od there looking her inquiry
at one and the other of the two men. Simon was somehow glad to see
her, for much as he disliked her, he admitted her level-headed
shrewdness and welcomed the help of another brain in coping with a
situation that was rapidly getting beyond him.

"Some one has broken open my desk and taken the notebook in which I
keep memoranda of formulas and experiments," he explained gruffly. "I
don't miss anything else. It must have been done within the last few
hours."

"I see. I thought I detected a note of tragedy in the way you hollered
for Bates just now." She eyed the butler reflectively as she drew a
silver case from a pocket of the negligee and lighted a cigarette.
"Bates--I see you are still dressed! Where have you been for the past
few hours?"

"Right in the pantry, Miss Ocky, except when I came out to let you in a
while back. I heard nothing, nor no one."

She turned, as if to measure distances with her eye. "Right in the
pantry," she repeated. "Fifteen yards--and two closed doors--away.
Still, it's queer you heard nothing."

"I was reading a paper, Miss Ocky, and I dozed once or twice."

"Ah. That probably accounts for it. Have you found out yet how he got
into the house?" She moved her shoulders slightly as she put the
question. "I can feel a draught on the back of my neck, now.
Something is open--in the living-room, perhaps. Did you lock up as
carefully as usual this evening, Bates? Things were rather upset!"

"That didn't make any difference, Miss Ocky," he protested eagerly. "I
had closed everything as usual--I had even started for bed--before the
siren blew and I heard Mr. Varr hurrying out to the garage. Nothing
was left unlocked."

At the first mention of the living-room, Simon had secured a small
torch from a nearby stand. Together, they trooped through the door
leading to the parlor, where he flashed the light on the two sets of
tall French windows that gave on to a side veranda. They exclaimed in
chorus at the sight of one pair ajar.

"That's that," said Miss Ocky. She took the flash from Simon, opened
the window wide and turned the light on the planking of the piazza.
"Nothing to be seen by this light!" She directed the beam at the
fastenings of the window. "Huh! Didn't take much to force this
affair! Your defenses are pretty flimsy, Simon!"

"You're not in the heart of Asia, Ocky. We don't go in much for
fortifications in this country."

"Well,