rick!" said Charlie, as they sat at dinner
that night. Eleanor and the two girls were going back to Long Lake on
the first train in the morning, and they were celebrating with the best
dinner the town of Hamilton could afford. "I told you I needed a
nurse, Nell, and here one of you had to save me for the second time
since I came here to look after you!"

"That man was terribly clever," said Eleanor, gravely. "I never even
knew I was locked in--I was let out before I had had a chance to find
it out for myself."

"Bessie and I didn't know it, either, until she saw him tying Mr.
Jamieson up," said Dolly. "We'd have found it out as soon as we wanted
to leave the room to go down for lunch, of course, but he was so quiet
about locking us in that neither of us heard him at all."

"He was just a little bit too clever," said Charlie. "If he hadn't
been so anxious to make a little more money out of me, he would have
got clean away and given that paper to Holmes."

"Not getting it seemed to upset Mr. Holmes a good deal, didn't it?"
laughed Eleanor. "Is it true that he left town by the first train
after he heard that the letter had been found when they searched that
wretched man?"

"Quite true," said Charlie, happily.

"Just what did happen in court this afternoon?" asked Dolly. "I
thought we were going to be witnesses and have all sorts of fun. And
now it's all over and our trip down here has just been wasted!"

"Why, Holmes's lawyer, Curtin, threw up the case as soon as he heard
about that letter, Dolly. There wasn't anything else for him to do.
With that, added to the stories you two girls had to tell, there wasn't
any way of getting those gypsies off."

"Are they going to send them to prison?"

"John will go to jail for six months. He's the one who actually
carried Dolly off, you know. As for Peter and Lolla, who helped him,
they get off easily. They were sentenced, too, but the judge suspended
sentence. If they forget, and do anything more that's wrong, they'll
have to serve out their term."

"I'm very glad," said Eleanor. "Poor souls! I don't believe they
understood what a dreadful thing they were doing."

"It was a good thing for them they decided to plead guilty and take
their medicine," said Charlie. "Or, I should say, it's a good thing
that Curtin decided it for them. Don't worry about them any more.
Holmes will have to pay John a good deal of money when he comes out of
jail to make him keep