ng the hopelessness of pursuit he returned in rather a
perturbed frame of mind to the others who were waiting for him by the
lamp.

"She was in a right, royal rage," said Maud. "I have never seen Miss
Carson angry before. I really didn't know she had it in her."

"Perhaps Hilary has sent her on another message," suggested Nancy.

"Hardly at this hour of the evening," said Edward. "It must be nearly
half-past six."

So wondering and speculating as to what could have happened during their
absence, but never coming near the truth, they all hurried home as fast
as they could, and made their way at once to the drawing-room, where
their mother was sitting, looking very helpless and unhappy, while
Hilary, with a complacent expression on her face, was telling her all
over again of the many and varied clues which had caused her to discover
in the person of Miss Carson one of the gang of the Seabourne burglars.

"Why, mother, what is up with Miss Carson?" said Geoffrey at once. "We
met her a minute ago running down the road as hard as she could go."

"Running down the road!" echoed Mrs. Danvers. "There, Hilary!" she added,
turning to her. "I told you I heard her going out of the hall door, and
you said you heard her going upstairs."

"What!" exclaimed Hilary, disregarding her mother altogether. "Miss
Carson has escaped! She ought to be brought back. Oh, Geoffrey, why
didn't you catch her!"

"I tried to stop her, but she had gone like a flash. But why do you talk
about her escaping and of catching her. She isn't a criminal fleeing from
justice, is she?"

"But that is just what she is?" cried Hilary triumphantly. "Oh, you have
all been finely taken in by her; but I suspected her from the first, and
to-night, I have proved her to be a thief and a burglar. I, alone and
unaided, have brought her to justice."

"Miss Carson a thief and a burglar!" cried Geoffrey when his astonishment
would allow him to speak. "What mad idea have you got into your head now,
Hilary?"

Hilary would dearly have liked to have told the long history of the
growth of her suspicions about Miss Carson from the very beginning, but
knowing that she could not expect the same patient attention from her
brothers and sister as her mother had given her, she came straight to the
point at once. After all, she was not sure that it was not the most
dramatic way of telling her tale.

"I have got no mad idea as you call it, Geoffrey, in my head at all," she
sai