I whispered in her ear:

"I should suggest that we hold our talk anywhere but at Mrs. Carew's
house, since she is liable to be the chief subject of our conversation."

"Now?"

"Now, more than ever. Her share in the child's disappearance was not
eliminated or affected in any way by the destruction of her footprints."

"I will go back to the house; I will see him in my own room," Mrs.
Ocumpaugh suddenly announced to her greatly disturbed companion. "Mr.
Trevitt will follow in a few minutes. I must have time to think--to
compose myself--to decide--"

She was evidently thinking aloud. Anxious to save her from any
self-betrayal, I hastily interrupted her, saying quietly:

"I will be at your boudoir door in a half-hour from now. I myself have
something to think of in the interim."

"Be careful!" It was Miss Porter who stopped to utter this word in my
ear. "Be very careful, I entreat. Her heart-strings are strained almost
to breaking."

I answered with a look. She could not be more conscious of this than I
was.

XX

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?"

I was glad of that half-hour. I, too, wanted a free moment in which to
think and examine the small scrap of paper I had picked up from this
cellar floor. In the casual glance I had given it, it had seemed to
offer me a fresh clue, quite capable of replacing the old one; and I did
not change my mind on a second examination; the shape, the hue, the few
words written on it, even the musty smell pervading it, all going to
prove it to be the one possible link which could reunite the chain whose
continuity I had believed to be gone for ever.

Rejoicing in my good luck, yet conscious of still moving in very
troubled waters, I cast a glance in the direction of Mrs. Carew's house,
from the door of the bungalow whence I had seen Mrs. Ocumpaugh depart,
and asked myself why Mrs. Carew, of all persons in the vicinity, had
been the only one to hang back from this scene of excitement. It was not
like her to hide herself at such a crisis (how invariably she had
followed me in each and every visit I had paid here!), and though I
remembered all her reasons for preoccupation, her absence under the
present conditions bore an aspect of guilt which sent my mind working in
a direction which was not entirely new to me, but which I had not as yet
resolutely faced.

Guilt! The word recalled that other and similar one uttered by Mr.
Rathbone in that adventure which had impressed me as so unreal,