"Our rings! Our rings!" the twins were wailing, and Connie, awakened
by the noise, was crying beneath the covers of her bed.

"Maybe we'd better phone for Mr. Allan," suggested Fairy. "The girls
are so nervous they will be hysterical by the time we finish searching
the house."

"Well, let's do the up-stairs then," said Prudence. "Get your slippers
and kimonos, and we'll go into daddy's room."

But inside the door of daddy's room, with the younger girls clinging to
her, and Fairy looking odd and disturbed, Prudence stopped abruptly and
stared about the room curiously.

"Fairy, didn't father leave his watch hanging on that nail by the
table? Seems to me I saw it there this morning. I remember thinking I
would tease him for being forgetful."

And the watch was not there.

"I think it was Sunday he left it," answered Fairy in a low voice. "I
remember seeing it on the nail, and thinking he would need it,--but I
believe it was Sunday."

Prudence looked under the bed, and in the closet, but their father's
room was empty. Should they go farther? For a moment, the girls stood
looking at one another questioningly. Then--they heard a loud thud
down-stairs, as of some one pounding on a door. There was no longer
any doubt. Some one was in the house! Connie and the twins screamed
again and clung to Prudence frantically. And Fairy said, "I think we'd