"Yes."

"Where then did she go? Or rather, to what place was she taken?
Somewhere near; somewhere within easy reach, for the alarm soon rose and
then she could not be found. Mrs. Ocumpaugh, I am going to ask you an
apparently trivial and inconsequent question. Was Gwendolen very fond of
sweets?"

"Yes."

She was sitting upright now, staring me in the face in unconcealed
astonishment and a little fear.

"What sort of candy--pardon me if I seem impertinent--had you in your
house on the Wednesday the child disappeared? Any which she could have
got at or the nurse given her?"

"There were the confections brought by the caterer; none other that I
know of; I did not indulge her much in sweets."

"Was there anything peculiar about these confections either in taste or
appearance?"

"I didn't taste them. In appearance they were mostly round and red, with
a brandied cherry inside. Why, sir, why do you ask? What have these
miserable lumps of sugar to do with Gwendolen?"

"Madam, do you recognize this?"

I took from my pocket the crushed mass of colored sugar and fruit I had
picked up from the musty cushions of the old sofa in the walled-up room
of the bungalow.

She took it and looked up, staring.

"It is one of them," she cried. "Where did you get it? You look as
if--as if--"

"I had come upon a clue to Gwendolen? Madam, I believe I have. This
candy has been held in a hot little hand. Miss Graham or one of the
girls must have given it to her as she ran through the dining-room or
across the side veranda on her way to the bungalow. She did not eat it
offhand; she evidently fell asleep before eating it, but she clutched it
very tight, only dropping it, I judge, when her muscles were quite
relaxed by sleep; and then not far; the folds of her dress caught it,
for--"

"What are you telling me?" The interruption was sudden, imperative. "I
saw Gwendolen asleep; she held a string in her hand but no candy, and if
she did--"

"Did you examine both hands, madam? Think! Great issues hang on a right
settlement of this fact. Can you declare that she did not have this
candy in one of her little hands?"

"No, I can not declare that."

"Then I shall always believe she did, and this same sweetmeat, this
morsel from the table set for your guests on the afternoon of the
sixteenth of this month, I found last night in the disused portion of
the bungalow walled up by Mr. Ocumpaugh's father, but made accessible
since by an open