t you are strangely against me. I can not understand
it."

"Oh!" murmured Viola. "It is as if I were being bargained for! How I
hate him!"

Almost blinded by her tears she read another letter. It was another
appeal to her father to use his influence in assisting the captain's
suit.

But this letter--or at least that portion of it relating to Viola--had
been torn, and all that remained was:

"As members of the same lo--"

"What can that have meant?" she mused. "Is it the word 'lodge'?"

She read on, where the letter was whole again:

"I must ask you to reconsider your actions. Let me hear from you by the
twenty-third or--"

Again was that mystifying and tantalizing tear. Viola hastily searched
among the other letters, hoping the missing pieces might be found.

"I simply must see what it meant," she said. "I wonder if they can be in
another part of the safe? I'm going to look!"

She started for her bath robe, and, at that moment, with a suddenness
that unnerved her, there came a knock on her door.

CHAPTER XVII. OVER THE TELEPHONE

Viola's first movement was of concealment--to toss over the scattered
letters on her desk a lace shawl she had been wearing earlier in the
evening. Then satisfied that should the unknown knocker prove to be some
one whom she might admit--her Aunt Mary or one of the maids--satisfied
that no one would, at first glance, see the letters which might mean
nothing or much, Viola asked in a voice that slightly trembled:

"Who is it?"

"I did not mean to disturb you," came the answer, and with a sense of
relief Viola recognized the voice of Colonel Ashley. "But I have jus
returned from New York, and, seeing a light under your door, I thought I
would-report, as it were."

"Oh, thank you-thank you!" the girl exclaimed, relief evident in her
voice.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" the colonel went on, as he stood
outside the closed door. "Has anything happened since I went away?"

"No--no," said Viola, rather hesitatingly. "There is nothing new to tell
you. I was sitting up--reading."

Her glance went to the desk where the letters were scattered.

"Oh," answered the colonel. "Well, don't sit up too late. It is getting
on toward morning."

"Have you anything to tell me, Colonel Ashley?" asked Viola. "Did you
discover anything?"

There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment, and then
came the answer, given slowly:

"No, nothing to report. I will have