the
pearls.

It seemed a waste of time to open the handkerchief. She longed to run
out of the house with her treasure, without a second's delay. Why search
for Chuff's key? As she had found the pearls she did not need to 'phone.
The girl was at the door, with her hand on the key, before she realized
how mad it would be not to make certain of her find.

Yes, the pearls were really there, the darlings! She re-wrapped the
parcel, and again was at the door when another thought struck her.
Better make the bed look as it had looked before. She returned, put the
pillows back into their covers, stood them up in place, and during the
process decided that she would spare a moment to search for Chuff's key.
It might come in handy. Kit had let drop that the key was a special key.
Clo guessed that at times there were things to hide, and then Chuff
would forget to leave that key for his friends! "It might be useful to
Mr. O'Reilly's Denham," she thought. "If I can find it quick----"

And flitting about the room she pounced upon a key which answered Kit's
description. It was on the mantelpiece--a small, flat key, of a
"special" kind, because it was made for a Yale lock.

She shut the door softly behind her, and locked it as she went out. The
borrowed key she replaced in the storeroom. Then she unlocked her own
door, and tearing off the blue wrapper, put on the tan-coloured linen
suit Violet had bought in a sale, for five dollars. There was a tan
straw hat, too (Clo dared not appear in the brown toque and coat
described by the newspapers), and a cheap handbag purchased for the
pearls in case she should get them. It was a tight fit for the red silk
bundle, but she squeezed it in, and added the big pearl found in
Peterson's room. She would also have tucked in the Yale key, but the bag
refused to shut, and she kept the key in her hand. What money she had
left, she slipped inside her blouse; everything else she abandoned. Kit
would rage in vain when she looked for the red handkerchief parcel.

"I can't have been half an hour," she thought, as she tripped past the
breakfast trays and started downstairs. "Kit and Churn may be out a long
while yet. I'd hate to come face to face with 'em in the street!"

Less than half way down, she heard Violet's voice, and her nerves
jumped. "On my way up for them trays o'yourn," the woman said.

To whom was she speaking? Kit back already? Yes, Kit was answering her:
"I'll run up ahead. I'm in a hurry