it's best to do. One thing is quite evident: your mother's valuables are
not safe, if they haven't already been tampered with and stolen. You
see--well, I'll explain as we go. I'll get rid of Mrs. Mellows first."

A few telephone calls arranged matters, and a message brought his motor
from its neighboring waiting place. "You see," he continued, as the
machine throbbed its way northward, "there are several possibilities.
One is, that this anonymous person is mad. In that case, we can't take
too many precautions. The ingenuity of the insane is proverbial. Then,
this may be a vicious vengeance; someone who hates your splendid mother,
and would hurt her through you. You can see that if you had believed
this detestable story it would have broken her heart. Now such a person,
hoping that you would investigate, would have been quite capable of
stocking your mother's secret compartment with stuff that at the first
glance would have seemed to substantiate the story. You see, they knew
all about the combination and the inner compartment, and they must have
had access to your home. They probably took you for a silly little fool,
full of curiosity, and counted on the shock of falling into their trap
being so great that you would be in no condition to reason matters out;
that you and your mother would be hopelessly estranged, or at least that
you would so hurt and distress her that they could gloat over her
unhappiness. You know you are the one thing she loves in all the world,
Dorothy."

He had talked looking straight ahead of him, striving to give his words
judicial weight. Now he glanced down at Dorothy's face. It was calm, and
a little color was returning to her cheeks. She pressed his hand
fervently.

"But it's so wicked!" she repeated. "It frightens me to think of such