y? What do you mean by that?"

"Why, this: when she stopped to get her money out of some hidden pocket,
she pulled up the skirt of her dress, and I saw another one under it.
Perhaps she thought that was the easiest way of carrying it. I noticed
that her suit-case was a small one."

"Describe that under-frock to me." Mr. Gryce's air and tone were
unaccountably earnest. "What was its color?"

"Why, reddish, I think. No, it had stripes in it and something like
spots. Do you suppose it was her petticoat?"

Mr. Gryce brought his hand down on his lame knee and did not seem to feel
it. "Find out where she's gone!" he cried. "No, I will do it myself."
And before the other could recover from his astonishment, he had started
for the piazza where he had just seen the proprietor of the hotel take
his seat.

"This comes from an old man's folly in thinking he could manage an affair
of this kind without help," he mumbled to himself as he went stumping
along. "Had I told Perry whom we were after and how he was to recognize
her, I should have spent my time talking with this woman instead of
staring at her. Two dresses! with the bright one under! Well, she's even
more subtle than I thought."

And by this time, having reached the man he sought, he put his question:

"Can you tell me anything about the woman who was sitting here? Who she
is and where she has gone?"

"The woman who was sitting here? Why, I should say she was a factory hand
and has gone to her work on the other side of the river."

"Her name? Do you know her name? I'm a detective from New York--one of
the regular police force. I'm in search of a woman not unlike the one
I saw here, though not, I am bound to state, a factory worker except on
compulsion."

"You are! A police detective, eh, and at your age! It must be a healthy
employment. But about this woman! I'm sorry, but I can't tell you
anything except that she came on the same train you did and wanted a boat
right away to take her across the river. You see, we've no ferry here,
and I told her so, and the only way she could get across was to wait for
Phil Jenkins, who was going over at five. She said she would wait, and
sat down here, refusing dinner, or even to enter the house. Perhaps she
wasn't hungry, and perhaps she didn't wish to register, eh?"

"Had her speech an accent? Did you take her for a foreign woman?"

"Yes, I did and I didn't. She spoke very well. She's not young, you
know?"

"I'm not looki