to see if everything was right. Mr. Mudge asked me if I had opened the safe during the night. He said that some one of us had been seen to do it, but he led me to suppose that he suspected some one else. I knew that he had his information from Cynthia, and I was afraid she had seen some one else. I mean ' and here Winnie corrected herself with some confusion-" I was afraid that she might have taken me for some other person, and I was very glad to acknowledge that I was the one who had opened the safe. I don't think that Mr. Mudge believes that I am the culprit, for he smiled at me in a very friendly way."

66

'How could he believe such a thing?" I asked.

"It is perfectly nonsensical."

"But if he does not suspect me, his suspicions will probably fasten on some one else. On you, for instance, or Adelaide, and I would rather be the scapegoat than have any annoyance come to the rest of you."

We had reached the Amen Corner, and had just opened the study-parlor door. Winnie gave a little cry of surprise. The door into the studio was open and a strange man stood looking at the broken lock.

CHAPTER V.

L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE.

"The look o' the thing, the chance of mistake,
All were against me. That I knew the first;
But knowing also what my duty was, I did it."

HY, Mr.
Mudge!"
Winnie

exclaimed,

recovering

herself,

"excuse

me for cry

ing out,
but really

I did not

expect to
see you
here."

"I pre

sume not,"

the gentle

man re

plied dryly. Under other circumstances such intrusion would be unwarrantable,but I

presume you understand that in a case like this we must question not only human witnesses but the place itself, and often our most valuable testimony is of a circumstantial character. This broken lock, for instance, would seem to prove that the thief entered through the studio."

"Oh! that," I cried, "proves nothing; it has been broken this long while since the very beginning of the term."

Winnie clasped my hand tightly, and I understood that she did not wish her escapade with the sliding trunk explained.

"Are you sure of that?" Mr. Mudge asked, looking slightly disappointed. "Even if the lock was not broken on the night of the robbery, the fact still remains that an entrance was practicable here at that time.”

"It must

"Why, of course!" I exclaimed. have been the man who looked in at the transom,"

"What man?" asked Mr. Mudge; and I told the story of the appearance the night before. Winnie came forward impulsively, as though she wished to interrupt me, then seemed to change her mind and walked to the window, standing with her back to us.

66

And why is it," asked Mr. Mudge, “that

neither Miss Cynthia nor Miss Winnie have mentioned this very suspicious circumstance?"

"I was not in the room when it happened, I did not see the man," Winnie replied, without turning her head.

"This thief may have made an earlier attempt which was foiled," Mr. Mudge continued. "It seems to me a little careless that you did not report the fact of the broken lock when you first discovered it, and have the fastening mended."

Winnie's eyes shone with suppressed amusement. "You think, then, Mr. Mudge, that some one from the outside committed the burglary? I am very glad that you have renounced the idea that any member of this school could have been guilty of such a thing."

My dear young lady," replied Mr. Mudge, "I never indulge in preconceived ideas, but I give every possibility a hearing. I have nearly completed my examination of the locale, but must ask one trifling favor. Will you kindly lend me all your keys?"

"You don't mean to say that you are going through all our things?" I exclaimed, aghast at the thought that the secret of the commissary must now be disclosed.

"A mere matter of form," he murmured, extending his hand with persuasive authority. Winnie delivered her one key promptly, saying, "I will go and tell the other girls."

"Quite unnecessary," Mr. Mudge replied. "I have a pass key which opened Miss Adelaide's capacious trunk. I have shaken out all her furbelows and tried to fold them again as well as I could, but I fear that the gowns with trains were a little too difficult for me. Miss Milly's bureau drawers were in a wild state of mix: ribbons, laces, gloves, hair crimpers, dried-up cake, perfumery, jewelry, chewing-gum, love letters (innocent ones from other young ladies), a manicure set, a bonnet pulled to pieces, a box of Huyler's, fancy work, dressmaker's and other bills (which I have taken the liberty to borrow for a day or two), dancing slippers and German favors, a tin box containing marshmallows and a bottle of French dressing, menthol pencil, pepsum lozenges for indigestion, box of salted almonds, bangles, sachet, photograph of Harvard football team, notes to lectures on evidences of Christianity, silver bonbonnière containing candied violets, programmes of symphony rehearsals, caramels caramels and embroidery silks gummed together, a handsome book of etch