Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 112: what you’re looking at

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454 ‘Harden has gone out with his car,” announced Marion. ‘ He said he might not be home till late.” CHAPTER IX. CROSS PURPOSES. * A RE the. doors and windows of the house all secured?” asked Letha, when the two young women had settled down in the spacious living-room, Marion sewing and Letha with a book. “I do not trust that man Garrett.” | “Neither do I,” returned Marion. “That is why I have locked and bolted the outside doors and the stair door. I can’t do anything up-stairs, except shut down the window of the room belonging to the hired man, because everything is open up there. But we can prevent any- body getting down to us.” “And there is nothing up there that could be stolen?”’ “Nothing that I know of.” Letha smiled and shook her head. “You did not know the Bates jewelry was up there. Yet it was, and it seems other people knew it as well as Harden. I should like to look about that upper story, if you will come with me. We might come across something else that would attract burglars now that Harden is away.” “T wouldn’t go up there to-night for a million dollars,” declared Marion. “ But I do not expect burglars to come again. Who is to know that Harden isn’t at home? He often goes down to the village with his car in the evening, and unless some one is watching, nobody could say when he comes back.” “ That’s true,” assented Letha. ‘ But I should like to go up to that floor. Those old beams and the way they are laid have interested me very much.” “Not for me,’’ was Marion’s resolute negative. ‘If you want to go, do it. But I wouldn’t, if I were you.” Letha dropped the subject and seemed to bury herself in her book. Occasionally THE ARGOSY. she and Marion would exchange a few words, but most of the time Letha’s thoughts were racing along, as she tried to ‘decide what her next move should be leading not only to the recovery of the jewels, but the. capture of the thieves as well. It would have been comparatively easy if her brother-in-law had not disappeared. With his help, she believed she held the key to the mystery. Now she would have to begin all over again. At nine o’clock, Marion, who had been nodding for half an hour or more, declared that she must go to bed. She was too sleepy to see her needle, and she had to be up at five. ‘ Aren’t you sleepy, Letha? You ought to be, for you had little rest last night, to say nothing of the awful time you put in with that strange man. JDoesn’t your head pain you?” “Nothing to speak of,” was Letha’s careless response. ‘‘ I am not at all sleepy just now. But I dare say I soon shall be. You go to bed, and I'll stay up and read a while longer. Perhaps Harden will be home. Then we shall both feel safer in our rooms. Is he certain to be very late?”’ ‘““I don’t know. He’s going on business about the robbery. I think he’s heard something about that Claude Miller. Of course he is the thief. But Harden may be home soon. He only said he might be late. Well, I'll go to bed,” she added, with a yawn, as she got up from her chair. ‘“‘ Good night, dear.”’ It was very lonely when Marion had gone into her room and closed the door, and Letha wondered why the wind always blew* so much harder around the house than elsewhere. For half an hour she sat, book in hand, listening. ‘Then she got up and softly opened the door of Marion’s room, which, like her own, adjoined the living-room. Marion was fast asleep. It was now that Letha did a peculiar thing. She went into the office, where the big safe was the principal article of furni- ture, but which contained, besides, an CO 1OOOLK nn C©