a matter is by a system of questions which require direct answers.
It's like the game of 'Twenty Questions,' which is the most interesting
game in the world when it's properly played. Once I guessed the ring on
the Pope's finger in six questions just by careful deduction. It's
easier to get at the truth by subtracting than adding----"

"Truth, indeed. You haven't got a bit nearer than any of us," burst in
the incorrigible Judy. "With all your legal mind you haven't made Molly
tell us who was in the ambulance, and of course she knows. She has
never said she didn't, yet."

Molly felt desperately uncomfortable. She wished now that she had told
them in the beginning. It had only made matters worse not to tell.

"Molly, you are the strangest person. What possible reason could you
have for keeping secret who was in the ambulance? Was it one of the
students or one of the faculty?" demanded Nance.

"People who live in the country say that calves are the most inquisitive
creatures in the world, but I think girls are," remarked Molly.

"This is as good as a play," cried one of the Williams girls, "a real
play behind footlights, to sit here and look on at this little comedy of
curiosity. You've asked every conceivable question under the sun, and
Molly there has never told a thing. Now I happen to know that the
ambulance is connected with the sanitarium over near Exmoor. I saw it
once when we were walking, and it is therefore probably bringing someone
from Exmoor here. Then if you wish to inquire further by the 'deductive
method,' as Judge Wakefield calls it: who at Exmoor has connections at
Wellington?"

"Dodo Green and Andy McLean," said Judy quickly.

"Exactly," answered Edith.

Nance's eyes met Molly's and in a flash she understood why her friend
had been parrying the questions of the other girls. It was to save her
from a shock.

Perhaps some of the other girls recognized this, too, for Margaret and
the Williamses rose at the same moment and made excuses to go, and the
others soon followed. Only blundering and thoughtless Judy remained to
blunder more.

"Molly Brown," she exclaimed, "you have been getting so full of
mysteries and secrets lately that you might as well live in a tower all
alone. Now, why----"

"Is he very badly hurt, Molly?" interrupted Nance in a cold, even voice,
not taking the slightest notice of Judy's complaints.

"Pretty badly, Nance. The journey over from Exmoor was harder on him
than they