obbed her in some way of her triumph, she went off into a
perfect peal of laughter.

"Oh, you are too funny! And do you think that I broke into Walker's shop,
too, and also carried off the actress's jewels?"

"Oh, you may laugh if you like," said Hilary furiously. She would have
liked to have seen Margaret tremble before her as a criminal should
tremble, but she supposed she was too hardened. "But it is a joke that
will land you in prison to-night. I am now going down to tell mother all
about the sort of person we have in the house, and so that you shan't
escape before the police come to take you, I am going to lock you in
here."

And almost before the last words had left her lips Hilary whisked herself
dexterously out of the room, and slammed the door after her. Margaret
heard her locking the door of the bedroom as she passed it on her way
downstairs. Margaret's mixture of feelings at this treatment was so
curious that at first she could neither laugh nor be angry. She was too
angry to laugh, and too amused to be angry. When, however, she walked
into her bedroom and saw how thoroughly Hilary had turned over every one
of her possessions, leaving them either in a rumpled state in the
drawers, or scattered on the floor, indignation triumphed over amusement.

Hilary's charges, too, absurd though, of course, they were, had been
brought against her in all seriousness, and Margaret's rising anger made
her feel that she must be made to retract them immediately. She found, on
going first to one door and then to the other, that though the door of
her bedroom was locked, that of the dressing-room was not; for Hilary,
finding after she had slammed the door that the key was on the inside,
had been obliged to leave it unlocked rather than risk a struggle, for
she had been doubtful whether Miss Carson would have permitted herself to
be locked in had the swiftness of the action not taken her by surprise.

As Margaret went downstairs she heard Hilary's voice talking fast and
eagerly in the drawing-room. She had had five or six minutes start to
tell her tale in, and a good deal can be said in five or six minutes,
provided that the listener does not hinder the narrator by interruptions.
And Mrs. Danvers had not once interrupted, and Hilary had therefore been
able to make such good use of her time that she had given her mother a
full and complete account of the way in which her first suspicions that
there was something mysterious abou