ave gone anywhere else, unless it was to prison; but duty
cannot be shirked, and I followed the man down. But we were too late.
Mrs. L'Hommedieu had recovered and gone away, and the person who had
frightened her was also gone, and only the hallboy remained to give any
explanations.

"This was what he had to say:

"'The man it was who went first. As soon as the lady fell he skipped
out. I don't think he meant no good here----'

"'Did she drop here in the hall?' I asked, unable to restrain my intense
anxiety.

"'Oh, no, ma'am! They was in the back room yonder, which she got in
somehow. The man followed her in, sneaking and sneaking like an eel or a
cop, and she fell right against----'

"'Don't tell me where!' I cried. 'I don't want to know where!' And I was
about to return upstairs when I heard a quick, sharp voice behind me
and realised that Mr. L'Hommedieu had come in and was having some
dispute with the janitor.

"Common prudence led me to listen. He wanted, as was very natural, to
enter the room where his wife had just been surprised, but the janitor,
alarmed by the foregoing very irregular proceedings, was disposed to
deny his right to do so.

"'The furniture is held as a surety,' said he, 'and I have orders----'

"But Mr. L'Hommedieu had a spare dollar, and before many minutes had
elapsed I heard him go into that room and close the door. Of the next
ten minutes and the suspense I felt I need not speak. When he came out
again, he looked as if the ground would not hold him.

"'I have done some mischief, I fear,' he airily said as he passed the
janitor. 'But I'll pay for it. Don't worry. I'll pay for it and the
rent, too, to-morrow. You may tell Mrs. Latimer so.' And he was gone,
leaving us all agape in the hallway.

"A minute later we all crept to that room and looked in. Now that he had
got the bond I for one was determined to know where she had hid it.
There was no mistaking the spot. A single glance was enough to show us
the paper ripped off from a portion of the wall, revealing a narrow gap
behind the baseboard large enough to hold the bond. It was near----"

"Wait!" I put in as I remembered where the so-called Mrs. Helmuth had
pointed just before she died. "Wasn't it at the left of the large
folding doors and midway to the wall?"

"How came you to know?" she asked. "Did Mrs. Latimer tell you?" But as I
did not answer she soon took up the thread of her narrative again, and,
sighing softly, said: