ed the burglar had taken the easily concealed contents of the
wall safe which represented fully ninety percentum of the value of the
personal property in Abigail Prim's apartments.

Mrs. Prim scowled suspiciously upon the servants. Who else, indeed,
could have possessed the intimate knowledge which the thief had
displayed. Mrs. Prim saw it all. The open library window had been but a
clever blind to hide the fact that the thief had worked from the inside
and was now doubtless in the house at that very moment.

"Jonas," she directed, "call the police at once, and see that no one,
absolutely no one, leaves this house until they have been here and made
a full investigation."

"Shucks, Pudgy!" exclaimed Mr. Prim. "You don't think the thief is
waiting around here for the police, do you?"

"I think that if you get the police here at once, Jonas, we shall find
both the thief and the loot under our very roof," she replied, not
without asperity.

"You don't mean--" he hesitated. "Why, Pudgy, you don't mean you suspect
one of the servants?"

"Who else could have known?" asked Mrs. Prim. The servants present
looked uncomfortable and cast sheepish eyes of suspicion at one another.

"It's all tommy rot!" ejaculated Mr. Prim; "but I'll call the police,
because I got to report the theft. It's some slick outsider, that's
who it is," and he started down stairs toward the telephone. Before he
reached it the bell rang, and when he had hung up the receiver after the
conversation the theft seemed a trivial matter. In fact he had almost
forgotten it, for the message had been from the local telegraph office
relaying a wire they had just received from Mr. Samuel Benham.

"I say, Pudgy," he cried, as he took the steps two at a time for the
second floor, "here's a wire from Benham saying Gail didn't come on that
train and asking when he's to expect her."

"Impossible!" ejaculated Mrs. Prim. "I certainly saw her aboard the
train myself. Impossible!"

Jonas Prim was a man of action. Within half an hour he had set in motion
such wheels as money and influence may cause to revolve in search of
some clew to the whereabouts of the missing Abigail, and at the same
time had reported the theft of jewels and money from his home; but in
doing this he had learned that other happenings no less remarkable in
their way had taken place in Oakdale that very night.

The following morning all Oakdale was thrilled as its fascinated eyes
devoured the fron