find him.

EDDIE. Lawdy, now she's got de hat. (_Exits R._)

_Enter_ WARREN _from L._

WARREN (_to_ MISS M.). I beg pardon?

MISS M. Heavens!

WARREN. What's the matter?

MISS M. I thought you were a ghost.

WARREN. I am Mr. Williams.

MISS M. You are? (Drops everything, runs to him and shakes both his
hands heartily.) Don't you know me?

WARREN. No; never saw you before in my life.

MISS M. I'm your Aunt Minerva.

WARREN. Not Aunt Minerva Mockridge from Kankakee?

MISS M. (_positively_). Aunt Minerva Mockridge from Kankakee.

WARREN. But I thought you said you weren't coming.

MISS M. I changed my mind. And I wanted to surprise you and Kitty.

WARREN. Well, you did. You've surprised us all right.

MISS M. Let me sit down. I've had such an adventure. (Holds up hat.)
See what I brought you?

WARREN. A hat?

MISS M. Yes, what's left of it.

WARREN. It looks just like the one I gave Kittens for a Christmas
present.

MISS M. I got out of the taxi at the corner and was walking along
trying to find the house when all of a sudden I heard a great
commotion down the street behind me. I turned around and just then a
man darted right at me, slapped the hat in my hand and was off like
the wind. A crowd of policemen were chasing him. I slipped into the
vestibule of a building and luckily it was this house.

_Enter_ EDDIE _and_ HOGAN _from R._

EDDIE. You can't come in yere. Not unless you got a search warrant.

HOGAN. I saw her run into the vestibule, boy--and I'll find her if I
have to search every apartment from piano to ice-box. (_Sees_ MISS M.)
There she is now. That woman just came up in the elevator, didn't she?

EDDIE. Yassir, boss; dat's de one.

HOGAN (_goes to_ MISS M.). Come on with me. I guess I've got you at
last.

MISS M. What do you mean?

WARREN. Officer, this lady is my aunt. I am Mr. Williams, the owner of
this apartment.

HOGAN (_to_ EDDIE). Is that man the owner of this apartment?

EDDIE. Yessir, boss; dat's Mr. Williams.

HOGAN. And you say this lady is your aunt?

MISS M. Of course I'm his aunt.

HOGAN. That'll do you! Keep still or I'll put the bracelets on ye.

WARREN. Well, she _said_ she was my aunt.

HOGAN. Have ye ever seen her before?

WARREN. No, sir.

HOGAN (_turns to_ EDDIE _at R._). Ye hear? He thinks she's his aunt
and yet he niver seen her before. This woman is a crook. One of the
worst in the country. She's old Boston Bell and is wanted in Omaha for