Tell her she is mistaken!" exclaimed Tavia, holding Dorothy back.

"You had better come along quietly," the tall woman directed, urging the
girl to accompany her. "There is no use or sense in making a scene."

Dorothy turned deathly pale.

"Arrested!" she heard people saying. Then she faced them and somehow
walked with the woman detective toward the business office.

CHAPTER VI

WHO STOLE THE RING?

There were no preliminaries and less ceremony about searching Dorothy.
Within the office she was confronted by the superintendent of the store,
and then the woman detective explained that a valuable ring had been taken
from a tray on the counter, and she had reason to believe Dorothy or Tavia
knew something about the missing article.

Tavia could not, or would not, keep her anger within bounds. She simply
declared the whole thing an outrage, and promised that Dorothy's father
would demand satisfaction for the insult.

Dorothy almost forgot her own predicament in trying to calm Tavia. She
assured her it would be all right--was all a mistake, and, after all, what
would it matter? When the detective would be satisfied they knew nothing
about the ring--

Dorothy's little Indian bag had been looked into by the superintendent,
and now he stood before her with something in his hand.

"Is this it?" he asked of the woman detective.

Tavia and Dorothy stood speechless. He held up to their gaze a handsome
ring!

"In my bag!" faltered Dorothy.

"If this is your bag," replied the man.

"Then some one put it there," declared Tavia promptly.

"No doubt of that, miss," said the man significantly. "It did not walk in
there."

"I mean some one who tried to get us into trouble. The little woman in
black!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I knew she had a motive in following us!"

But this assertion had no effect upon the store people. They were
evidently accustomed to persons making ready excuses, and paid no heed to
Dorothy's appealing eyes, her flaming cheeks, or her general astonishment.

"I never saw that ring before," she managed to say.

"You will have to explain all that to the police," the man declared, while
the woman detective was smiling "audibly" at her catch.

"But I tell you it is all a mistake!" Dorothy almost shrieked, realizing
now she must do or say something to defend herself.

"A woman has been following us all day," added Tavia, "and at the jewelry
counter she almost pushed me through the case. I a