weeping and dignified bow. And
then he stopped, thunder-struck, as a clear, girlish laugh rose on the
air. It was Dolly who laughed.

"I couldn't help it," she said, afterward. "He was so funny, and he
didn't know it! As if anyone would take a man who talked such rot as
that seriously!"

But the trouble was that, vain and pompous as Niles plainly was, his
official position made it necessary to take him seriously. Though at
first she was disposed to agree with Dolly, and had, indeed, had
difficulty in keeping a straight face herself while he was boasting of
his own incorruptibility, Eleanor discovered that fact as soon as she
had a chance to talk with Charlie Jamieson.

"I shall be glad to arrange for you to have an interview with your
cousin, Miss Mercer," Niles informed her. "Theoretically, he is a
prisoner, although of course he will be able to arrange for his own
release on bail as soon as he finds some friend who owns property in
this county. But I have given orders that he is not to be confined in
a cell. I trust he is making himself very much at home in the parlor
of Sheriff Blaine. If you will honor me, I will take you there."

"I should like to see him at once," said Eleanor. "Come, girls! Mr.
Niles, I am sure, will find a place where you can wait for me while I
talk with Mr. Jamieson."

Charlie greeted her with a sour grin when she was taken to the room
where, a prisoner, he was sitting near a window and smoking some of the
sheriff's excellent tobacco.

"Hello, Nell!" he said. "First blood for our friend Holmes on this
scrap, all right. First time I've ever been in jail. It's intended as
a little object lesson of what he can do when he once starts out to be
unpleasant, I fancy. He must know that he hasn't any sort of chance of
keeping me here."

"Why, Charlie, I never heard anything so absurd!" said Eleanor, hotly.
"As if you, who have done everything possible for those girls, would do
such an insane thing as hire that gypsy to kidnap them. And especially
when we know who did do it!"

"That's just the rub! We know, but can we prove it? You see, it's my
idea that Holmes is starting this as a sort of backfire. He thinks
we're going to accuse him, and he wants to strike the first blow. He's
clever, all right."

"I don't see what good it can do him, Charlie."

"A lot of good, and this is why. He puts me on the defensive, right
away. He wants time as much as anything else. And if