r come into this room with your
mother when she was rummaging in that old closet, to help her move the
furniture or lift things about?"

For a moment Betty frowned and then her face flamed crimson.

"You are not fair, Polly. You never have approved of his living here
or my being kind to him. And you have said half a dozen times that
there was no special point in my being particularly grateful to him,
since any one of our friends would have done just what he did, had they
been equally near me. But then of course that does not alter the fact.
Now just because _he_ has been in here to assist mother does not prove
anything, does not even make it fair to be suspicious."

Polly shrugged her shoulders. "I knew you would be angry, so I am
sorry I spoke. But you see our first meeting in the woods with the
young man when your safety box was almost stolen from you was a little
unfortunate. But I don't say that I suspect any one, either, and I
have no intention of not being fair. However, I do intend to keep on
the lookout. Now kiss me good morning, for I am going to turn out the
light. The gray dawn seems at last to be breaking and perhaps we may
both get a little sleep before breakfast time."

CHAPTER XVIII

UNCERTAINTY

In spite of their own entire conviction the story told the next day by
Polly and Betty to the various members of the Ashton household was
received with little credulity. Even Mrs. Ashton was inclined to be
skeptical after finding that nothing in the big house had been stolen
or even disarranged. There was no window that had been pried open and
no door left unlocked. Then why, even if the robber had entered the
house by some mysterious process of his own, had he gone away again
empty-handed? There were many pieces of valuable silver in the lower
part of the establishment, pictures, even single ornaments that could
be sold for fair sums of money. Therefore why climb to the second
story and enter the girls' room first?

Although Betty and Polly were too deeply offended by the suggestion to
allow it to be freely discussed, Miss McMurtry's idea that they had had
a kind of sympathetic nightmare, or at least a mutual hallucination,
was the most commonly accepted theory. It was an extremely annoying
point of view to both the girls, of course, but as they had nothing to
disprove it, they were obliged after several futile arguments to let
the matter rest. Naturally their Camp Fire friends were