which they
issued from the house proves this. They probably did not trouble
themselves about this man. Escape was all they sought. And, you see,
they did escape."

"But you will find them. A man who can locate a woman in this great city
of ours with no other clew than five spangles, dropped from her gown,
will certainly make this parasol tell the name of its owner."

"Ah, madam, the credit of this feat is not due to me. It was the initial
stroke of a young man I propose to adopt into my home and heart; the
same who brought you here to-night. Not much to look at, madam, but
promising, very promising. But I doubt if even he can discover the young
lady you mean, with no other aid than is given by this parasol. New York
is a big place, ma'am, a big place. Do you know how Sweetwater came to
find you? Through your virtues, ma'am; through your neat and methodical
habits. Had you been of a careless turn of mind and not given to mending
your dresses when you tore them, he might have worn his heart out in a
vain search for the lady who had dropped the five spangles in Mr.
Adams's study. Now luck, or, rather, your own commendable habit, was in
his favor this time; but in the prospective search you mentioned, he
will probably have no such assistance."

"Nor will he need it. I have unbounded faith in your genius, which,
after all, is back of the skilfulness of this new pupil of yours. You
will discover by some means the lady with the dove-colored plumes, and
through her the young gentleman who accompanied her."

"We shall at least put our energies to work in that direction.
Sweetwater may have an idea----"

"And I may have one."

"You?"

"Yes; I indulged in but little sleep last night. That dreadful room with
its unsolved mystery was ever before me. Thoughts would come;
possibilities would suggest themselves. I imagined myself probing its
secrets to the bottom and----"

"Wait, madam; how many of its so-called secrets do you know? You said
nothing about the lantern."

"It was burning with a red light when I entered."

"You did not touch the buttons arranged along the table top?"

"No; if there is one thing I do not touch, it is anything which suggests
an electrical contrivance. I am intensely feminine, sir, in all my
instincts, and mechanisms of any kind alarm me. To all such things I
give a wide berth. I have not even a telephone in my house. Some
allowance must be made for the natural timidity of woman."

Mr. Gryce