her mother had waited some time, after getting home, hoping Mr.
Potter would come back or communicate with them, but when he had not
done so they became alarmed. They feared he had met with some
mishap, and, after talking the matter over with his lawyers, they
had decided it would be best to report the matter to the police.

"We are much obliged to you," said Larry, when it seemed that no
more questions were necessary.

"We'll do our best, through the papers, to help find your father,"
added a gray-haired reporter.

"Now give us his picture," put in Peter Manton, in a commanding
tone.

"We have none to give out at present," said Grace coldly. "We are
having a number made, showing him as he looked when he went away,
and they will be ready in a few days. The lawyers will attend to
that, if my father is not found in the meanwhile."

"We've got to have a picture now!" exclaimed Peter.

"You shut up!"--thus in a whisper, from another reporter who stood
near the representative of the _Scorcher_. "You don't know when
you've been treated decent. Half the millionaire families in New
York wouldn't even let us inside the door, let alone telling us all
we wanted to know. Dry up!" And Peter desisted after that rebuke.

Larry managed to be the last one of the reporters to leave the
house. He lingered in the hall, and when he and Grace were there
alone he said:

"One thing I forgot to ask. When you got back to the house was there
any evidence that your father had been here ahead of you? Was the
house shut up while you were in Europe?"

"I'm glad you spoke of that," the girl replied. "I had forgotten
about it. Yes, the house was closed all the while we were away, and
opened the day mother and I got back. But, now that you speak of it,
I recollect something that seemed strange at the time. We were a
little worried when father did not meet us at the pier, and I had an
idea that he might have spent some nights in the house, pending our
arrival, though he had said in his letters that if he came over
ahead of us he was going to stop at a hotel. I went to his
room----"

She broke into tears again, and Larry waited, looking out of the big
front doors, for he was embarrassed.

"When I looked over his room," continued Grace, going on bravely, "I
saw something was missing, that I knew was on his dresser when we
left for Europe."

"What was it?" asked Larry.

"It was a little picture of mother and myself. My father was very
f