e was
going when he left Mrs. Curtis's," continued Phil in a calmly assured
tone. "Mrs. Curtis has not received a letter from him since he left here,
so she does not know just where he is. We girls on the houseboat would
also like very much to know what has become of Mr. Holt."

"Why?" demanded Roy Dennis sharply.

Phyllis determined to be perfectly frank. "I will tell you my reason for
asking you that question," she began. "You may not know it, but our
little friend, Tania, disappeared from Cape May the very same day that
Philip Holt left the Cape. We all knew that Mr. Holt had known Tania for
a number of years before we met her. He thought that the child ought to
be shut up in some kind of an institution, but Miss Morton wished to put
the little girl in a school. So it may just be barely possible that Mr.
Holt took Tania away without asking leave of any one." Phil made
absolutely no reference to the stolen money and jewels in her talk with
Roy Dennis. If they could run down Philip Holt and Tania the treasure-box
would be disclosed as a matter of course.

Roy Dennis hesitated for barely a second. Then he remarked to Phil,
half-admiringly: "You have been frank with me, Miss Alden, and, to tell
you the truth, I think it is about time that I be equally frank with you.
I have no idea where Philip Holt now is, but I do know something about
how he got away from Cape May, and I am beginning to have my suspicions
that there might have been something 'shady' in his behavior that I did
not think of at the time. Three nights ago, it must have been about
eleven o'clock, I was just about ready for bed when Mr. Holt rang me up
and asked to speak to me alone. He said that he had just had bad news and
wished to get out of Cape May as soon as possible. He asked me if I would
lend him my car so that he could drive to a nearby railroad station where
he could get a train that would take him sooner to the place he wished to
go. I thought it was rather a strange request and asked him why he didn't
borrow Tom Curtis's car? He said that Mrs. Curtis had gone to bed and
that he did not like to disturb her. He and Tom had never been friendly,
so he did not wish to ask him a favor. Well, I can't say I felt very
cheerful at letting Philip Holt have the use of my car, but he said that
he would send it back in a few hours and it would be all right. I got it
out for him myself and he drove away in it. It didn't come back until
this morning, and you