fascinating Mrs. Bently figured in Chicago, when she so
skillfully duped a certain Mr. Cutler, swindling him out of a handsome
sum of money, and giving him paste ornaments in exchange. No one would
ever imagine the elegant Mrs. Richmond Montague and the lovely widow to
be one and the same person, for they were entirely different in figure as
well as face, the former being very slight, while the latter was inclined
to be decidedly portly, as was also Mrs. Vanderbeck.

"But, gentlemen, that is also easily explained, as you will see if you
examine these costumes, for there must be five pounds, more or less, of
cotton wadding used about each to pad it out