found Jack Bailey there, with the Sunday golf crowd. Mr. Bailey
had not been hard to persuade--probably Gertrude knew why--and
they had carried him off triumphantly. I roused Liddy to get
them something to eat--Thomas was beyond reach in the lodge--and
paid no attention to her evident terror of the kitchen
regions. Then I went to bed. The men were still in the
billiard-room when I finally dozed off, and the last thing I
remember was the howl of a dog in front of the house. It wailed
a crescendo of woe that trailed off hopefully, only to break out
afresh from a new point of the compass.

At three o'clock in the morning I was roused by a revolver shot.
The sound seemed to come from just outside my door. For a moment
I could not move. Then--I heard Gertrude stirring in her room,
and the next moment she had thrown open the connecting door.

"O Aunt Ray! Aunt Ray!" she cried hysterically. "Some one has
been killed, killed!"

"Thieves," I said shortly. "Thank goodness, there are some men
in the house to-night." I was getting into my slippers and a
bath-robe, and Gertrude with shaking hands was lighting a lamp.
Then we opened the door into the hall, where, crowded on the
upper landing of the stairs, the maids, white-faced and
trembling, were peering down, headed by Liddy. I was greeted by
a series of low screams and questions, and I tried to quiet them.

Gertrude had dropped on a chair and sat there limp and shivering.

I went at once across the hall to Halsey's room and knocked; then