is eyes
excited.

"You'll get out of this house and do it quick!" he cried sharply. "If
you think for one little minute that I'll stand for your high-handed
actions, you're mistaken."

At a look from Lee, Carson stepped quickly forward, so that Hampton
stood between them.

"You come with us," and now Lee no longer sought to be pleasant. "And
keep still or we'll stop your mouth with a yard of cloth. This way,
Carson."

With right and left arms gripped, with lagging feet and furious eyes,
Hampton went between them to the door. For an instant only did he
struggle; then, with a snort of disgust, seeing the futility of making
a fool of himself, he went quietly.

Just what he expected as a result of a visit to the girl's room, Lee
did not know. He hoped for some sign to tell him something, anything.

Quietly the three went through the house until they came to Judith's
dainty blue-and-white bedroom. Here all had been set in order by Mrs.
Simpson. A great vase of rosebuds, brought by Jose this morning,
accepted by Mrs. Simpson with suspicion and searched carefully for a
lurking scorpion or a coiled rattlesnake, stood on a table by the
window. On entering the room a sort of awkward shyness fell over both
Lee and Carson. Hampton, freed now and standing alone, though under
Carson's hard eye, stared at them angrily.

"When you get through with this foolishness," he told them stiffly,
"you can either apologize or call for your time."

Neither answered. Carson little by little had come to share Lee's
uncertainty and anxiety; and now, like Lee, sought eagerly to find a
sign--something to tell that Judith had been lured away by Trevors or
Quinnion; or that she had been overpowered here and taken out, perhaps
through a window.

But Judith had gone Saturday night, and Mrs. Simpson had done her work
thoroughly. It might be well to call the housekeeper and question her.
Had she found a chair overturned, a rug rumpled, a table shoved a
little from its accustomed place? But, again, it would be as well not
to start suspicion and surmise in other minds; if, after all, there
were no true cause for it. Judith _might_ be in San Francisco; she
_might_ have sent the order to sell.

"Chances is we're smelling powder where there wasn't no shot," said
Carson hesitatingly.

"Bright boy!" mocked Hampton. "You'll make a great little gumshoe
artist one of these days."

Had Bud Lee not loved Judith as he did, with his whole h