been married by this time. See, it is after ten o'clock!"

"Yes, if he marries her," said Gardley, fiercely. He had no faith in
Forsythe.

"You think--you don't think he would _dare_!" The old man straightened
up and fairly blazed in his righteous wrath.

"I think he would dare anything if he thought he would not be caught. He
is a coward, of course."

"What can we do?"

"Telegraph to detectives at all points where they would be likely to
arrive and have them shadowed. Come, we will ride to the station at
once; but, first, could I go up in her room and look around? There might
be some clue."

"Certainly," said Rogers, pointing hopelessly up the stairs; "the first
door to the left. But you'll find nothing. I looked everywhere. She
wouldn't have left a clue. While you're up there I'll interview the
servants. Then we'll go."

As he went up-stairs Gardley was wondering whether he ought to tell
Rogers of the circumstance of the two letters. What possible connection
could there be between Margaret Earle's trip to Walpi with the
Brownleighs and Rosa Rogers's elopement? When you come to think of it,
what possible explanation was there for a copy of Mrs. Brownleigh's
letter to blow out of Rosa Rogers's bedroom window? How could it have
got there?

Rosa's room was in beautiful order, the roses nodding in at the window,
the curtain blowing back and forth in the breeze and rippling open the
leaves of a tiny Testament lying on her desk, as if it had been recently
read. There was nothing to show that the owner of the room had taken a
hasty flight. On the desk lay several sheets of note-paper with the
peculiar watermark. These caught his attention, and he took them up and
compared them with the papers in his pocket. It was a strange thing that
that letter which had sent Margaret off into the wilderness with an
unknown Indian should be written on the same kind of paper as this; and
yet, perhaps, it was not so strange, after all. It probably was the only
note-paper to be had in that region, and must all have been purchased at
the same place.

The rippling leaves of the Testament fluttered open at the fly-leaf and
revealed Rosa's name and a date with Mrs. Brownleigh's name written
below, and Gardley took it up, startled again to find Hazel Brownleigh
mixed up with the Rogers. He had not known that they had anything to do
with each other. And yet, of course, they would, being the missionaries
of the region.

The almost empt