l your grandfather because you didn't like
him any more. So I told Carlos to take you home. I was afraid of a scene
in public. Come around. Have tea with me. Tell me you forgive me. Tell me
what was the matter with you."

"She must have written that yesterday morning," Bobby muttered. "Good
Lord, Hartley! Then it was in my mind!"

"Unless that letter's a plant, too," Graham said. "Yet how could she know
there'd be a search? Why shouldn't she have addressed it to the Cedars
where there was a fair chance of its being opened and read by the police?
Why hasn't my man made any report on her? We've a number of questions to
ask Maria."

But word came down from the dancer's apartment that Maria wasn't at home.

"When did she go out?" Graham asked the hall man.

"Not since I came on duty at six o'clock."

Graham slipped a bill in the man's hand.

"We've an important message for her. We'd better leave it with the maid."

When they were alone in the upper hall he explained his purpose to Bobby.

"We must know whether she's actually here. If she isn't, if she hasn't
been back for the last twenty-four hours--don't you see? It was
yesterday afternoon you thought you saw a woman at the lake, and last
night a woman cried about the Cedars--"

"That's going pretty far, Hartley."

"It's a chance. A physical one."

A pretty maid opened the door. Her face was troubled. She studied them
with frank disappointment.

"I thought--" she began.

"That your mistress was coming back?" Graham flashed.

There was no concealment in the girl's manner. It was certain that Maria
was not in the apartment.

"You remember me?" Bobby asked.

"Yes. You have been here. You are a friend of mademoiselle's. You can,
perhaps, tell me where she is."

Bobby shook his head. The girl spread her hands. She burst out excitedly:

"What is one to do? I have telephoned the theatre. There was no one there
who knew anything at all, except that mademoiselle had not appeared at
the performance last night."

Graham glanced at Bobby.

"When," he asked, "did you see her last?"

"It was before luncheon yesterday."

"Did she leave no instructions? Didn't she say when she would be back?"

The girl nodded.

"That's what worries me, for she said she would be back after the
performance last night."

"She left no instructions?" Graham repeated.

"Only that if any one called or telephoned I was to make no appointments.
What am I to do? Perhaps I shouldn'