"Yes. Aren't you glad?" with a smile at her astonished expression. "You
see, I've been busy investigating while you slept. I've visited the
local police station and--various other places. I am satisfied that Mr.
Hathaway--or Mr. Weatherby, as he calls himself--is not in Dorfield and
has never located here. Once again the man has baffled the entire force
of our department. I am now confident that your coming to this town was
not to meet your grandfather but to seek refuge with other friends, and
so I have been causing you all this bother and vexation for nothing."

She looked at him in amazement.

"I'm going to ask you to forgive me," he went on, "and unless I misjudge
your nature you're not going to bear any grudge against me. They sent me
to Beverly to watch you, and for a time that was a lazy man's job. When
you sold some of your jewelry for a hundred dollars, however, I knew
there would be something doing. You were not very happy at your school,
I knew, and my first thought was that you merely intended to run away--
anywhere to escape the persecution of those heartless girls. But you
bought a ticket for Dorfield, a faraway town, so I at once decided--
wrongly, I admit--that you knew where Hathaway was and intended going to
him. So I came with you, to find he is not here. He has never been here.
Hathaway is too distinguished a personage, in appearance, to escape the
eye of the local police. So I am about to set you free, my girl, and to
return immediately to my headquarters in Washington."

She had followed his speech eagerly and with a feeling of keen
disappointment at his report that her grandfather and her mother were
not in Dorfield. Could it be true?

Officer O'Gorman took a card from his pocket-book and laid it beside