and Josie's clear voice cried
triumphantly:

"I've got her! I've captured the missing heiress at last!"

Both men, astonished, rose to their feet as Alora entered and with a
burst of tears threw her arms around the old Colonel's neck. For a few
moments the tableau was dramatic, all being speechless with joy at the
reunion. Colonel Hathaway patted Alora's head and comforted the sobbing
girl as tenderly as if she had been his own grandchild--or Mary Louise.

Josie perched herself lightly on the center-table and swinging her legs
complacently back and forth explained her discovery in a stream of
chatter, for she was justly elated by her success.

"And to think," she concluded, "that I never missed a clew! That it was
really the nurse, Mrs. Orme--Mrs. Jones' old nurse--who stole Alora,
according to our suspicions, and that her object was just what I
thought, to get money from that miser Jason Jones! Daddy will be
pleased with this triumph; _I'm_ pleased; Mary Louise will be pleased,
and--By the way, where is Mary Louise?"

"I don't know," confessed the Colonel, who had just placed Alora, now
more self-possessed, in a chair. "I was beginning to worry about her
when you came in. She seldom leaves these rooms, except for a few
moments, and even then she tells me, or leaves word, where she is
going. I spoke to the clerk, when I returned, and he said she had left
the hotel early this morning, and it's now four o'clock."

Josie's smile faded and her face became grave.

"Now, who," she said, "could have an object in stealing Mary Louise?
Complications threaten us in this matter and the first thing we must do
is----"

"Oh, Alora!" exclaimed Mary Louise, who had softly opened the door and
caught sight of her friend. Next moment the two girls were locked in an
embrace and Josie, a shade of disappointment struggling with her sunny
smile, remarked coolly:

"Very well; that beats the champion female detective out of another
job. But I might have known Mary Louise wouldn't get herself stolen; no
such adventure ever happens to _her."_

Mary Louise turned to the speaker with an earnest look on her sweet
face.

"An adventure _has_ happened to me, Josie, and--and--I hardly know how
to break the news."

She held Alora at arms' length and looked gravely into her friend's
face. Alora noted the serious expression and said quickly:

"What is it? Bad news for _me?"_

"I--I think not," replied Mary Louise, hesitatingly; "but it's