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+Project Gutenberg's Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin, by Dorothy Wayne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin
+
+Author: Dorothy Wayne
+
+Release Date: January 15, 2014 [EBook #44670]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DIXON, DOUBLE COUSIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             DOROTHY DIXON
+
+                         and the Double Cousin
+
+                                   BY
+
+                             Dorothy Wayne
+
+                               Author of
+                  Dorothy Dixon Solves the Conway Case
+                  Dorothy Dixon and The Mystery Plane
+                      Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings
+
+                    THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING COMPANY
+                                CHICAGO
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                            Copyright, 1933
+
+                    The Goldsmith Publishing Company
+                             MADE IN U.S.A.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                                   To
+                         Dorothea Hetty Gutmann
+
+                 a New Canaan schoolgirl, who
+                 loves our beautiful Ridge
+                 Country, and whose fox terrier,
+                 Professor, really ate the dictionary!
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                              CONTENTS
+
+                  I The Encounter               15
+                 II "Family Affairs"            27
+                III The Sleepwalker             39
+                 IV Meet Flash!                 55
+                  V On Secret Service           67
+                 VI Who's Who?                  79
+                VII Playing a Part              91
+               VIII "Walk Into My Parlor"      104
+                 IX In the Night               116
+                  X Surprises                  127
+                 XI Gretchen                   142
+                XII Tests                      156
+               XIII Winnite                    168
+                XIV Professor                  179
+                 XV Tea and Orders             199
+                XVI Caught in the Act          212
+               XVII Professor Makes Good       228
+              XVIII The Christmas Spirit       246
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                  DOROTHY DIXON AND THE DOUBLE COUSIN
+
+                               Chapter I
+
+                             THE ENCOUNTER
+
+
+"Why--good heavens, girl! How in the world did you escape?"
+
+Dorothy Dixon heard the low, eager whisper at her elbow but disregarded
+it. She was intent on selecting a tie from the colorful rack on the
+counter before her. She spoke to the clerk:
+
+"I'll take this one, and that'll make four. I hope Daddy will approve my
+taste in Christmas presents," she smiled, and laid a bill on her
+purchases.
+
+"But--please, dear, tell me! Don't you know I'm worried crazy? Who let
+you out?"
+
+This time Dorothy felt a touch on her arm. She wheeled quickly to face a
+tall, slender young fellow of twenty-two or three. As she stared at him,
+half indignant, half wondering, she saw sincere distress in his brown
+eyes, and in the lines of his pleasant face. Hat in hand, he waited
+anxiously for an answer to his question, while the crowd of holiday
+shoppers poured through the aisles about them.
+
+Dorothy's eyes softened, then danced. "It seems to me," she said, "that
+you have the wires twisted--it's not I who've escaped, but you! Run
+along now and find your keeper. You're evidently in need of one!"
+
+"Your change and package, miss," the impersonal voice of the
+haberdashery clerk intervened and Dorothy turned back to the counter.
+
+"But why on earth are you acting this way, Janet?" The strange young man
+was at her elbow again.
+
+Once more Dorothy turned swiftly toward him but when she spoke her eyes
+and voice were serious. "Do you really mean to say you think you're
+speaking to Janet Jordan? Because--"
+
+"My dear--what are you trying to tell me?" He broke in impatiently. "I
+certainly ought to know the girl I'm going to marry!"
+
+Dorothy nodded slowly. "I agree with you--you ought to--but then, you
+see, you _don't_!"
+
+The young man crushed his soft felt hat in his hands and took a step
+nearer to her. "Look here--what _is_ the matter with you? I know you've
+been through a lot, but--" He broke off abruptly, a gleam of horror and
+suspicion in his honest eyes. "Janet! What have they done to you?"
+
+Dorothy laid a firm hand on his arm. "Sh! Be quiet--listen to me." Then
+she added gently--"I am _not_ Janet Jordan, your fiancee."
+
+"You're not--!"
+
+"No. My name is Dorothy Dixon--and I'm Janet's first cousin."
+
+The young man seemed flabbergasted for a moment. Then he
+stammered--"Wh-why, it's astounding--the resemblance, I mean! You're
+alike as--as two peas. If you were twins--"
+
+"But you see," she smiled, "our mothers, Janet's and mine, _were_ twins,
+and I guess that accounts for it. I've never seen Janet, but this is the
+third time, just recently, that I've been taken for her by her friends,
+Mr.--?"
+
+"My name is Bright," he supplied. "Howard Bright. Yes, now I can see a
+slight difference, Miss Dixon. You're a bit taller and broader across
+the shoulders than she is. But it's your personalities, more than
+anything else, that are altogether unlike. I hope you'll forgive me,
+Miss Dixon, for making a nuisance of myself!"
+
+"No indeed--that is, of course I will!" Dorothy laughed merrily. "You're
+not a nuisance, you know, but," and her tone became grave, "I can see
+that you're in trouble. Is there--" she hesitated.
+
+"Not I, Miss Dixon--that is, not directly. But," he lowered his voice,
+"Janet is--is in very serious trouble. And for a moment, when I saw you,
+I thought that in some miraculous way she had escaped."
+
+Howard Bright's face suddenly became almost haggard and Dorothy's
+sympathy and concern for her cousin deepened into resolve.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Bright," she said abruptly, "we can't talk here, in this
+shopping crowd, it's a regular football scrimmage. Let's go up to the
+mezzanine. A friend of mine is waiting there for me now, I'm a little
+late as it is, and--"
+
+"But I can't bother _you_ with this," he protested, "and especially--"
+
+"Oh, come along," she urged, "Bill is a grand guy when it comes to
+getting people out of messes. I insist you tell us all about it. After
+all, Janet's my cousin, you know, and you'll soon be a member of the
+family, won't you?"
+
+"There doesn't seem much hope of that now." Young Bright's tone was
+despondent. "But Janet certainly does need help, and she needs it
+badly--so--"
+
+Dorothy caught his arm. "I'm going to call you Howard," she announced
+briskly. "So please drop the Miss Dixon. And come on--let's push our way
+over to the elevators."
+
+The mezzanine floor of the department store was arranged as a lounge or
+waiting room for customers. Comfortable arm chairs and divans invited
+tired shoppers to rest. Writing desks and tables strewn with current
+magazines gave the place a club-like appearance.
+
+Dorothy and her newly found acquaintance stepped out of the elevator and
+looked about. The place seemed especially quiet after the rush and
+bustle on other floors, and was almost deserted, save for two elderly
+ladies conversing in low tones near a window, and a young man, who rose
+at their approach.
+
+As the good looking youth moved toward them with the lithe, easy grace
+of a trained athlete, Howard Bright saw that he had light brown hair,
+and blue eyes snapping with vitality and cheerfulness.
+
+"Hello, Dorothy!" He greeted her smilingly, "better late than never, if
+you don't mind my saying so. I'd just about figured you were going to
+pass up our date."
+
+"Sorry, Colonel," she mocked. "Explanations are in order I guess, but
+they can wait. This is Howard Bright, Bill--Howard, Mr. Bolton!"
+
+The two young men shook hands.
+
+"Bolton--Dixon?" Howard's tone was thoughtful. "Why!" he exclaimed
+suddenly. "You two are the flyers--the pair who won the endurance test
+with the Conway motor! I'm certainly glad to meet you both. The papers
+have been full of your doings. Well, this is a surprise! But you know,
+I'd got the impression that you were both older--"
+
+"I'm sixteen," smiled Dorothy. "Bill has me beat by a year."
+
+"How about lunch?" suggested Bill. He invariably changed the subject
+when his exploits were mentioned. People always enthused so, it
+embarrassed him. "You'll join us, of course, Mr. Bright?"
+
+"Thanks, Mr. Bolton. I really don't think I can butt in this way--"
+
+"There's no butting in about it," Dorothy interrupted. "Howard is
+engaged to my cousin, Janet Jordan, Bill. And Janet's in a lot of
+trouble. I've promised we'd do everything we can to help."
+
+Bill, after one look at Howard's worried face, sized up the situation
+instantly. "Why, of course," he said. "And we can't talk with any
+privacy in this place. I can see that whatever the trouble is, it's
+serious."
+
+"Janet's in desperate peril," Howard said huskily.
+
+"You said something about her escape when we met," Dorothy reminded him.
+"Has somebody kidnapped her? Have you any idea where she is?"
+
+"Yes, she's a prisoner. A prisoner in the Jordans' apartment on West
+93rd Street."
+
+"Then her father is away?"
+
+"No. He leaves tonight, I believe."
+
+"But, my goodness!--a girl can't be kidnapped and made a prisoner in her
+own home. Especially if her father is there. It doesn't sound possible."
+
+"I know it doesn't," admitted Howard desperately, "it sounds crazy. But
+it's the truth, just the same. She's in frightful danger."
+
+Dorothy looked horrified. "You mean that my uncle and Janet don't get on
+together--that they've had a row and you're afraid he will harm her?"
+
+"Oh, no, they're very fond of each other."
+
+"Then Uncle Michael is a prisoner, too!"
+
+"No, he is free enough himself, but he can do nothing--it would only
+make matters worse."
+
+"Well!" declared Dorothy, "I don't think much of Uncle Michael if he
+can't protect his own daughter."
+
+Bill stepped into the breach.
+
+"What about the police--can't you call them in?"
+
+Howard Bright shook his head. "They would only bring this horrible
+business to a climax," he explained. "And that is exactly what must not
+be done. It is more a matter for Secret Service investigation--but I
+don't think that even they could be of any real help."
+
+Bill and Dorothy exchanged a quick glance.
+
+"Have you ever heard of a man named Ashton Sanborn, Mr. Bright?"
+
+"Yes, I have, Mr. Bolton. Wasn't he the detective who helped you unearth
+that fiendish scheme of old Professor Fanely?"[1]
+
+"Bull's eye!" grinned Bill. "Only Ashton Sanborn is quite a lot more
+than a mere detective. And it so happens that he is over at the Waldorf
+right now, waiting for Dorothy and me to lunch with him. Let me tell
+you, Bright, it's a mighty lucky thing for Janet Jordan that he is in
+town. Come along. We'll hop a taxi and be with him in ten minutes."
+
+Howard hung back. "But really--"
+
+Dorothy caught his arm. "Don't be silly, now," she urged.
+
+"But I can't call in a detective, Dorothy. I know I'm rotten at
+explaining, but if these devils who have Janet in their power are
+interfered with they will kill her out of hand!"
+
+"But you spoke of the Secret Service just now. This is not for
+publication, but Mr. Sanborn is the head of that branch of the
+government. If anyone _can_ help Janet, he can do it."
+
+"I doubt it. I admit I'm half crazy with worry, but Janet is going to be
+removed from the apartment tonight, and heaven only knows what will
+happen then. It takes days, generally weeks, to get the government
+started on anything."
+
+"Not Sanborn's branch of it," interrupted Bill. "We're talking in
+circles, Bright. If Sanborn can't help Janet, he'll tell you so. At
+least you can give him the dope and find out. He's an expert and you'll
+get expert advice."
+
+"All right, I'll go with you. But I'm afraid it won't do any good.
+Please don't think, though, that I'm not appreciating the interest
+you're taking. I don't mean to be a wet blanket."
+
+"Of course you don't, and you're not." Dorothy led toward the staircase.
+"You'll feel a whole lot better when you get the story off your chest."
+
+"And when you've got outside a good substantial lunch," added Bill. "I
+know I shall, anyway."
+
+"That," said Dorothy, "is just like a boy. I believe you'd eat a good
+meal, Bill, an hour before you were hung, if it were offered to you."
+
+"I'd be hanged if I didn't," he laughed and followed her down the steps
+onto the main floor.
+
+-----
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  See Bill Bolton and The Winged Cartwheels.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter II
+
+                            "FAMILY AFFAIRS"
+
+
+"Just--one--moment, please!" Ashton Sanborn's keen blue eyes twinkled as
+he surveyed his young guests. His heavy-set body moved with a muscular
+grace as he placed a chair for Dorothy and motioned the two boys to
+seats on a divan nearby. "Now then, Dorothy and Bill--I want you two
+chatterboxes to keep quiet while I ask Mr. Bright some questions and get
+this matter straight in my own head. Your turn to talk will come later."
+His quizzical smile robbed the words of any harshness, and the culprits
+grinned and nodded their willingness to comply with his request.
+
+"Mr. Bright," he went on, "if you'll just answer my questions for the
+present, I'll get you to tell the story from the beginning in a few
+minutes."
+
+"It's mighty decent of you to take all this interest, Mr. Sanborn."
+
+The Secret Service Man shook his prematurely grey head--"It's my
+business to ferret things out. Now, as I understand it, you mistook
+Dorothy for her cousin, Miss Jordan, to whom you are engaged. The
+likeness must be amazing?"
+
+"It is, sir."
+
+"Yes--well, we'll get back to the likeness after a while. You say that
+Miss Jordan is a prisoner in her father's apartment, and is in danger of
+her life?"
+
+"Yes, sir." Howard, tense and taut as a fiddle string, his hands
+gripping the edge of the cushioned couch, gazed steadily back at his
+questioner.
+
+"Do you know for certain that she is in actual danger at the present
+moment, Bright?" Ashton Sanborn's quiet tone and unhurried manner of
+speaking was gradually gaining the young man's confidence. Bill and
+Dorothy noticed that Howard's strained look was beginning to disappear,
+and he had started to relax.
+
+"She has been in great danger," he replied, "but now, they've decided to
+test her. There isn't a chance, though, that she will pass the test, Mr.
+Sanborn. The poor girl is so worn out and nervous she's bound to fail."
+
+"Do you know what time she is to be taken away from the apartment?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Lawson told her to pack her clothes today, so as to be ready
+to leave at midnight."
+
+"Mmm!" Sanborn glanced at his watch. "It is now one-thirty. That gives
+us exactly eleven and a half hours in which to get her out of their
+hands. Now just one question more, Mr. Bright. What made you say that
+this is a matter in which the so-called Secret Service of the United
+States should be called in, rather than the police?"
+
+"Well," Howard's brows knit in a puzzled frown, "you see, Janet is being
+taken to Dr. Tyson Winn's house near Ridgefield, Connecticut, tonight.
+As I understand it, Dr. Winn has a big laboratory up there where he is
+experimenting on high explosives for the government. Lawson, the man who
+told Janet she was to go there, is Dr. Winn's secretary. It all looks so
+queer to me--I thought--"
+
+"That _is_ interesting!" Ashton Sanborn's tone was serious and for a
+little while he seemed lost in thought. Then abruptly he looked up from
+an inspection of his finger tips, and rose from his chair. "I ordered
+lunch for three before you young people arrived," he said with a return
+of his cheerful, hearty way of speaking. "Now I'll phone down and have
+lunch for four served up here instead." He looked at Dorothy. "By the
+way, the menu calls for oyster cocktails, sweetbreads on grilled
+mushrooms, O'Brien potatoes, alligator pear salad, and cafe parfait--any
+suggestions?"
+
+"Oh, aren't you a dear!" Dorothy, who had been using a miniature powder
+puff on her nose, snapped shut the cover of her compact. "You have
+ordered all the things I like best. No wonder you're a great
+detective--you never forget a single thing, no matter what it is."
+
+Sanborn laughed. "Thanks for the compliment--but those dishes happen to
+be favorites of my own, too. Now get that brain of yours working,
+Dorothy. When I've finished with the head waiter, I want you to tell us
+all you know about your uncle and cousin. Before we can go further I
+must have every possible detail of the case at my fingers' ends."
+
+He took up a phone from a small table near the window, and Dorothy
+turned toward Howard.
+
+"You probably know more about the Jordans than I do," she said. "I have
+a picture of Janet that she sent me a couple of years ago. We always
+exchange presents at Christmas--but we've never seen each other."
+
+"I really know very little about the Jordans, myself," protested Howard.
+"You see, Janet and I saw each other for the first time just five weeks
+ago. It was on a Sunday afternoon, I'd been taking a walk in Central
+Park, when one of those equinoctial downpours came on very suddenly.
+Janet was right ahead of me, so naturally, I offered her my umbrella.
+She's--well, rather shy and retiring, and at first she wasn't so keen on
+accepting--"
+
+"So there _is_ a difference between the cousins!" Bill winked at Howard.
+"If it had been Dorothy, she'd have taken your overcoat and rubbers as
+well. Nothing shy or retiring about Janet's double!"
+
+"Is that so, Mr. Smarty! It's a good thing Howard met her that rainy
+Sunday. If it had been you, Bill, the poor girl would certainly have got
+a soaking!"
+
+"You mean she wouldn't have accepted my umbrella?"
+
+"I _mean_ you never would have offered it!"
+
+"You win--one up, Dorothy," said Ashton Sanborn when the laughter at
+this sally had subsided. "What happened after you and Janet got under
+your umbrella, Bright?"
+
+"Oh, nothing much. We walked over to Central Park West but there were no
+taxis to be had for love or money. So then I suggested taking her home
+and we found we lived in the same apartment house. I asked if I might
+call, but she said that was impossible--that Mr. Jordan permitted no
+callers."
+
+"Well," said Dorothy, "that didn't seem to stop you. I mean you are a
+pretty fast worker, Howard, to get engaged with a tyrant father guarding
+the doorstep and all that."
+
+"Cut it out, Dot," broke in Bill, who had been waiting patiently for a
+chance to get even. "You can't be in the center of the stage all the
+time, and your remarks are out of order, anyway."
+
+"I'll dot you one, if you take my name in vain, young man!"
+
+"Silence, woman! Go ahead, Howard, and speak your piece, or she'll jump
+in with both feet next time."
+
+Dorothy said nothing but the glance she shot Bill Bolton was a promise
+of dire things to come.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind," grinned Howard, and Dorothy immediately put him down
+as a good sport. "Well, to go on with it--we used to meet in the lobby,
+go for walks and bus rides, sometimes to the movies or a matinee. Two
+weeks ago, Janet, who is just eighteen, by the way, said she would marry
+me. She seemed to have no friends in New York. I've seen her father, but
+never met him. Except for this horrible business, which came up a few
+days ago, all that I know about Janet is that her mother died when she
+was five, her father parked her at a boarding-school near Chicago, and
+she stayed there until last June when she graduated. Her summer holidays
+were spent at a girls' camp in Wisconsin. She was never allowed to visit
+the homes of the other girls, so Christmas and Easter holidays she
+stayed in the school. During her entire schooling, she saw her father
+only five times. Last summer he took her abroad with him. They travelled
+in Germany and in Russia, I believe."
+
+"Gosh, what a life for a girl!" exploded Bill.
+
+"I should say so!" Dorothy made no attempt to hide her disgust. "The
+more I hear about Uncle Michael, the less I care about him."
+
+"Tell us what you do know about him," prompted Sanborn. "I want to get
+all the background possible before Bright explains the girl's present
+predicament. I know a good deal about Dr. Winn and his secretary. If
+those men are threatening her, there must be something very serious
+brewing. Go ahead, Dorothy--luncheon will be up here any minute, now."
+
+"All right, but I warn you it isn't much. My mother, who as you know
+died when I was a little girl, had one sister, my Aunt Edith, who was
+her twin. They looked so much alike that their own father and mother had
+trouble in telling them apart. Aunt Edith fell in love with a young
+Irishman named Michael Jordan, whom she met at a dance. He seemed
+prosperous, and my grandfather gave his consent to their engagement.
+Then he learned that Michael Jordan made his money by selling arms and
+ammunition to South and Central American revolutionists. Grandpa, from
+all accounts, hit the ceiling. He was a deacon of the church, very
+sedate and all that, and he said he wouldn't allow his daughter to marry
+a gun-runner. And that was that. To make a long story short, Aunt Edith
+ran away with Michael Jordan. They were married in New York, sent
+Grandpa a copy of the marriage certificate, and then sailed for South
+America. For several years there was no word from them at all. My
+mother, whose name was Janet, by the way, loved Aunt Edith as only a
+twin can love the other. But she couldn't write to her because the
+eloping couple had left no address. Six years later, mother had a letter
+from Uncle Michael. He was in Chicago then, and he wrote that Aunt Edith
+had died, and that he had placed little Janet at the Pence School in
+Evanston. Mother and Daddy went right out to Chicago, to see Uncle
+Michael. They tried to get him to let them take Janet home with them,
+and bring her up with me. I was only three at the time, so naturally I
+don't remember anything about it. But what I'm telling you Daddy told to
+me years later. Well, their trip to Chicago was all for nothing--Uncle
+Michael refused to let them have Janet. It almost broke my mother's
+heart. Well, and that is the reason Janet and I have always given each
+other presents at Christmas and on our birthdays, although we've never
+even met. Two years ago, she sent me her photograph, and both Daddy and
+I were astounded to see the resemblance to me. Twice, since then, I've
+been taken for Janet by girls who were at school with her at Evanston.
+Perhaps, if we were seen together, you'd be able to tell us apart--I
+don't know."
+
+"I do, though," declared Howard, "you may be slightly broader across the
+shoulders, Dorothy, but otherwise you might be Janet, sitting there.
+You've the same brown hair, grey eyes, your features are alike--"
+
+"How about our voices?"
+
+"Exactly the same. You have a more forceful way of speaking, that's all.
+I keep wanting to call you 'Janet' all the time." Howard turned his head
+away, and Dorothy could see the emotion that again overtook him as he
+thought of his helpless little fiancee, a prisoner in the hands of
+unscrupulous men.
+
+She glanced at Bill, and shook her head in sympathy. Just then there
+came a knock on the sitting room door.
+
+"Ah! lunch at last!" Ashton Sanborn rose and put his hand on Howard's
+shoulder. "Come, no more of this now. The subject of the double cousins
+is taboo until we've all done justice to this excellent meal!"
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter III
+
+                            THE SLEEPWALKER
+
+
+"Mr. Sanborn," said Dorothy, "when you're tired of fathoming mysteries
+for people, come out to New Canaan and help me order meals. That was the
+most scrumptious lunch I've had in a month of Sundays." She dropped a
+lump of sugar in her demitasse and threw her host a bright smile across
+the table.
+
+"Thank you, my dear," the detective smiled back. "I may take you up on
+that one of these days. But speaking of mysteries reminds me that now
+the waiter is gone, it's high time we busied ourselves again with the
+affairs of Janet Jordan. Now that I understand something of the young
+lady's background and her family, I want to hear all there is to tell
+about her present position." He pulled a briar pipe and tobacco pouch
+out of his pocket and commenced to fill the one with the contents of the
+other. "All ready, Howard. Start at the beginning and don't skimp on
+details--they may be and they generally are important."
+
+"Very well, sir. I'll begin with a week ago today." Howard pushed his
+chair away from the table, thrust his hands into trouser pockets and
+jumped into his story. "Janet had a date to meet me last Thursday at
+two p. m. at the Strand. We intended to take in a movie--but she never
+showed up."
+
+"Then you aren't a business man--?" This from the detective.
+
+"Oh, but I am--a mining engineer, Mr. Sanborn. With the Tuthill
+Corporation. But I am free on Thursday afternoons, instead of Saturday.
+It is more convenient for the office staff."
+
+"Hasn't your concern large mining concessions in Peru?"
+
+"It has, sir--silver mines. To make matters worse--but no--I'll tell it
+this way. I particularly wanted to meet Janet last Thursday, because I
+had been told the day before by the head of our New York office that I
+was to be transferred to Lima, Peru. The boat that I'm scheduled to sail
+on, leaves this coming Saturday. I was fearfully pepped up about it. I'm
+going down there as assistant manager of our Lima office, the job
+carries a considerable increase in salary, and, if I make good, a fine
+future with the firm. My plan was to get Janet to marry me, with or
+without her father's consent, and to take her to Lima with me. I
+couldn't bear to think of leaving her to the kind of existence she'd had
+before I'd known her--and with no way of correspondence--Well, I waited
+for over an hour in the lobby of the theatre but she didn't come. At
+last I went up to my apartment."
+
+"Why didn't you phone her?" asked Dorothy, who was nothing if not
+direct.
+
+"Because Janet had asked me never to do that. She said if her father
+knew she had a boy friend, he'd pack her off somewhere, and we'd never
+be able to meet again."
+
+"Nice papa--I don't think!" observed Bill Bolton.
+
+"No comments now, please," said Sanborn. "Go on, Howard. If you couldn't
+talk to Janet, how did you find out that she was a prisoner?"
+
+Howard smiled. "But we _were_ able to talk to each other, Mr. Sanborn.
+About the time we became engaged, I fixed that. My small flat is on the
+ninth floor of the building, the Jordans' on the seventh. My three rooms
+have windows on an air shaft. The Jordans' back bedroom and bath
+overlook the same airshaft and are directly opposite my sitting room,
+two flights below. The shaft is only twenty feet wide, so I bought one
+of those headphone sets that are used in airplanes for conversation
+between the cockpits of a plane while it is being flown. I lengthened
+the wires of course, and got a long, collapsible pole. After dark, Janet
+would come to her window, I'd pass her headphone set down to her, hooked
+on to the end of the pole, and we would hold long conversations across
+the court without anybody being the wiser. When we were through talking,
+I'd pass the pole over to her and draw it back when she'd attached her
+headset."
+
+"By Jingoes!" cried Bill. "I'll say that's clever!"
+
+"It sure is, Howard!" Dorothy was quite as enthusiastic. "You certainly
+deserve to get Janet after that."
+
+Howard shook his head. "We'll have to do something really clever to get
+her away from the bunch who are holding her prisoner. Well,--as I say,
+when I got to my flat, I sat down by my sitting room window, and
+pretended to read a book. In reality, of course, I was watching Janet's
+window. Presently she appeared. Even at that distance, I could see that
+she had been crying. She held up a slate, for we never dared to use the
+headphones in the day time, and slates are a good medium for short
+messages. On it she had written, '_After dark._' Well, that was one of
+the longest afternoons I'd ever put in. About five-thirty, she came back
+to her window and I passed over the headgear. When I heard her story, I
+went half crazy, and I guess I've been pretty much that way ever since.
+
+"You see, Mr. Sanborn, Janet has told me that occasionally she walks in
+her sleep, especially when she isn't feeling very well. The evening
+before, that was a week ago Wednesday night, she had a headache and went
+to bed early. When she awoke, she was terrified to find herself seated
+on the floor of their living room, behind a large Chinese screen. There
+seemed to be seven or eight men in the room, including her father. Of
+course, she could not see them, but she could hear every word they said.
+By the clock on the wall above her head, she saw that it was one in the
+morning. She soon realized that this was a meeting of the heads of some
+large society or organization and that these men had come there from all
+parts of the world. There was an air of mystery about them and their
+talk. No names were mentioned but they addressed each other by number.
+Mr. Jordan was Number 5; Number 2, who spoke with a foreign accent, was
+evidently conducting the meeting, in place of the absent Number 1, whom
+they all seemed to hold in great awe. Janet realized that she must have
+entered the room before the meeting started, while she was still asleep.
+She saw that so long as the meeting lasted, there would be no way of
+escape. Gradually she became terrified at her predicament, and--"
+
+"Just a moment," interrupted Ashton Sanborn. "Has Janet ever told you
+anything of her father's business?"
+
+"She really knows nothing about it, Mr. Sanborn. I asked her myself some
+time ago, and she said then, except that he seemed to travel a lot, she
+hadn't the slightest idea what he did for a living. Once when she asked
+him outright what is was, Mr. Jordan flew into a rage. He said it was
+his own affair, and that so long as it brought them in enough money to
+live comfortably, he did not wish her to bring up the matter again. The
+one thing she does know is that he doesn't go regularly to an office.
+Men frequently come to see him at the apartment, but their conversations
+are invariably held behind locked doors."
+
+"I see. Go on now, with Janet and the meeting."
+
+"Well, sir, as I've said, she was behind that screen, listening to what
+the men said--and in fact, she couldn't help listening. Not that she
+understood much of what they were saying. Number 2 made a long speech
+and the gist of it was that now they were agreed upon the use of Formula
+X, the demonstration (whatever that was) must be made in their
+respective sectors at the same time on the same day. He also proposed
+that Number 5 (Janet's father) interview Number 1 and learn from him
+when the demonstrations should be made. This motion was carried
+unanimously. Then Number 3 asked the chairman if they could not in
+future hold their meeting in some safer place than the Jordans'
+apartment. 'For all we know,' he said, 'someone may be secreted behind
+that screen!' Mr. Jordan laughed at this, and told Number 3 to close up
+the screen if it made him nervous. So the first thing Janet knew, the
+screen was dragged aside and she was staring into the face of a
+Chinaman. Seated in a circle behind him were the others, her father
+among them."
+
+"Gosh!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I'll bet that scared the poor kid silly."
+
+"It did," admitted Howard. "She was absolutely petrified. And then there
+was the dickens to pay. All the men started talking at once. The
+Chinaman pulled a revolver and pointed it straight at her, yelling that
+she had heard their secrets and must be immediately executed!"
+
+"'She has heard nothing!' her father told them. 'She frequently walks in
+her sleep. She was asleep when she wandered in here before the meeting,
+and she is sleeping now--look!' Then he lit a match and held the flame
+before Janet's eyes. 'You see,' he said, 'she doesn't even blink. Janet
+has heard nothing, gentlemen.'"
+
+"Of course Janet had taken her father's hint, and followed it. She knew
+that he was doing the only thing he could to save her life, so she kept
+right on staring in front of her without moving, while the Chinaman held
+the automatic within a foot of her head. But the strain she was under
+nearly broke her nerve. She knew that the slightest sign on her part
+that she was conscious would mean a bullet through her brain. A furious
+argument followed. Most of the men--there were eight of them including
+Mr. Jordan--wanted her put out of the way at once. But at last, her
+father and Number 2, a big man with a long beard who seemed to be more
+humane than the rest, prevailed upon them to let him lead her back to
+her bed. Her father was forbidden to hold any intercourse with her
+whatsoever. She was locked in her bedroom, afraid even to cry, for fear
+she would be heard, and not knowing what moment the door would open and
+they would drag her to her death."
+
+"Horrible!" Mr. Sanborn's pipe had gone out but he didn't seem to notice
+it. "That experience was enough to unhinge a person's mind. Janet may be
+shy and retiring, but she evidently doesn't lack grit. By the way, did
+she say she recognized any of the men at the meeting?"
+
+"No. She said that without exception she was sure she'd never seen any
+of them before, although they were all on good terms with her father.
+Each one seemed to be of a different nationality. One was a black man
+who wore a turban--an East Indian, probably. Another, also pretty dark,
+wore a red fez. The others were apparently Europeans, but as they all
+spoke English together she had no way of guessing what they were. Number
+2, the man with the long brown beard, she thought might be a
+Scandinavian. She was sure, though, that her father was the only
+American or Anglo-Saxon in the group."
+
+"Tell us what happened next morning," proposed Dorothy. Her coffee, now
+cold, remained untasted in the cup.
+
+"I'm getting to that. At eight o'clock her door was unlocked and a
+woman, a stranger to her, came into her bedroom with a breakfast tray.
+She put the tray on a table and went into the bathroom and turned on the
+water for Janet's bath, then left the room and locked the door after
+her. At nine this same woman came back, brought some books and magazines
+to her, made up the bed and put the room straight. Whenever Janet spoke
+to her, she shook her head and put her finger to her lips. But Janet
+said that even now she doesn't know whether the woman is actually dumb
+or only acting under orders. She has brought and taken away her meals
+ever since, but she has never been able to get her to speak."
+
+"But how did she find out about going to Dr. Winn's house?" asked Bill
+Bolton, who had shown an interest quite as keen as Dorothy's or
+Sanborn's.
+
+Howard Bright drank a glass of water. "I'm getting to that part now," he
+explained. "I'm not much of a story teller and I seem to be taking an
+awful time to get through this one--but I'm doing my best just the
+same."
+
+"Of course you are!" Dorothy motioned Bill to keep quiet. "You're doing
+noble, Howard! Pay no attention to that goof over there."
+
+"O.K., Dorothy." Howard replaced his empty glass on the table. "At about
+noon of the first day of Janet's imprisonment in her room, the door was
+unlocked and Mr. Lawson came in. She knew him as a friend of her
+father's who had dined with them two or three times. She had always
+thought him quite a jolly sort of chap and knew that he was private
+secretary to Dr. Winn, the celebrated chemist. Naturally, she felt
+rather relieved to see him, and she opened up on him at once. She still
+felt that her only hope for life and freedom was to pretend absolute
+ignorance of the happenings of the night before. And she managed to keep
+up that pretense before Lawson, though what he had to do with the affair
+she hadn't any idea, nor does she yet know where he comes into the
+picture. Anyway, he wasn't at the meeting. She let him know, though,
+that she was very indignant and astonished to find herself kept a
+prisoner, and demanded to see her father. Lawson, she told me, was most
+affable and kind to her. He said that she of course did not realize that
+she had been very ill during the night and that she was now under
+doctor's orders. He also told her that her father had been called away
+on business, so he had come to her as an old friend of the family, to be
+of any help that he could. Janet said that his sympathy almost
+undermined her suspicion--she almost confided in him. But luckily, she
+didn't. He has been to see her every day since, and she is now convinced
+that his part in this devilish scheme is to gain her confidence, and to
+find out whether she actually did hear or see anything at the meeting.
+Yesterday he told her that it had been decided she should visit him and
+his wife at Dr. Winn's house while her father is away, and that in order
+to occupy her mind, she should act as secretary to Mrs. Lawson, who
+assists Dr. Winn in his work."
+
+"Maybe they don't really mean to harm her after all," said Dorothy
+hopefully.
+
+"Janet is certain," said Howard, "that they want her at the Doctor's for
+close observation. She took a secretarial course at school, so that part
+of it is all right, but I believe with her that one slip, one sign that
+she is deceiving them, will mean that she will simply vanish and never
+be heard of again. She knows that Lawson lied about one thing: her
+father is still living in their flat. She has heard his voice several
+times."
+
+"But what I can't understand," said Dorothy, "is why, just as soon as
+you knew all this, you didn't go to the nearest police station and have
+that flat raided!"
+
+"Because, Janet won't hear of it." Howard's tone was thoroughly
+wretched. "I worked out some other plans to release her, but she refuses
+to budge."
+
+"Is the girl crazy?" This from Bill.
+
+"No--she's as sane as any of us--maybe saner. She says that if the
+police are called in or I help her to escape, that crew will believe her
+father knew all the time that she was faking--as of course he does. And
+she says she is sure they will have him killed out of hand, once they
+discover that. To make matters worse, if possible, my firm thinks I'm
+going to sail for Lima the day after tomorrow! If I turn them down, I'll
+lose my job here and ruin my future. I've been hoping against hope that
+something would turn up so Janet could sail with me. I certainly shall
+not sail without her. I was buying some clothes for the trip when I ran
+into you this morning--" Howard's voice trailed off hopelessly.
+
+"Gee!" It was evident that Dorothy was not far from tears. "You poor
+dears are in an awful fix! I do wish I could help you. Do
+_something_--so that you two could get married and sail for Peru!"
+
+"Perhaps you can." Ashton Sanborn knocked the ashes from his pipe into
+an ash tray.
+
+"_How?_" shouted three voices simultaneously.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter IV
+
+                              MEET FLASH!
+
+
+"Dorothy, have you ever done anything in the way of amateur
+theatricals?" Ashton Sanborn stroked the bowl of his pipe reflectively.
+
+"Why--er--yes, a little." She looked a bit bewildered. "I've been in the
+Silvermine Sillies for the past two years."
+
+Sanborn nodded. "How is it you're out of school on a Thursday?" The
+question seemed irrelevant. He was leaning back in his chair now,
+surveying the ceiling rather absently, but there was nothing
+lackadaisical about his crisp tones.
+
+"Christmas holidays. Why?"
+
+"Because, if you're willing, I may want you to work for me for a few
+days. I suppose I can reach your father by telephone at the New Canaan
+bank?"
+
+"No, you can't--Daddy is down in Florida on a fishing trip. He's on Mr.
+Bolton's yacht, somewhere off the coast. They won't be back until
+Christmas Eve."
+
+"That," said the Secret Service man, "complicates matters. Who, may I
+ask, is looking after Miss Dixon while Mr. Dixon is away?"
+
+"I'm looking after my own sweet self, sir." Dorothy grinned roguishly.
+
+"Then who is to take the responsibility for your actions, young lady?"
+
+"Why, you may--if you want to!"
+
+For a moment or two the detective studied her thoughtfully. There was a
+certain assurance about this girl's manner, a steely quality that came
+sometimes into her grey eyes, an indefinable air of strength and quiet
+courage--
+
+"Do you think you could impersonate your cousin, Dorothy?"
+
+"Why--of course!" Dorothy showed her surprise. "We look exactly alike.
+Didn't Howard take me for Janet?"
+
+"He did--but from what he has told us about her, your natures are
+entirely different. Janet, from all accounts, is a rather meek and
+demure young lady. Remember, that in order to convince anyone who knows
+her you would have to submerge your own personality in hers. And nobody
+would ever describe _you_ as a meek, demure young lady!"
+
+"An untamed wildcat--if you ask me," chuckled Bill.
+
+"Why, thanks a lot, William!" Dorothy's hearers were abruptly aware of
+the changed quality of her voice as she continued to speak in melting
+tones of pained acceptance. "But nobody _did_ ask you, darling, so in
+future when your betters are conversing, be good enough to button up
+that lip of yours!" She finished her withering tirade in the same quiet
+tones and with a positively shrinking demeanor that sent the others into
+shouts of laughter.
+
+"Say, you're Janet to a T!" cried Howard. "Her voice is always like that
+if I happen to hurt her feelings."
+
+"How about her hair, Howard? Is it long or short?"
+
+"Oh, she wears it bobbed like yours."
+
+"I suppose," Dorothy said to Mr. Sanborn, "that you want to smuggle me
+into the flat and have me change places with her?"
+
+"That's the idea exactly," admitted the detective. "And I don't want you
+to make your decision until I explain my plan in detail--or, rather, the
+necessity for the risk you will be taking."
+
+"Shoot--" said Miss Dixon, "but I can tell you right now, risk or no
+risk, I'm going through with it. Janet, after all she's been through and
+from what Howard has told us, is bound to flop once she gets to Dr.
+Winn's. Nervous, and probably high strung, the chances are against her
+being able to hold up under the strain."
+
+"I think you are right about that. But although Janet is in serious
+danger, she could be rescued and her father guarded without bringing you
+into the picture, Dorothy, if it were not for one thing. These men who
+hold Janet in their custody are in some way mixed up with Dr. Winn, who
+has undertaken to make some very important experiments for the United
+States government."
+
+"I make a bet that he is Number 1 of the gang!" ventured Bill, the
+irrepressible.
+
+"Very possibly. That has yet to be discovered. But what I want you young
+people to realize is that this is no ordinary gang. Quite evidently we
+are up against an international organization. Their treatment of Janet
+is concrete evidence of their cold-blooded ruthlessness when they
+believe their plans to be in jeopardy. If you take your cousin's place,
+Dorothy, of course we will see that you are well guarded, but even so,
+your part in clearing up this mystery will entail a very great element
+of risk."
+
+"I'm willing to take the chance." Dorothy met his inquiring eyes
+steadily. "Naturally, I'm sorry for Janet and I want to help her. The
+only thing is, I've got to be back at High School by January fourth."
+
+"I think I can promise you that this job will be cleaned up within a
+week."
+
+"I reckon," smiled Bill, "that you haven't told us all you know about
+these lads with numbers instead of names."
+
+"Not quite all." Sanborn smiled back at him. "But that is neither here
+nor there just now. By the way, Dorothy, how are you on shorthand and
+typewriting?"
+
+"Oh, not so worse. It's part of the course I'm taking at New Canaan
+High."
+
+"Good enough. Frankly, young lady, I would not consider using you, had
+not the New Canaan Bank robbery, the affair of the Mystery Plane and the
+Conway Case proved conclusively that you have a decided flair for this
+kind of thing."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Miss Dixon with mock coyness. "Them kind words is
+a great comfort to a poor workin' goil. Do I pack a gat wid me, Mister?"
+
+"You do not. In fact, you will take nothing except what belongs to your
+cousin. If I am able to get you into the Jordan flat and they carry you
+up to Ridgefield in her place, just being Janet Jordan, who never woke
+up when she was sleepwalking last week will be your best protection. Of
+course, I'm not deserting you. Either I or some of my men will find
+means of keeping in touch with you constantly."
+
+"And when the villains scrag me, the secret service boys will arrive on
+the scene just in time--to identify the deceased! No thank you. If the
+gun is out of orders, Flash will have to go. Of course my jiu jitsu may
+help at a pinch, but Flash is more potent and ever so much quicker."
+
+"What are you talking about, Dorothy?" Ashton Sanborn looked puzzled.
+
+"It's a cinch you can't drag a dog along if that's your big idea,"
+declared Bill.
+
+"It is not the big idea, old thing." Dorothy grinned wickedly. "Flash
+and I have got very clubby this fall. He's really quite a dear, you
+know. We travel about together a lot."
+
+"The mystery of this age," observed Bill, "is how certain females can
+talk so much and say so little."
+
+"Then," said Dorothy cheerfully, "I'll let you solve the mystery right
+now. Catch!" She tossed him a macaroon from a plate on the table. "Go
+over to that bedroom door," she commanded. "Stand to one side of the
+door and throw that thing into the air."
+
+"But, I say, Dorothy!" interposed Ashton Sanborn. "This is no time for
+fooling, we've got--"
+
+"This is not fooling, you dear old fuss-budget," she cut in.
+"It's--well, it's just something that may save you from worrying so much
+about me. Now, Bill, are you ready?"
+
+"Anything to please the ladies," retorted that young man wearily. He got
+up and walked to the far end of the room and took his stand beside the
+closed door. "Is Flash a cake hound? Will he jump for the cookie?"
+
+"He sure will--toss it in the air."
+
+The small cake went spinning toward the ceiling, and at the same instant
+Dorothy's right hand disappeared under the table. With the speed of
+legerdemain she brought it into view again and her arm shot out suddenly
+like a signpost across the white cloth. There was a streak of silver
+light--and the three male members of the quartet stared at the bedroom
+door in open-mouthed wonder. Quivering in the very center of its upper
+panel was a small knife, and impaled on the knife's blade was the
+macaroon.
+
+"Meet Flash!" said Dorothy.
+
+"Great suffering snakes!" exploded Bill, plucking out the blade, and
+examining it. "The thing's a throwing knife."
+
+"Six inches of razor-keen, leaf-shaped blade," said Dorothy, "and three
+inches of carved ivory hilt, beautifully balanced--that's Flash. How do
+you like him, fellers?"
+
+"You," declared Howard, who was still goggle-eyed with surprise, "you
+are the most amazing girl I've ever met, Dorothy!"
+
+"And you don't know the half of it," said Bill with unstinted fervor.
+
+"Think I can take care of myself at a pinch, Uncle Sanborn?" Dorothy was
+laughing at the expression of astonishment on the detective's face.
+
+"You win, young lady." He chuckled softly. "After this I'll keep my
+worries for Doctor Winn and his friends. Who'd have thought you had
+anything like that up your sleeve!"
+
+"Not up my sleeve, old dear. A little leather sheath strapped just above
+my left knee is where Flash came from."
+
+"Regular Jesse James stuff, eh?" remarked Bill as he handed back the
+knife.
+
+"Oh, yeah?" Flash disappeared as quickly as he'd come, and Dorothy stood
+up. "What's on the boards, now, boss?" she asked sweetly.
+
+"Howard--" said Ashton Sanborn, "will you let me have the key to that
+apartment of yours? Thanks. Bill and I will need it this afternoon, and
+even if things go according to Hoyle, we'll be powerful busy. In the
+meantime, I've got a job for you and Dorothy." He took out his
+pocketbook and extracting a sheaf of bills, handed them to the girl.
+
+"You and Howard are going to have a busy afternoon, too. See that you're
+back here in time for dinner at seven, and--"
+
+"But what under the sky-blue canopy is all this?" Dorothy was thumbing
+the bills, counting them. "Why, I've never seen so much money--"
+
+"Use it to buy your cousin a trousseau. Have the things sent to Mrs.
+Howard Bright's apartment at this hotel. And remember, that when she
+arrives here, Janet will have nothing but the clothes she is wearing.
+You don't mind doing this, do you?"
+
+"Mind! Why, I'll love it!" Dorothy turned a dazzling smile on Howard,
+who was simply tongue-tied by the detective's announcement. "Isn't he
+swell, Howard? Isn't he some guy?"
+
+Ashton Sanborn laughed. "Don't thank me. Uncle Sam is paying, so you
+needn't bring back any change."
+
+Dorothy thrust the money into her purse. "Don't worry, old bean, I
+won't. So long, you two. Come on, Howard, we're going to have a
+beautiful afternoon!" She caught young Bright by the arm and whirled him
+across the room to the coat-rack. She jammed a bright green beret over
+her right ear and slung her leopard-cat coat onto her shoulders. "All
+set for Fifth Avenue!" she called out merrily as she preceded Howard out
+of the room.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter V
+
+                           ON SECRET SERVICE
+
+
+To say that Dorothy enjoyed her afternoon's shopping would be putting it
+mildly. Give any girl plenty of money and tell her to go out and buy an
+entire trousseau for herself--or even for somebody else--and watch her
+jump at the chance!
+
+Howard trailed along in more or less of a daze. This sudden change in
+his outlook; being drawn from the depths of despondency to the hope of a
+future with the girl he loved, and all in the space of a couple of
+hours, was a little too much for him to realize at once. Ever after, he
+had but a hazy recollection of that shopping tour. The afternoon seemed
+but a whirling maze of lingerie, stockings, street dresses, party
+frocks, coats, hats, shoes and accessories, upon which his advice was
+invariably asked, and never taken.
+
+They were bowling hotelwards in a taxi, jammed with cardboard boxes and
+packages of various shapes and sizes, before he returned to normal.
+
+"Whew!" he looked at Dorothy. "I should think you'd be dead!"
+
+She shook her head and laughed. "No girl ever gets tired of shopping,"
+she told him gaily. "Wait till you're married--you'll find out."
+
+"But what's the idea of bringing all these things back with us? I
+thought Mr. Sanborn said to have them sent."
+
+"He did--but I have a better idea. This is part of it. I'll tell you all
+about it when we get to the hotel. Keep still now--I want to go over the
+lists and see if I've forgotten anything!"
+
+Howard sighed in resignation.
+
+At the hotel desk they learned that Ashton Sanborn had not returned as
+yet, but had left word that they should go to his rooms. With the
+assistance of three bellboys, they piled themselves and their packages
+into the elevator.
+
+"Gee! This looks like the night before Christmas!" Howard dropped his
+hat and overcoat and stared at the boxes and bundles piled along the
+wall of the sitting room. "Janet certainly will be surprised when she
+sees all those things!"
+
+Dorothy pulled off her close-fitting little hat, and tossed it with her
+purse and coat onto the table. Then she sank into an easy-chair. "Well,
+I only hope she'll approve. My, this was a strenuous afternoon. You'd
+better sit down."
+
+Howard followed her advice. "You said it. But I know Janet--she'll be
+crazy about the things you've bought."
+
+"Oh, you boys are all alike." Dorothy yawned unashamedly.
+
+"I don't get you."
+
+"What I mean is that as soon as a fellow goes round with a girl for a
+while, he invariably says 'Oh yes, she'll like this,' or, 'she won't
+like that'."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred you guess wrong."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I think it's because girls like to do their own choosing. Especially
+when it comes to buying clothes. Well, anyway, I think the things are
+darling, and they'll be becoming, too. At least they look well on me."
+
+"Don't worry--those clothes will make her look like a million dollars."
+
+"I know they will. I'm tired, I guess." Dorothy yawned again and closed
+her eyes.
+
+Howard started to say something, thought better of it, yawned, and let
+his head pillow itself on the soft upholstery.
+
+Three quarters of an hour later, Ashton Sanborn and Bill Bolton marched
+into the room to find the two shoppers sound asleep in their respective
+chairs. The detective coughed discreetly and both the young people
+awoke.
+
+"I see that you've brought your spoils back with you," he smiled,
+pointing to the boxes and bundles. Dorothy stared at him, only half
+awake, then sat upright in her chair as she realized where she was.
+
+"Looks to me," said Bill, getting out of his overcoat, "as if she
+thought Janet was going to start a shop of her own. Why did you cart all
+the stuff back here instead of having it sent?"
+
+"Because, Mr. Inquisitive--well, just because. You and Howard run along
+now and prepare your handsome selves for dinner. The principles of this
+piece are going into conference now."
+
+"My _word_--" began Bill, but at a shake of the head from Sanborn, he
+took the still drowsy Howard by the arm and together they disappeared
+into the bedroom.
+
+"Pretty tough time you've had, I expect?" Mr. Sanborn's eyes twinkled,
+though his tone was grave.
+
+"Oh, but it was lots of fun," cried Dorothy. "Thanks to Uncle Sam, and
+Uncle Sanborn! And look here, I've got a great idea."
+
+"Which has to do with your bringing back the packages yourself?"
+
+"Quite right, it has. Do you think those boys can hear what we're
+saying?"
+
+"I doubt it, Dorothy--but Bill, as you probably guessed at the end of
+the affair of the Winged Cartwheels, is a full-fledged member of my
+organization and--"
+
+"Oh, I don't mind Bill," she interrupted in a low tone. "But Howard
+mustn't get wind of it. He might make a fuss."
+
+She rose from her chair and going over to the detective, began to
+whisper in his ear.
+
+"But that's impossible, Dorothy!" he protested, although he allowed a
+smile to come to his eyes. "And what's more, my dear, I'm afraid it
+would be illegal."
+
+"Oh, no, it wouldn't! Not if you--" And again she brought her lips close
+to his ear.
+
+"You're a young scamp!" he laughed as she ended. "But--well--you're
+doing a great deal for me, so--"
+
+"So you'll go downstairs and start telephoning right away!" she prompted
+eagerly.
+
+Ashton Sanborn held up his hands in mock despair. "Nieces," he declared,
+"should not badger hard-working old uncles. But since this niece has
+been a good girl today, Uncle will do as he's asked."
+
+"I shall never call you anything else but Uncle Sanborn, now," Dorothy
+cried delightedly.
+
+"Thanks, my child, and I'll do my best for you."
+
+"Angel uncles can do no more," she laughed.
+
+"Right-o. I'll be on my way, then. Come along in about fifteen minutes
+with Bill and Howard. I'll arrange for a table for dinner and meet you
+three in Peacock Alley." The detective caught up his hat and hurried out
+of the room.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although Mr. Sanborn was a perfect host, and did all he could to make
+that dinner entertaining, he confessed later that he would always
+consider it one of the few failures of an otherwise unblemished career.
+
+Notwithstanding the delicious food, the charm and beauty of the huge
+room with its lights and music and scores of well-dressed men and
+beautifully gowned women, the dinner was not a success. All three of the
+young people were too excited by thoughts of what would happen later to
+do justice to the meal. Dorothy, moreover, had the added annoyance of
+feeling that her tailored frock, smart enough for luncheon or shopping,
+was definitely not the thing to wear at dinner in a fashionable hotel.
+Each endeavored to be sprightly and at ease. But since they knew that
+the one thing they wanted to talk about was forbidden in public,
+conversation flagged. Upstairs at last in Mr. Sanborn's sitting room, he
+came directly to the point.
+
+"Now I know you're just rearing to go," he said. "And perhaps the sooner
+we get under way, the better." He turned to Bill. "You go ahead with
+Howard," he ordered. "Dorothy and I will follow you in about ten
+minutes. Go straight to the apartment. We'll meet you there."
+
+"O and likewise K, boss," Bill returned. "Get into your rubbers, Howard.
+And don't look so gloomy. You're on your way to meet your best girl,
+remember."
+
+When they had gone, Dorothy turned at once to the detective. "How about
+it, Uncle Sanborn?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"To quote Bill, 'O and likewise K,' niece."
+
+"Gee, you _are_ a dear!" Dorothy clapped her hands. "And now that that
+is that--I don't care what happens."
+
+"But I do, Dorothy." Ashton Sanborn was serious. "Listen to me, young
+lady. From now on you're working for the U. S. government, under me, and
+I must have my orders obeyed to the letter."
+
+"Yes, sir, I understand." Dorothy's tone was crisp and business-like.
+
+"Good. I let those chaps go ahead of us as there is no need of having us
+all arrive at that apartment house at the same time. This afternoon,
+Bill and I made all arrangements, so that you can change places with
+your cousin shortly after you arrive."
+
+Dorothy felt secretly proud that this keen-eyed secret service man took
+her at her word, and did not ask her again if she were really willing to
+go through with it. "May I ask you a question?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, suppose that after you manage to get me into Janet's room, she
+refuses to leave it. Do you want me to force her?"
+
+"Heavens, no." Sanborn laughed. "That has all been taken care of,
+Dorothy. I talked to your cousin by means of Howard's headphone set
+shortly after dark this afternoon. I explained the whole thing to her
+and when she understood that her father would be brought into no extra
+danger because of our plan, and that I had drafted you into becoming a
+secret service operative, she consented."
+
+"I'm glad of that," said Dorothy fervently. "She could easily have
+misunderstood and spoiled everything."
+
+"Well, we'll have a lot to do to put it over, even though Janet is
+willing. I persuaded her that by doing exactly what you told her, once
+you arrived, she would be serving her country like a loyal American.
+You, of course, will use your own judgment, when you see her. The
+principal thing is to change clothes and get her out the way you came
+just as soon as possible."
+
+"But how am I to get into the Jordans' apartment?"
+
+"Good soldiers, Dorothy, do not ask questions. There's no secret about
+it, but I've other things to tell you now. Lawson will probably come for
+you--or for Janet, as he will believe you to be. He is a tall, slender
+man, about thirty, rather good-looking, dark curly hair and a small
+mustache. Your Uncle Michael, if you should run into him, is heavy set
+and rather short. He has reddish hair, turning grey, and is clean
+shaven. Janet has never met either Doctor Winn, or Mrs. Lawson. Now just
+a word about the lady. She is a very beautiful and a very clever woman.
+Be on your guard with her, continually. I believe that the principal
+reason that you, or rather, Janet Jordan, will be taken to Ridgefield,
+is so that you may be studied at first hand by this woman. There is no
+need for me to tell you to keep up the Janet personality day and night.
+Incidentally, you will have only a very short time to study your cousin,
+so make the most of it. Well," he concluded, "I guess that's about all.
+You will receive further orders within the next day or two. In the
+meantime, simply carry on as Janet Jordan. I am taking a great
+responsibility in letting you go, my dear. For I won't hide the fact
+that you'd probably be safer in a den of rattlesnakes than in the same
+house with Mr. and Mrs. Lawson."
+
+"I'm not afraid, you know," said Dorothy simply and smiled up at him.
+
+"I know you're not. But it would really be better if you were. For then
+you'd be much more careful, and you must watch your step every minute
+until I get you out of it. Here's your coat. Slip into it and we'll get
+going. The sooner I get you safely into Janet's room, and that young
+lady out of it, the easier will your Uncle Sanborn feel."
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter VI
+
+                               WHO'S WHO?
+
+
+The December evening was cold and wet as Dorothy and Ashton Sanborn
+crossed the sidewalk and entered their taxi-cab. The day had been a
+dreary one, and now a dense, drizzling fog lay low upon the great city.
+Dun-colored clouds drooped over a muddy Park Avenue as they were swept
+up town. On the side streets the electrics were but misty splotches of
+diffused light which threw feeble circular glimmers upon the slimy
+pavements. The yellow glare from shopwindows streamed out into the
+chill, vaporous air, and threw a murky, shifting radiance across the
+crowded thoroughfare. To Dorothy there was something eerie and ghostlike
+in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow
+bars of light. She was not in any respect a timid girl, but the dull,
+heavy evening, and the prospect of the strange venture in which they
+were engaged, combined to make her feel nervous and depressed.
+
+At 59th street the taxi turned west and rolled steadily along the
+shining black asphalt, stopping now and then for the red lights. They
+crossed 5th Avenue and swung into Central Park. Dorothy caught glimpses
+of the gaunt shapes of trees in silhouette against the cold fog. She
+closed her eyes and resolutely turned her thoughts to the events of the
+afternoon.
+
+So engrossed had she become in the contemplation of her delightful
+buying orgy that she was surprised when their cab pulled up with a jerk
+and Ashton Sanborn opened the door.
+
+"Muffle up in your fur collar, Dorothy," he said. "The fewer people who
+see your face, the better."
+
+Now that the ordeal had arrived, Dorothy's nervousness vanished. She
+buried the lower part of her face in the soft fur collar and walked at
+Mr. Sanborn's side into the lobby of the apartment house.
+
+A darkey in brass buttoned uniform stood by the elevator. Two shining
+rows of white teeth flashed in a smile of greeting for the detective.
+
+"All the way up, George." Mr. Sanborn gave the order as the car started
+upward.
+
+"Yaas, suh, boss, I understand." George smiled again, and presently the
+elevator stopped.
+
+With Mr. Sanborn in the lead, Dorothy walked along a corridor and up a
+narrow flight of stairs. The detective opened a door at the top and the
+damp cold of the night swept in upon them. A moment later they were
+crossing the flat roof of the apartment house toward a small group who
+stood near the parapet at the roof's edge. As they drew nearer, she saw
+that the group awaiting them was composed of Bill Bolton, Howard, and a
+stranger. They were standing beside a small crane.
+
+The secret service man nodded a greeting and turned to Dorothy. "We are
+directly above Janet's window, which is three flights below," he said
+quietly, and glanced at the luminous dial of his wrist-watch.
+
+"And you're going to let me down with the auto-crane?" she asked with
+just a tremor of excitement in her voice.
+
+"That's the idea. It's perfectly safe. Bill tested it this afternoon."
+
+Dorothy gave a little laugh. "Oh, I'm not scared, Uncle Sanborn."
+
+"I know you aren't, my dear."
+
+"When do I take off?"
+
+"Whenever you're ready."
+
+"All set now, then, please."
+
+"Good. You'll go in a minute. Here are last instructions. You will seat
+yourself in that swinging seat that Bill is holding. The cable to which
+it is attached runs through the pulley at the end of the crane's arm.
+This building is nine stories high. The Jordans' flat is on the seventh
+floor, you remember, so Janet's window is the third one down." He moved
+to the low parapet and leaned over. "The window is dark, so everything
+is O.K.," he said, coming back to her. "Pull your seat in with you when
+you enter, Dorothy, and pull down the shade, of course, when the light
+is turned on. When Janet is ready, switch off the light again and have
+her give a couple of pulls on this guide rope." He placed the rope in
+her hand. "Then we will hoist her up. Ready for your hop now?"
+
+"Yes, thanks."
+
+"Good luck, then. And remember that although you may not see us, I or
+some of my men will be near you all the time."
+
+Dorothy shook hands with her three friends and stepped into her swinging
+seat. She sat down, steadying herself with a grip on the cable.
+
+"All serene?" asked Bill.
+
+"Shove off!" said Dorothy.
+
+Bill motioned to the stranger, there came the low whir of an electric
+motor. Her feet left the roof and she felt herself swung upward. Then
+the ascent stopped, the arm of the crane swung outward and with it her
+pendant seat. Her feet cleared the parapet and she was over the narrow
+airshaft.
+
+Blurred lights from closed windows of the various apartments gave her a
+glimpse of many empty ashcans in the small courtyard far below. But the
+crane was lowering her now close to the wall of the building. She was
+facing the wall, and looking upward she made out four heads leaning over
+the parapet at the edge of the roof.
+
+The descent was slow, but at last she passed two windows and came to
+rest beside the third, whose lower sash she saw was open. Then two arms
+caught her about the knees and she was pulled into the room.
+
+"Dorothy--oh, Dorothy!" sobbed an excited voice so like her own that
+Dorothy gave a start.
+
+"Well, here I am, Janet." It was a prosaic reply, but her own heart was
+beating quickly, nevertheless. "Gee, it's dark in here! Be a dear and
+shut down the window on this cable--and draw the shade, then turn on the
+light. I'm busy getting out of this thing."
+
+She heard the window and shade come down with a rush. As she stepped
+free of her conveyance, the lights flashed on, and the cousins flew into
+each other's arms.
+
+"Janet!"
+
+"Dorothy!"
+
+For a long moment the girls hugged each other and Janet, the more
+over-wrought, sobbed on her cousin's shoulder.
+
+Dorothy was herself deeply touched, but managed to control her feelings.
+"Come, dear," she said at last. "We'll just have to get going, I guess.
+They're waiting for you on the roof--and somebody is likely to come to
+the door. We mustn't be caught together, you know."
+
+"I know it." Janet released her and again Dorothy gasped, for she heard
+her own voice speaking although the words came from Janet.
+
+"Look, Dorothy!" Janet pointed to a long mirror in the corner of the
+room. "I knew that we were a lot alike, but I never could have
+believed--"
+
+"Well, talk about two peas in a pod!" In the glass Dorothy saw herself
+standing beside her cousin; and had it not been that she wore a coat and
+hat, while Janet was dressed in a wine-colored silk frock, she would
+have had difficulty in knowing which was her own reflection. "Maybe I'm
+half an inch taller, or hardly that," she said after a bit. "Lucky we
+both have had our hair shingled. You wear a bang, though--but that's
+easily fixed."
+
+She whipped off her small hat and went over to the dressing table where
+she picked up a pair of nail scissors. Two minutes of snipping and
+Janet's bang was duplicated on her own forehead. The hair she had cut
+off had been carefully placed on a magazine cover and opening the window
+a trifle she dropped the ends into the night.
+
+"Now," she said, closing the window. "You and I had better change
+clothes, Janet. And we'll have to make it snappy."
+
+"Yes--and oh dear--" Janet was slipping off her dress--"I've got so much
+to talk about. You can't realize what a horrible time I've had--and then
+to find you, only to lose you again!" Janet was very near to tears.
+
+"But you won't lose me long," Dorothy flashed her a comforting smile as
+she got out of her own dress. "Meanwhile, you'll have Howard. He's
+waiting on the roof, now. And Ashton Sanborn says he can clear up this
+business in a few days."
+
+"You certainly are wonderfully brave to do this for me," sighed her
+cousin. "If Mr. Sanborn hadn't insisted that by changing places with you
+I'd be really helping the government, I couldn't allow you to do it. As
+it is, I feel I'm cowardly to go through with it--"
+
+"Why, you're nothing of the sort," Dorothy protested. While Janet talked
+and they both undressed, she watched her cousin's mannerisms, storing
+away in her memory, for future use, every gesture, and inflection of the
+voice so like her own.
+
+"Who's who?" she giggled, and now her tone was softer, an exact
+duplication of Janet's manner of speaking.
+
+Her cousin smiled. "In our undies," she admitted, "even I am beginning
+to wonder if I'm not seeing double and talking to myself. How about
+shoes and stockings, Dorothy?"
+
+"Chuck 'em over, Janet, we'd better do it up right. I sp'ose most of
+your things are packed in that wardrobe trunk over there?"
+
+"Yes. I packed it this afternoon. You'll find some handkerchiefs and
+gloves in the top bureau drawer. I left the trunk open on purpose. When
+Mr. Lawson comes, you might be putting them in--it would help to make
+things natural."
+
+"Right you are--that's a good idea."
+
+"My arctics and my hat and coat are in the closet. Your coat is much
+better looking than mine. It's a shame to take it from you."
+
+"What's a coat between cousins who love each other?" laughed Dorothy and
+put on Janet's dress.
+
+A few minutes later, the change of clothing had been made, and the girls
+regarded each other in awed wonder.
+
+"I'll bet," Dorothy declared, "that when Howard sees you he'll think
+I've come back again."
+
+Janet blushed. "Well, he'll soon find out different. But it's a shame to
+leave you here, darling. If there were _only_ some other way!"
+
+"But there isn't. So cut along now, and just remember that this kind of
+thing is my stuff--I love it."
+
+"Some day I'll make it up to you--if I ever can!"
+
+Dorothy hesitated for a moment, then smiled. "You can do it tonight, if
+you want to."
+
+"Why--what do you mean?"
+
+"Just follow any suggestions that Mr. Sanborn may make."
+
+"But, what does that--you're hiding something from me!"
+
+"Perhaps I am."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Never mind, now."
+
+"But, Dorothy--"
+
+"No time for that, Janet. Get into that swing arrangement with your back
+to the window."
+
+"All right, but kiss me goodbye, first."
+
+They held each other close for a second. Then as Janet took her place on
+the seat attached to the steel cable, Dorothy switched off the light.
+
+"I'll--I'll do as you ask, I mean, about Mr. Sanborn," whispered Janet.
+
+"Thanks, darling, I--" began Dorothy, her hand on the window sash ready
+to raise it. Then suddenly she stopped.
+
+Somebody was unlocking the door into the hall.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VII
+
+                             PLAYING A PART
+
+
+Dorothy ran to the door and caught hold of the knob. "Who's there?" she
+cried.
+
+"It's I--Martin Lawson, Janet. May I come in?"
+
+"Oh, please, Mr. Lawson, not right now." There was a soft tone of
+pleading in her voice. "You see, I've been lying down and I'm not quite
+dressed."
+
+"But I thought I heard you speaking."
+
+"You did." The real Janet, shivering by the window, caught her breath
+and heard Dorothy's tone sharpen slightly. "To myself. Being cooped up
+like this for hours on end, I'm glad to hear the sound of my own voice.
+I often read aloud. But I'll be ready shortly, if you want me."
+
+"All right, then. I'll be back in five minutes. Your father is here and
+he wants to say goodbye."
+
+The key turned in the lock and with her ear close to the panel Dorothy
+was sure she could hear the faint tread of footsteps retreating down the
+hall. With her heart pumping sixty to the second, she dashed back to
+Janet and carefully raised the window.
+
+"Heavens! that was a narrow squeak--" her cousin whispered shakily.
+"What nerve you've got! I nearly fainted--"
+
+"Never mind," Dorothy whispered back, "you've got to get out of
+here--and right now!"
+
+"Oh, but I can't, Dorothy. I'm afraid!"
+
+Dorothy gave the signal rope two savage pulls. Almost immediately the
+cable began to tighten. "Close your eyes and hang on with both hands,"
+she ordered.
+
+"But Dorothy--I'll scream--I'm going to--I know it!"
+
+"No, you won't!" Quickly Dorothy clasped the frightened girl's fingers
+around the taut cable. A dive into the pocket of Janet's coat brought
+forth her own handkerchief which she hurriedly crumpled into a ball and
+thrust into her cousin's mouth. The seat, with Janet in it, was rising
+slowly. She caught the paralyzed girl below the knees, steadied her as
+the crane drew its burden clear of the sill and pushed her carefully
+into the outer darkness. When Janet's feet were on a level with the
+upper sash, she pulled down the window and shade and switched on the
+light again.
+
+"Skies above!" Her breath came in short gasps and she leaned against the
+end of the bed to steady herself. "Talk about your thrills! That was
+worse than my first solo hop, by a long shot." She ran her fingers
+through her short hair. "Let's see--what next? Oh, yes--I was supposed
+to be lying down."
+
+She caught up a book from the table and tossed it open onto the bed.
+Then she lay down, rumpled the coverlet, made sure that the pillow
+showed the impression of her head, and sprang up again. An adventurous
+past had taught her the need of being thorough.
+
+She went to the window and raising it, looked out and upward. Neither
+Janet nor the crane were in sight. Thankful that her cousin was safe at
+last, she pulled down the sash.
+
+Two or three minutes later, when the door was unlocked, the two men who
+entered surprised her in the business of packing the contents of the top
+bureau drawer into Janet's wardrobe trunk.
+
+And now came as pretty a piece of acting as has ever been seen upon the
+stage; acting that Dorothy's audience of two must not realize was
+acting, and furthermore, one of these men was the father of the girl she
+impersonated. Why hadn't she remembered to ask Janet what she called
+that mysterious father of hers? Father, Papa, Dad, Daddy--which should
+she use? A mistake now would be fatal. Even her uncle must not become
+aware of her real identity. There was no time for hesitating. He was
+speaking now.
+
+"Janet, my dear--" he began.
+
+Dorothy ran to her uncle and throwing her arms about his neck, buried
+her head on his shoulder. "How could you leave me like this?" she
+wailed. "Why do you let these people keep me locked in my room? And now
+they are going to take me away!" Her voice grew louder, almost
+hysterical. She sobbed pathetically and clutched him a little tighter.
+
+"My dear child--you mustn't cry this way--you really mustn't!" Mr.
+Jordan patted her back in the silly way men do when they want to be
+comforting. "Mr. Lawson and his wife will look after you in the country,
+while your Daddy is away."
+
+She released the embarrassed man, and pulling a handkerchief from his
+breast pocket, dabbed her eyes with the cambric until she felt certain
+they looked bloodshot enough to pass inspection. "But I don't _want_ to
+go, Daddy. Please don't let them take me," she begged, her voice
+trembling as though she was using all her will power to gain self
+control. "If you can't take me with you, why can't I go back to school?"
+
+"But that's impossible, Janet. You are going to be Mrs. Lawson's
+secretary. Don't be foolish. All arrangements have been made."
+
+"Well, I'm eighteen," said Dorothy with a show of temper. "My mother was
+a year younger than that when she ran away and married you. I am no
+longer a child. I don't like being packed off like--like a bag of
+potatoes."
+
+"Are there any other reasons why you don't want to come to Ridgefield
+with me?" Mr. Lawson spoke for the first time. His words fairly dripped
+with suspicion.
+
+"Yes, there are." Dorothy turned on him angrily. "Daddy goes off on a
+trip, and for reasons which appear to be a secret, you keep me locked in
+my room for more than a week, Mr. Lawson. And you seem to wonder why I
+resent it."
+
+"But you have been ill, my dear Janet."
+
+"If I'm so ill, why has no doctor been to see me?" Her voice was full of
+scorn.
+
+"I have been keeping you under observation myself."
+
+"Quite possibly. I've been allowed to see nobody except that maid who
+acts as if she were deaf and dumb. If you are trying to tell me that I'm
+mentally deranged, I won't stand for it! The mere fact that you now
+propose that I act as your wife's secretary proves that you consider me
+capable. What right have you to keep me a prisoner in my own home? Who
+are you, Mr. Martin Lawson, to take upon yourself the regulating of my
+life?" Dorothy burst into angry tears.
+
+"But my _dear_ child--" protested Mr. Jordan. "I've never seen you
+behave like this--"
+
+"No! And up to now," she stormed, her eyes flashing, "you've never given
+me cause. In the first place I'm no longer a child--you forget that--and
+then--what kind of a life did you give me as a child? You are my father
+and you say that you love me, but can you expect deep affection from a
+daughter whom you ship to boarding school at five? You wouldn't even let
+me visit friends during the holidays. For years at a time you never took
+the trouble to come and see me. How can you expect love and obedience
+after years of neglect?" She drew a sobbing breath, then went on: "For a
+while we traveled--you were nice to me--I enjoyed it. We settled down
+here. I forgave what you'd done to my childhood. I tried to make this
+flat a home for you, even though I was kept like a cloistered nun and
+you allowed me no friends. But this is going too far."
+
+"And what, may I ask, are you going to do about it?" inquired Lawson
+with a disagreeable smile.
+
+"What can a defenseless girl without friends do to stop two big bullies?
+I shall go with you, Mr. Lawson, because I can't help myself. But don't
+expect me to like being used as a slave, even though I may be of some
+comfort to that long-suffering wife of yours. Oh, that makes you angry,
+does it? Well, let me tell you, that you are not half as angry as I am.
+You can practice your strong-arm methods on defenseless women and get
+away with it--some day you'll try it on a man--and by the time he gets
+through thrashing you there won't be enough left for the boneyard." She
+flashed a smile of contempt on the furious man, and turned to Mr. Jordan
+who was speaking again.
+
+"What has come over you, Janet?" he was saying. "I've never heard you
+speak so rudely to anyone before. You've always been such a quiet little
+mouse--"
+
+"And you've taken advantage of it," she interrupted. "What you forget is
+that even a mouse will turn and fight when it's cornered. If you really
+loved me--if you had a spark of manhood in your selfish body, you'd
+thrash this man to within an inch of his life and throw him into the
+street. Get out of here--both of you!" she cried hysterically. "And
+please--no more silly arguments--I don't want to be forced to say before
+outsiders what a contemptible person my father is proving himself to
+be."
+
+This last tirade seemed to stun Mr. Jordan. From the almost agonized
+expression on his face, she saw that at last conscience was at work. The
+man was utterly miserable. He could not hide it.
+
+"Will you--will you be ready to leave in half an hour, Janet?" His voice
+was a mere whisper and shook with suppressed feeling.
+
+"Yes, I'll be ready. Go now, please--both of you!" She turned her back
+on them and walking over to the window, she threw up the shade and the
+sash. As she stood there staring into the night, she heard them leave
+the room.
+
+This time the door shut without being locked. Dorothy streaked across
+the floor and pressed her ear to the keyhole. Just outside the men were
+talking.
+
+"You're a fool, Lawson, if you still think that Janet wasn't asleep
+during the meeting," she heard her uncle say. "Tonight proves it. And
+let me tell you this. From now on, my business and my home shall be kept
+separate and distinct. Never again will I allow myself to be placed in a
+position to be dressed down by my own daughter. There was no comeback
+either. Every word she said was gospel truth. It's a terrible thing when
+a daughter makes her father realize what a low, cowardly creature he is
+at heart. Well, how about it? Aren't you now convinced of her
+innocence?"
+
+"I am." Lawson clipped off the words, and as he went on speaking, there
+was insolence as well as a hint of nervousness in his tone. "But when it
+comes to giving me a thrashing, Number 5--well, I shouldn't try it if I
+were you--not if you value your--er--health!"
+
+"Stop talking like a fool!" retorted Janet's father. "Is the girl to be
+sent to Ridgefield or not?"
+
+"Now you're talking rot, yourself," snapped Lawson. "You know quite as
+well as I do that Laura won't take our word for it. She told me this
+morning that any clever woman or girl for that matter, could twist a man
+around her finger without half trying. Laura wants to study your
+daughter herself--and that's all there is to it."
+
+"I hope Mrs. Lawson has a pleasant time of it." Mr. Jordan said
+sarcastically. "But I'm afraid my hope will not be granted."
+
+"Laura," answered that lady's husband, "can be rather disagreeable
+herself when she's roused. Let us hope for Janet's sake, that she
+doesn't try her tantrums on my wife. By the way, what are you doing
+now?"
+
+"Getting away just as fast as I can, thank you. No more scenes for me,
+tonight. I wouldn't meet Janet on her way out of here for a million
+dollars!"
+
+They moved further along the hall and Dorothy went slowly back to the
+window. Across the narrow court, two flights up, the shaded windows of
+Howard Bright's flat shone a dull golden yellow in the black wall. For
+several minutes she stood watching the windows, her thoughts upon what
+she had done and what she had just heard.
+
+Suddenly, shadows appeared on one of the yellow rectangles. The shade
+was raised and framed in the window were Janet and Howard. Just behind
+them stood a stranger who wore the round, conventional collar of a
+clergyman. The young couple were smiling happily. Both waved, and Janet
+held up her left hand.
+
+Dorothy knew the significance of that gesture, and threw them a kiss.
+Then she saw the shade roll down, and she turned away.
+
+"And so they were married and lived happily ever after." She sighed.
+"Uncle Sanborn kept his promise, like the fine old sport he is."
+
+She stuffed the last of Janet's belongings into the trunk, slammed it
+shut and locked it.
+
+"Now for the dirty work--and Laura Lawson." She smiled grimly and went
+to the closet for Janet's hat and coat.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VIII
+
+                         "WALK INTO MY PARLOR"
+
+
+The sedan, with Martin Lawson driving and Dorothy beside him, purred
+smoothly through the dank, cold night. Now that they were past the realm
+of traffic lights, it lopped off the miles between them and Ridgefield
+with the regularity of an electric saw cutting planks from a log.
+
+During the entire journey, now nearly over, Dorothy had spoken no word
+to the man beside her. She wanted him to believe that she was still
+furiously angry. As a matter of fact, she had felt antagonistic toward
+him from the first moment she laid eyes upon him; his smug overgrooming,
+the highly polished fingernails, the small waxed moustache and too
+immaculate clothing, all repelled her. She knew at once what it had
+taken Janet some time to realize: Martin Lawson might be and probably
+was a very clever man; he was, on the other hand, a man to be wary of.
+His manner was just a little too complacent, too smooth. Notwithstanding
+the forewarning she had received regarding his character, Dorothy knew
+instinctively that he was not genuine and not a trustworthy person in
+any respect. She detested him thoroughly.
+
+He was a careful driver, she gave him credit for that. They found little
+traffic to impede their progress along the Boston Post Road, once the
+long tentacles of the great city were left behind. But the black swath
+of highway leading out and on from their moisture-coated headlights
+glistened wetly in their reflection. After they turned into the hills
+behind Stamford, heading for the Connecticut Ridge Country, the road for
+a mile or more at a stretch was covered with wet leaves. They crawled
+along at a snail's pace to prevent skidding and a crash into the New
+England stone fences that rambled along the roadside dividing woodland
+from the rolling meadows.
+
+Just beyond New Canaan, they drove past Dorothy's home and Bill
+Bolton's, for the properties faced each other across the ridge road.
+Before they reached Vista it was raining dismally, and Lawson had the
+windshield wiper going. Dorothy was thankful that the sixty-mile journey
+from New York was nearly over. At last they reached the outskirts of
+Ridgefield, and the car swung into a driveway between high pillars of
+native stonework. In the glow from the electric globes on the gate
+posts, the blue stone driveway curved and twisted like a huge snake,
+winding through landscaped lawns and gardens as formal and precise as a
+public park.
+
+It was raining harder now, and Dorothy could see nothing beyond the path
+of their headlights. Although she had never been in the grounds before,
+she had driven past the Winn place numbers of times. Finally, she made
+out the bulk of a great stone house. Martin Lawson stopped the car
+beneath a porte-cochere. They had arrived.
+
+Massive doors of wrought iron and glass swung open. A butler and two
+footmen in livery ran down the steps. The butler, a tall,
+important-looking individual, snapped open the car door.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Lawson," he said. "Good evening, Miss."
+
+The voice with its high-pitched Oxford drawl still smacked of
+Whitechapel. Dorothy, who had travelled in England, was sure that under
+stress, the cockney in this personage would come out. She knew he was
+careful of his aitches.
+
+"Good evening, Tunbridge," Lawson returned briskly, and Dorothy smiled
+pleasantly. "Is Mrs. Lawson still up?"
+
+"Madam is awaiting you in the library, sir." Tunbridge helped Dorothy to
+alight and handed Janet's overnight bag to a footman. "Jones," he said
+to the other flunky, as Lawson stepped out of the car, "drive round to
+the service entrance. Miss Jordan's box is in the back of the car. See
+that it is taken up to the Pink Bedroom and have Hanley garage the
+motor-car."
+
+"Very good, sir," returned the man, and he got into the automobile.
+
+Tunbridge ushered them up the broad stone steps. Dorothy caught a last
+glimpse of a leafless, dripping hedge across the drive, and the giant
+skeleton arms of a tree that seemed to menace earth and sky; then she
+entered the house, wondering what the next act of this strange drama
+would bring forth.
+
+She found herself in an enormous hall, furnished with objects such as
+she had never seen outside a museum. Elaborately carved oak, suits of
+armor, stone urns, portraits, a wide stone staircase mounting upward to
+surrounding galleries, stained glass windows, tigers' and lions' heads,
+antlers of tremendous size, strange and beautiful weapons, all ranged in
+confusion before her eyes and suggested a baronial castle rather than
+the home of an American scientist, in the Connecticut hills.
+
+Tunbridge led to a door on the right, where he knocked, then opened, as
+a muffled "Come in" was heard.
+
+"Miss Jordan and Mr. Lawson, Madam," announced the butler, and he stood
+aside to let them pass.
+
+Dorothy walked into a room whose walls seemed built of books. The
+furniture was richly attractive and looked luxuriously comfortable. A
+fire blazed in a fine chimney and a table near it was set with a glitter
+of splendid silver and hot water plates below shining metal covers.
+
+A tall, superbly beautiful woman, with dark eyes and coal-black hair
+that grew in a widow's peak on her brow, rose from a chair on the wide
+hearth and came toward them. Her clear, white skin, and a broad streak
+of silver across the black hair gave her a strangely ethereal
+appearance, as though she might have been a being from another planet.
+The hand she held out to Dorothy was exquisitely formed, the fingers
+long and tapering.
+
+"How do you do, Janet," she said pleasantly. "Welcome to Winncote. You
+are later than we expected. The Doctor has gone to bed, but he left his
+greetings."
+
+"Thank you," Dorothy returned formally and shook hands. "You are very
+kind, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+Laura Lawson gave her a smile, but the girl saw that it was a smile of
+the lips alone, her dark eyes remained somber. "Did you have a
+breakdown?" she asked her husband, taking notice of him for the first
+time.
+
+"Slippery roads--it was impossible to do much more than crawl, Laura."
+He lifted a dish cover on the table and inspected its contents. "Glad
+you thought to order supper--I'm famished."
+
+"So am I," admitted his wife and her words seemed to carry a double
+meaning. "It's long after three. Come over here by the fire and get
+warm, Janet. Now Tunbridge--if you'll please serve us?"
+
+Tunbridge seated them at the supper table and uncovered the dishes.
+
+"Just a light meal," announced the hostess, "scrambled eggs, toast and
+cocoa, but it will warm you up and help you last until breakfast."
+
+"It looks delicious!" said Dorothy, who discovered at the sight of food
+that she was starving. In fact all three were hungry, and for some
+little time conversation was dropped while the soft-footed Tunbridge
+waited upon them.
+
+"We will have a chat tomorrow, Janet," Mrs. Lawson said presently.
+"Tonight you are tired and so am I. We take breakfast in our rooms. Ring
+for it when you're ready, but don't hurry about getting up, I'll see you
+down here about eleven-thirty. Have you had enough to eat and drink, my
+dear?"
+
+"Plenty, thank you, Mrs. Lawson." Dorothy thought it would be just as
+well if she played the demure mouse until she had a chance to size up
+her employer.
+
+"Then I think we'll go upstairs, Janet, and I'll show you your room."
+She looked at her husband. "You'll be coming up soon, Martin?"
+
+"Just as soon as I finish this pipe, and get a bit warmer."
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Lawson, "that both you and Janet had better take a
+hot lemonade before you go to bed. I don't want to have you both laid up
+with colds tomorrow." She smiled solicitously at the girl.
+
+"I hate the filthy stuff," protested her husband.
+
+"Don't be ridiculous," she answered coldly and turned to the butler.
+"Tunbridge, have hot lemonades sent to Miss Jordan and Mr. Lawson in
+about twenty minutes, if you please."
+
+"Very good, madam."
+
+Laura Lawson slipped her arm through Dorothy's. "Don't be long, Martin."
+
+"I won't. Good night, Janet."
+
+"Good night, Mr. Lawson."
+
+Mrs. Lawson seemed lost in thought as they slowly mounted the stone
+stairs. Suddenly she began chattily: "Men are such stupid creatures,
+Janet. So stupid about taking medicine or anything else that may be good
+for them. Martin and that hot lemonade is a case in point. I hope that
+you haven't any foolish ideas like that?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed. I'm rather fond of it."
+
+"That's fine. Now promise me you'll get into bed and drink it just as
+hot as possible. There's nothing better to ward off a cold, and you'll
+sleep like a top into the bargain. Well, here's your room, my dear. It's
+late, so I won't come in, but I think you'll find all you need to make
+you comfortable. If you want anything, ring. Good night, Janet. Sleep
+well."
+
+"I'm sure I will, Mrs. Lawson. Good night."
+
+The older woman passed along the gallery and Dorothy entered her
+bedroom. It was a good-sized room, attractively furnished with
+everywhere evidence of a woman's taste. Pink-shaded electric candles
+gleamed from the walls papered in cream and scattered with tiny pink
+rosebuds. The small grey-painted bed displayed pink pillow cases, sheets
+and blankets. A dainty writing desk in one corner of the room was also
+painted grey as was the chaise longue and the chairs, where the
+upholstery carried out the note of pink. A soft grey rug, pink-bordered,
+covered the floor, and Dorothy's feet sank into its thick, warm pile as
+she investigated her new quarters. She saw that the room was nearly
+square, and opposite the door a rounded alcove sheltered a bow window,
+hung with pink taffeta, and the window seat below it was cushioned in
+pink.
+
+In a corner against the wall stood Janet's wardrobe trunk, and near it
+was a door that led into a spacious closet. Dorothy hung her coat on a
+padded hanger, and then looked into the rose and onyx tiled bath.
+
+As she re-entered the bedroom she stopped short in surprise. A small
+piece of white paper protruded from beneath the door to the gallery.
+Quickly she stooped, snatched the paper and opened the door. The gallery
+was empty. Crossing to the balustrade she looked down upon the great
+entrance hall. That also was deserted and nobody was to be seen on the
+staircase.
+
+She turned back, closed and locked her door. Then she spread out the
+paper she had crumpled in her hand. Printed on one side in pencil she
+read the words:
+
+"BE ON YOUR GUARD. DO NOT DRINK THE LEMONADE. DESTROY THIS AT ONCE."
+
+"Now I wonder..." Dorothy muttered softly, "who sent me this note?"
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter IX
+
+                              IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+Dorothy turned over the piece of paper to find as she expected that the
+other side was blank. No signature. Nothing but the double warning, and
+the admonition to destroy the missive and to do so at once. Evidently
+the writer either believed or knew for certain that she would shortly be
+disturbed. There was no fireplace in the bedroom. Even though she tore
+the note into bits, some of the scraps might be found and pieced
+together should she throw them out the window; and her room might be
+searched at any time. How could she make way with it? For a moment or
+two Dorothy was at a loss. Mechanically her fingers tore the paper into
+fine shreds.
+
+Then she smiled. "I guess we'll let the plumbing take care of you," she
+said, gazing down on the little pile of paper on her palm, and she
+disappeared into the bathroom.
+
+When she returned, Dorothy opened Janet's over-night bag, took out a
+pair of green silk pajamas, bedroom slippers and toilet accessories,
+among which was a new toothbrush in a case. This, and the underwear she
+had on were the only belongings of her own that she had retained.
+
+From Janet's purse, she extracted the trunk key. After some rummaging in
+that large travelling wardrobe, she found a quilted bathrobe of pale
+pink satin on a hanger toward the back. It was too late to unpack
+entirely, and she was about to close and relock the trunk, when she
+decided to leave it open. The Janet Jordan she was portraying had never
+waked up at the famous meeting of last week. That Janet would feel
+outraged at her imprisonment, her father's seeming callousness and would
+naturally be furious at being packed up here willy-nilly: but she would
+have no cause to be suspicious of these people in this big stone house.
+If she had locked the trunk--Dorothy realized she had almost made a
+mistake, although a minor one--and in her present position mistakes were
+dangerous affairs.
+
+Although it was very late and the day had been a strenuous one Dorothy
+did not feel tired. While she undressed, she went over in her mind the
+new vistas opened up by this mysterious note she had just destroyed. As
+she dissected it word by word from memory, she was astonished to find
+that the scrap of paper carried much interesting information between the
+lines.
+
+Undoubtedly, Ashton Sanborn had planted a member of his organization in
+the house, but how that had been possible, she could not imagine. First
+of all, there was the warning to be on her guard. That Mrs. Lawson was
+indicated she had no doubt. Her hostess, while seeming most charming and
+courteous, had nevertheless suggested the hot lemonade which the note
+told her not to drink. It was quite likely that her unknown adviser had
+reason to think that the lemonade would be drugged. And then these
+people could hardly mean to poison her so soon after her arrival. For
+their whole idea in bringing her to Winncote, as she understood it, was
+to make sure whether the real Janet had heard their secrets or not.
+No--they merely wanted her to sleep soundly. But why?
+
+Dorothy pondered on this for several minutes. There could be only one
+reason, she decided. Somebody was planning to enter her bedroom tonight,
+and wished to do so without her knowledge. What their purpose might be
+she could not guess and she did not bother about it. To a girl of a
+nervous temperament, such as Janet Jordan, the knowledge that such a
+visit was planned and success arranged for by means of a drug, would
+have been torture. But Dorothy, who could feel "Flash" in his holster
+just above her knee was merely worried for fear that lemonade or no
+lemonade she would fall asleep. The arrival here had been uneventful
+enough after what had happened at the Jordans' apartment. At least, to
+all outward appearances it had been smooth sailing. She was beginning to
+realize that nothing with these people was what it seemed to be. She had
+climbed her Vesuvius and was standing at the crater's edge. Already the
+first rumblings of the eruption had been heard.
+
+Her position, though seemingly secure, was nothing of the kind. The
+sooner Ashton Sanborn gave her the orders he had promised, and she could
+carry them out and get away from this place, the better for Dorothy
+Dixon. And yet she could not help a feeling of exhilaration.
+
+There came a gentle knock on her door. Wearing her quilted wrapper and
+slippers she turned the key and opened to--the imposing Tunbridge. He
+bore a small tray on which stood a steaming tumbler, a bowl of sugar,
+two spoons and a napkin. "Your hot lemonade, Miss Jordan," he announced
+in his pompous voice and rather as though he were offering her a
+priceless gift. "Mrs. Lawson's instructions are to drink it after you
+get in bed, Miss. May I mention also that it is very hot?"
+
+Dorothy took the tray. "Thank you, Tunbridge, I'll be careful. Good
+night!"
+
+"Good night, Miss."
+
+The butler departed in the direction of the stairway, and Dorothy closed
+the door and locked it again.
+
+She set the tray on a chair beside her bed and put two spoonfuls of
+sugar into the tall glass. It was too hot for anyone to drink yet, so
+she went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
+
+Five minutes later she switched off all the lights except the one on the
+head board. Then she got into bed, picked up the glass and stirred her
+lemonade, making sure that the spoon tinkled against the glass. If
+anyone was listening outside her door they would naturally think she was
+drinking the stuff.
+
+After waiting a moment or two longer, she set the glass down on the tray
+with a thump that might have been heard on the gallery. But the glass
+remained in her hand. Off went her light now, and still holding the
+lemonade she got quickly and quietly out of bed. A silent trip to the
+bathroom in the dark and she emptied the lemonade into her washbowl.
+Then she came back and placed the empty glass on the tray. She hurried
+over to the bow window, opened a sash, turned off the heat in the
+radiator and crawled into bed again.
+
+The bed was to the left of the door as one entered the room. By lying on
+her right side Dorothy held the entire room within her view. After the
+soft glare from the shaded electric lights, it seemed inky black, but
+soon her eyes grew accustomed to the gloom. In the wall just beyond the
+foot of the bed was the closed door of her closet. The trunk stood
+beyond that in the corner. The alcove and window seat took up a large
+section of the farther wall and in the corner, diagonally across from
+where she lay was a dark spot--the writing desk. Opposite her bed was
+the half open door to the bathroom. The dressing table, the door to the
+hall but a few feet from her head--mentally she had completed her tour
+of the room.
+
+Then for a long while, or so it seemed to the excited girl, she lay
+there waiting. Of course her door was locked, but the affair of the
+Winged Cartwheels a few months before had taught Dorothy that keys may
+be turned from the outside with a pair of small pincers. Her mind now
+set itself on the key in the door. In vain she listened for the warning
+click that would come when it turned in the lock. Now that she was lying
+in bed she began to discover how tired she was. It became harder and
+harder to stay awake.
+
+She knew that she must have dozed, for without warning a light appeared,
+a golden circle on the center of the rug. Instantly she was wide awake
+and her hand beneath the blankets drew her throwing knife from its
+sheath. Through half-closed eyelids she made out a dark figure holding a
+flash light pointed toward the floor.
+
+Then the glowing circle moved to the empty glass beside her bed, and
+Dorothy closed her eyes. For a moment it rested upon her face and she
+heard a low chuckle. Dorothy knew that voice. Her visitor was Laura
+Lawson.
+
+The light swept away from her face. Mrs. Lawson touched the wall switch
+by the door and the bedroom sprang into light. The drug in the lemonade
+must have been a strong one, for it was evident that the intruder had no
+fear of her awakening. Without wasting another glance on Dorothy, Laura
+Lawson went to the wardrobe trunk and commenced a detailed inspection of
+its contents.
+
+The woman's back was turned, so Dorothy had no difficulty in watching
+her movements. Everything in the trunk was taken out, glanced at and put
+back exactly as it had been. This took some time, and it was fully half
+an hour before her hostess finished with the trunk. Next she overhauled
+the small travelling bag and the purse. Then the empty drawers of the
+dressing table and desk came under the woman's eye. The pillows and
+cushions of the window seat were lifted. The rug was turned back. Every
+nook and cranny of the room and closet came under observation. Then she
+went into the bathroom.
+
+"What under the shining canopy can she be looking for?" Dorothy
+marveled. "It can't be the note I got tonight. She proposed the lemonade
+before that could have been written. I wonder if she'll search the bed?
+She mustn't find Flash--"
+
+When Laura Lawson returned to the bedroom, she saw that the sleeper had
+turned over and was now facing the wall. For a moment she gazed down on
+the girl, then her hand crept under the pillow. Finding nothing there,
+the covers were pulled back to the foot of the bed.
+
+Dorothy felt the cold breeze from the open window blowing on her
+pajamaed body, but she did not move. Presently sheet, blankets and silk
+comfort were replaced and the woman left the bedside. Dorothy chuckled
+inwardly. Flash was still safe. She was lying on him.
+
+Off went the light. Dorothy knew that Mrs. Lawson's slippered feet would
+make no sound on the thick pile of the rug. She waited to hear the door
+open and close, but heard nothing. With her face to the wall, she could
+see nothing. The strain of lying motionless became nerve wracking. What
+was the woman doing anyhow? Slowly she rolled over again. So far as she
+could tell, the room was empty.
+
+For what seemed an age Dorothy lay, listening. Except for the wind
+sighing through the bare trees outside her window, there was no other
+sound. She felt nervous and unpleasantly excited. She must know if the
+door had been left unlocked. Slipping out of bed she tiptoed across to
+it and tried the handle. The door did not give.
+
+Suddenly she froze against the panels. A dim glow appeared on the
+opposite wall as the closet door swung slowly back, and outlined in the
+opening was the tall figure of Tunbridge.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter X
+
+                               SURPRISES
+
+
+Dorothy's experiences, since she had shopped for neckties for her father
+that morning had been quite enough to lay up the average girl for a
+week, and to wreck her nerves into the bargain. Laura Lawson's
+appearance in her bedroom had strained tightened nerves to the breaking
+point.
+
+The arrival of this second intruder was just too much. As the butler
+stepped out of the closet and started to close the door, Dorothy's
+self-control snapped like a rubber band. She forgot that she was playing
+a part; that it might be suicidal to show her hand so early in the game.
+Fear gripped her throat. Had this man been sent to kill her? If not,
+then what was he doing, stealing into her room through a secret entrance
+like an assassin of the middle ages? Self-preservation bade her act. The
+consequences could take care of themselves.
+
+"Stop!" The harsh whisper, as her hand dove for Flash, sounded like the
+voice of a stranger. "Move another step, and I'll pin you to that door!"
+Flash was in her raised hand now, the extended blade reflecting the
+light in the closet as though the polished steel were glass.
+
+She saw the man start in surprise and turn his head in her direction. As
+she was about to hurl the knife, Tunbridge found his voice.
+
+"Ashton Sanborn sent me, Miss Dixon. Please don't throw that knife."
+
+Gone was the English accent, and the pompous intonation of the British
+man servant. Tunbridge, if that were really his name, spoke the American
+Dorothy was accustomed to hear, the accents of the cultured New
+Englander. For the second time in her life, Dorothy fainted.
+
+She awoke to find herself in bed. Tunbridge was beside it. She could
+just make out his tall, powerful figure in the darkness.
+
+"Goodness--did I faint?" she said weakly.
+
+"You certainly did, Miss Dixon." His tone was little above a whisper.
+"Please don't raise your voice--and drink this. I found the aromatic
+spirits of ammonia in the bathroom. You need something to steady you. No
+one is cast iron--you've been through a frightful lot today."
+
+Dorothy took the glass and drained it. Then she lay back on her pillow.
+"I got the scare of my life just now. Why didn't Ashton Sanborn tell me
+about you, Mr.--"
+
+"Tunbridge is really my name, Miss Dixon. John Tunbridge, and very much
+at your service. I was afraid my rather abrupt appearance would startle
+you, and especially coming so soon after Mrs. Lawson's--er--visit. I got
+a shock myself when I saw your white figure by the door just now, and
+all ready to split me with that knife, like--like a macaroon." He
+chuckled, and removing the tray, sat down on the chair beside her bed.
+
+"Oh, then you've seen Ashton Sanborn this evening, Mr. Tunbridge?"
+
+"Heard from him, Miss Dixon. As you must know by now, I am a secret
+service operative and I am working under Mr. Sanborn. There isn't time
+to go into detail now, but a couple of months ago, our department
+received an anonymous letter saying that Doctor Winn would bear
+watching. Shortly before that the Doctor had engaged Mrs. Lawson, who is
+an expert chemist by the way, to take charge of his laboratory. Her
+husband has been Doctor Winn's secretary since last spring. We thought
+at that time that Mrs. Lawson might be the mysterious letter writer.
+Since then we've altered our opinion. Mr. Sanborn decided that inasmuch
+as Doctor Winn was working for the government it would be well to have a
+secret service man in the house. We prevailed upon the butler here to
+resign and I took his place."
+
+"Then Doctor Winn knows you're a government detective?"
+
+"No one in this house knows that, except you, Miss Dixon. The whole
+matter was arranged through an employment agency. Doctor Winn and the
+others here have no idea that I, like you, am simply playing a part."
+
+"Well, you're certainly a splendid actor, Mr. Tunbridge."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Dixon. As you've no doubt discovered, acting,
+convincing acting, often plays a large part in our profession. You are
+doing brilliantly in that respect yourself. Mr. Sanborn thought,
+however, that it would be better if you did not know about me until the
+necessity arose. Mrs. Lawson, he knew would be watching you like a hawk
+when you arrived. If you had been aware of my identity, your position
+would only have been more difficult. She might have had her suspicions
+aroused in some way, which would have given you a wrong start from the
+beginning. I think you will realize tomorrow how hard it will be to
+treat me as though I were merely Tunbridge the butler."
+
+"Oh, I think you're right. Tell me, how did you find out about the
+lemonade?"
+
+"I overheard the Lawsons talking, yesterday. Made it my business in
+fact. It seems that Mrs. Lawson has had the idea that if Janet Jordan
+was only shamming sleep at that meeting, she would do her best to
+communicate with her father in some way. The natural thing to do would
+be to write a note and slip it in his hand or his pocket, when he came
+to see her. Martin Lawson was sure he would detect anything of the kind
+when he brought Jordan to say goodbye to Janet tonight at the flat. If
+not, the plan was to drug the girl with hot lemonade so that Mrs. Lawson
+could search her belongings for the note tonight."
+
+Dorothy nodded. "I watched her closely while she was in here, and so far
+as I could make out she didn't find anything that interested her
+particularly. The Lawsons must have guessed wrong about Janet writing
+her father."
+
+"Well, no, they didn't," declared her new ally. "Janet wrote a letter,
+just as they surmised."
+
+"But where could it be?" asked Dorothy in a startled whisper, and sat
+bold upright in bed.
+
+"Probably destroyed by this time," Mr. Tunbridge chuckled. "There's no
+need to worry on that score, Miss Dixon. When Ashton Sanborn spoke to
+your cousin this afternoon by means of Howard Bright's headphone set, he
+learned that Janet proposed doing just what this clever pair here
+figured upon. Of course she had already written the note, and as there
+was no safe way to get rid of it in her room, he told her to take it
+with her when she left. And now if you'll be good enough, I wish you'd
+tell me what happened after you took her place in the flat."
+
+Dorothy gave him a short sketch of her encounter with her uncle and
+Martin Lawson in Janet's room, and of the conversation between the two
+men in the corridor afterward. "All the way up here," she ended, "I
+pretended I had a grouch. Mr. Lawson tried to start a conversation
+several times, but he soon found it wasn't much fun talking to himself
+and he gave it up as a bad job."
+
+"Excellent," applauded the secret service man, "and quite in keeping
+with your behavior in the flat. You have done most remarkably well, Miss
+Dixon. Only--you won't mind if I warn you not to let first success make
+you careless."
+
+"Do you really believe that these people mean to do away with me if they
+discover I am not what I appear to be, Mr. Tunbridge? It sounds a bit
+too melodramatic, don't you think?"
+
+"These Lawsons, husband and wife, are playing for gigantic stakes." The
+detective's voice, though barely audible was extremely grave. "They will
+stop at nothing. When crooks have at least two murders behind them,
+they're not likely to stop at a third."
+
+"Then--then they are _not_ what they pretend?"
+
+"Certainly not. They're a pair of high class European crooks named
+du Val."
+
+Dorothy shuddered. "And _murderers_!"
+
+"Undoubtedly. They're wanted both in England and in Austria for their
+crimes."
+
+"How did you find that out?"
+
+"Oh, you see I recognized them when I arrived here, Miss Dixon."
+
+"But--but I can't see why--why you didn't arrest them then and there!
+You knew that they were after the secret of Doctor Winn's new explosive,
+or whatever it is he has invented."
+
+"Yes, we realized that the formula for Doctor Winn's explosive gas was
+the magnet that drew the du Vals to this house; but until today we had
+no idea how they proposed to dispose of the formula after stealing it."
+
+"I see. And now you realize that they probably intend to sell it to the
+organization of which my uncle is a member?"
+
+"You are right, Miss Dixon."
+
+"Then why can't you arrest the Lawsons now?"
+
+"We can take the Lawsons at any time," Tunbridge explained. "But we want
+to catch the ringleader of this organization. We know the group exists
+and for no good purpose, but what their definite object may be we still
+have no means of telling. We can't arrest them on suspicion alone. Once
+they actually buy the formula from the Lawsons, it will be quite a
+different matter."
+
+She shook her head slowly. "But why hasn't the formula been stolen
+before this? They've had plenty of opportunity, surely--"
+
+"Because it is not completed. At dinner tonight I heard the Doctor say
+that by tomorrow afternoon the work would be finished, and that he
+expected to take the formula to Washington the day after tomorrow."
+
+"Then you expect?--"
+
+"I expect that the Lawsons will make their attempt tomorrow night."
+
+"And where do I come in on this business, Mr. Tunbridge?"
+
+"You are going to take the plans from Doctor Winn's safe before the
+Lawsons get to it."
+
+She drew her breath sharply. "That's a pretty large order--"
+
+"I know it, but--of course you'll have the combination of the safe--"
+
+"Are you going to give it to me now?"
+
+"Too dangerous. They are quite capable of searching your belongings
+again--or your person, for that matter--at any time. I'll get it to you
+with exact instructions just as soon as the Doctor completes that
+blooming formula and locks it in the safe."
+
+"That's all very well, Mr. Tunbridge. But has it occurred to you that if
+I steal this paper--I suppose it will be a paper?--"
+
+"Probably several of them--"
+
+"Well, if I take these papers before the Lawsons can get them, how are
+you going to arrest my uncle and the other men?"
+
+"You," directed Tunbridge, "will simply make a copy and replace the
+original documents where you found them. This is a safety-first move. We
+must have a copy in case the originals are destroyed."
+
+"It looks like a very complicated matter to me," Dorothy admitted
+candidly. "Why not put the old gentleman wise? After all, it's his
+formula, and if he made his own copy it would save us a possible run-in
+with the Lawsons, and--"
+
+Mr. Tunbridge stood up. "Perhaps you're right," he said, making a brave
+attempt to stifle a yawn, "but Doctor Winn would never agree to it. For
+a scientist who dabbles in high explosives, he's the most nervous man
+I've ever met. He'd give the whole show away. No, that's out of the
+question. Doctor Winn must be kept in ignorance of the whole proceeding.
+And now--" a yawn got the better of him this time-- "and now to bed. You
+need sleep even more than advice just now. Good night, or rather, good
+morning, Miss Dixon. Pleasant dreams, I hope."
+
+He started toward the door and Dorothy sprang out of bed and reached for
+her dressing gown.
+
+"I want to see that secret passage, Mr. Tunbridge," she said in a low
+tone.
+
+"Oh, yes, come along." He opened the door and stepped inside the closet.
+"It works this way. Press your foot on the board in the farthest right
+hand corner, like this, and a panel in the back wall slides up--like
+that--"
+
+Dorothy stared at the gaping black hole, then as the detective-butler
+snapped on his flashlight she saw that a narrow circular staircase led
+downward in the wall.
+
+"That stair curves down to the ground floor," he explained. "It comes
+out through the side wall inside the big fireplace in the hall. To open
+the panel down there you press a button under the left-hand corner of
+the mantel. To close either panel you simply put it down, once you're
+inside."
+
+"Are there any more of these passages in the walls?"
+
+"Very likely, but I haven't found them yet. Winncote is an exact copy of
+the Doctor's ancestral home in Wales. Those old houses were honeycombed
+with priest holes, secret passages and whatnot. And Doctor Winn had his
+architect copy the original Winncote across the water down to the last
+stone, with modern improvements such as bathrooms and steam heat,
+added."
+
+"Funny old fellow, isn't he?" commented Dorothy sleepily. "Then I'm
+simply to carry on until I hear from you again?"
+
+"That's right. But whatever you do, watch your step with the Lawson
+woman. She is fully as heartless as she is beautiful. If you had never
+heard of that meeting in the Jordans' flat, it would be much better for
+you. She will try to trap you, so please be on your guard continually.
+Well, good night, again."
+
+"Good night, Mr. Tunbridge."
+
+The panel in the back wall of the closet slid into place, and Dorothy
+went back to bed. She realized now that this matter of impersonating her
+cousin was not going to prove to be the easy job she had fancied. A slip
+on her part now would not only put her own life in danger, it would
+probably ruin all government plans to apprehend these desperate
+criminals.
+
+At last she fell into a troubled sleep wherein she dreamed that a long
+circular staircase curved round and round her bedroom, and that Mrs.
+Lawson, dressed as a butler, had set her to watch every step of it.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XI
+
+                                GRETCHEN
+
+
+Dorothy awoke from troubled dreams to find that it was another day.
+Through the open window she saw the swirl of snowflakes driven in a high
+wind. The bedroom was cold and in the grey light of the winter morning
+it had lost its cheerful air.
+
+She heard a knock on the door.
+
+"Who's there?" she called drowsily.
+
+"It's the maid, miss. Mrs. Lawson thought you might be wanting your
+breakfast now."
+
+Dorothy looked at her wrist watch. The hands marked ten-thirty. She
+jumped out on the rug, which felt cold and clammy under her bare feet,
+went to the door and unlocked it. Then she scampered back to bed and
+snuggled under the warm covers.
+
+In walked a trim little figure wearing the small white apron and gray
+uniform of a chambermaid. Dorothy saw a round merry face, and a pair of
+big blue eyes beneath the white lawn cap, and thick flaxen braids were
+coiled round the neat head. She was surprised and somehow pleased to
+discover that this attractive member of the household staff could not be
+much more than sixteen, just her own age.
+
+The little maid shut the door softly, crossed to the window and closed
+it, turned on the steam heat and came to the bedside. "Good morning,
+Miss Jordan." She smiled engagingly. "I'm Gretchen, miss. Will you have
+your breakfast in bed?"
+
+"Why, thank you, Gretchen--that will be cozy. But if it's going to give
+you any trouble, don't bother." With the covers drawn up to her eyes,
+Dorothy smiled back at the girl.
+
+"Oh, no, miss--it's no trouble at all." Gretchen was insistent. "It's
+all ready now. I'll run down and bring it up."
+
+She whisked out of the room and Dorothy rolled over for another cat-nap.
+
+"If you'll be good enough to sit up now, Miss Jordan--I have your
+breakfast here."
+
+Dorothy awoke again, yawned and stretched luxuriously. Gretchen stood
+beside her bed with the breakfast tray.
+
+"If you'll be good enough to sit up, miss?" she repeated.
+
+Dorothy punched the pillows into position behind her, slipped the
+quilted gown about her shoulders and leaned back. Gretchen moved
+nearer--then almost dropped the tray.
+
+"Why--why--miss--"
+
+Dorothy leaned over and steadied the tray. "What's the matter,
+Gretchen?" The little maid was staring at her open-mouthed, her big blue
+eyes as round as saucers.
+
+"Oh, I--I beg your pardon, but it's--it's the resemblance, miss--Miss
+Jordan." She set the tray over Dorothy's knees and drew back still with
+that astonished look. "I couldn't see you very well before, miss, with
+the covers up to your eyes. But when you sat up, it sure did give me a
+start."
+
+"What do you mean, Gretchen? The resemblance to whom?" Dorothy,
+outwardly calm, fingered her glass of orange juice, but her thoughts
+raced toward this new complication.
+
+"Why, you look so much like Dorothy Dixon--the flyer, you know, miss.
+She's my hero--I mean, heroine, Miss Jordan. I've read everything the
+newspapers printed about her and Bill Bolton. You must have read about
+them too, everybody has?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I've heard about them." Dorothy hoped her tone sounded
+indifferent. "But you know, Gretchen, newspaper pictures are often very
+poor likenesses."
+
+The girl smiled and nodded. "I know that, Miss Jordan. I've got them all
+and there isn't no two of the pictures that looks alike."
+
+"Then how--?"
+
+"You see, it wasn't the newspaper pictures I was thinking of, miss, but
+Dorothy Dixon herself. You see I know Miss Dixon," she went on proudly,
+"and you two are certainly the spittin' images of each other, if you
+don't mind my saying so."
+
+Dorothy minded very much, but it was not consistent with the part she
+was playing to admit it. Here was a contretemps not even Ashton Sanborn
+had foreseen. Yet, of course, New Canaan was only ten miles away. She
+had many friends in Ridgefield, and she'd been there hundreds of times.
+But she simply couldn't remember having seen Gretchen in any of their
+homes. Her answer was but a feeble stall for time.
+
+"So you know her then?" she said lamely.
+
+"Oh, yes, miss. Not well, you understand. I saw her and Mr. Bill Bolton
+first when they finished the endurance test on the Conway motor this
+fall. Then a few days later, I drove over to her house in our
+flivver--over to New Canaan, you know, and I called on Miss Dixon. I
+wanted her to autograph a picture of herself I'd cut out of the Sunday
+paper."
+
+"And you met her?" Dorothy remembered the incident perfectly now. But
+the maid's uniform--and her hair--when she had seen her, Gretchen had
+worn two braids over her shoulders, very much the schoolgirl. No wonder
+she hadn't recognized her. But now what should she do? Would it be
+possible to keep up this camouflage with a girl whom she had met and
+with whom she would come in daily contact? Gretchen was talking again.
+
+"Yes indeed, I met her. And she was just darling to me, Miss Jordan. She
+even gave me one of her own photographs and wrote on it, too. You see,
+us Schmidts came over from Germany about a hundred years ago, but we're
+honest-to-goodness Americans just the same. Father was in the American
+army during the war. He was an aviation mechanic. He found one of them
+Iron Crosses of the Germans on some battlefield in France and kept it
+for a mascot. And would you believe it, miss, Father never even got
+wounded once, the whole time he was over there! Perhaps it was the
+little Iron Cross, and perhaps it wasn't. Anyway, he thought a lot of
+his mascot. When I was ten years old, he had it fixed on a thin gold
+chain for me to wear around my neck, and gave it to me on my birthday.
+Well, when I went to see Miss Dixon this fall, I took it with me. She
+goes up in her airplane so much and does so many other exciting things,
+I wanted her to have it. She didn't want to take the cross at first, but
+I persuaded her to, just the same. And you don't know how nice she was
+to me, Miss! Took me out to see Will-o-the-Wisp--that's her plane, you
+know--she calls it Wispy for short. And I had a perfectly grand time.
+She's my heroine, all right. And you, miss--I hope you'll excuse me for
+talking so much about it--but you look exactly like her, and your voices
+are just the same, too. It's wonderful!"
+
+"So you are Margaret Schmidt," Dorothy said slowly.
+
+"Yes, miss, that is so, though everybody calls me Gretchen. How did you
+know my given name, Miss Jordan? Is Miss Dixon a friend of yours? Did
+she tell you about me? But that's silly--she wouldn't remember me."
+
+Dorothy looked the little maid straight in the eyes. "She remembers you,
+Gretchen. Would you be willing to do something for her--to keep a
+secret, a very important and maybe a dangerous one? Do you think you
+could do it?"
+
+Gretchen looked awestruck, then she smiled. "Mother says I'm the
+closest-mouthed girl she ever saw, miss. They could cut me in pieces
+before I ever let out any secret of Dorothy Dixon's. I'd never tell--not
+me! You can trust me, Miss Jordan."
+
+"I'm sure I can, Gretchen. And I'm going to." Dorothy slipped her hand
+into the V-neck of her pajamas. "Remember this?"
+
+"Why--it's--it's my Iron Cross--that I gave Dorothy Dixon. How in the
+world--?"
+
+"I am Dorothy Dixon." Dorothy broke into laughter at the bewildered
+expression on the girl's face.
+
+"But--but I don't understand!" Gretchen stammered as though her tongue
+was half-paralyzed. "I knew the resemblance was wonderful--but--they
+said you were Miss Janet Jordan--and--"
+
+"You sit down on the end of the bed," said Dorothy, "I'll go on with my
+breakfast before it gets cold, and explain at the same time. We won't be
+disturbed, will we?"
+
+"Oh, no, miss."
+
+"How about your work, Gretchen? Will you be wanted downstairs?"
+
+"Mr. Tunbridge told me to unpack your trunk, miss--Miss Dixon--and to
+make myself generally useful."
+
+"Fine," smiled Dorothy, pouring out a cup of coffee. "But keep on
+calling me Miss Jordan--otherwise you'll be making slips in the name in
+front of other people and that would be fatal."
+
+"Yes, Miss Jordan," Gretchen grinned happily.
+
+"After this beastly business is over," Dorothy went on, "we'll be
+Gretchen and Dorothy to each other."
+
+The other girl looked a trifle embarrassed. "But I'm only a chambermaid,
+Miss Jordan," she said shyly.
+
+"Don't be silly!" Dorothy waved away the argument with a sweep of her
+spoon. "You're proving yourself a real friend--and that's that."
+
+"Very well, Miss Jordan."
+
+"Now pin back your ears, Gretchen." Dorothy lifted the cover from her
+scrambled eggs. "I am taking my cousin, Janet Jordan's place as Mrs.
+Lawson's secretary. Nobody in this house knows who I am except Mr.
+Tunbridge, nor must they be given the slightest hint that I am anybody
+but Janet Jordan. As you've probably guessed, Janet and I look almost
+exactly alike. Our mothers were twins and that probably accounts for
+it."
+
+"Gee--" breathed Gretchen. "It's just like a story in a book!"
+
+Dorothy bit into a slice of buttered toast. "Maybe it is," she admitted,
+speaking with her mouth full. "But the point is that you and I are
+living this story and it may come to a very abrupt and unpleasant ending
+unless we're both terribly careful. Let's see--where was I? Oh, yes. Mr.
+Tunbridge and I are working together on this case, working for the
+United States Government."
+
+"Secret Service?" asked Gretchen in an awed whisper.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I'll be working for the secret service too?" Dorothy could see
+that the girl was very much impressed with the idea.
+
+"You will, Gretchen--that is, you are--under me. But don't get too
+pepped up about it. The work we are on is serious and it is extremely
+dangerous into the bargain. I wouldn't have brought you into it unless I
+had to. Right now I haven't the slightest notion how you are going to be
+fitted into the picture. But I couldn't have you going around, talking
+about how much Janet Jordan looks like Dorothy Dixon, could I? Doctor
+Winn and the Lawsons have no idea of either the resemblance or the
+relationship. If that came out and they got wind of it--well, there's no
+telling what might happen."
+
+"Especially," chimed in Gretchen, "after all the detective work you did
+in those three big cases over to New Canaan this summer and fall."
+
+"You've got it," declared Dorothy, and sipped her coffee. "A robbery is
+being planned here, Gretchen, a robbery of some very valuable papers
+from Doctor Winn's safe. The thieves will probably try to pull it off
+tonight. These papers, which have to do with an invention of the
+Doctor's are worth a million dollars or more to any number of people. So
+you see the thieves are playing for big stakes, and I might as well tell
+you that they aren't the kind that would let a thing like murder stop
+them. And now that you know the facts, are you willing to go on with
+it?"
+
+Gretchen seemed horrified that Dorothy should doubt her. "Oh, Miss
+Jordan, I don't want to get murdered any more than anybody else--but,
+I'm not afraid--honest I'm not!"
+
+"I knew you were true blue," smiled Dorothy. "So we'll call it a deal,
+shall we?"
+
+"You bet!" The two girls solemnly shook hands. "What do you want me to
+do first, Miss Jordan?" Gretchen asked eagerly.
+
+"Move this tray onto the chair over there, please. Then while I'm taking
+a bath and dressing you might unpack Janet Jordan's clothes. I'll choose
+something to wear later."
+
+"Very good, Miss Jordan." The little maid took the tray, then stopped
+short, her round blue eyes very serious. "But what about the secret
+service work?"
+
+"Just carry on as usual for the present." Dorothy slipped out of bed.
+"And remember--not a word to anyone about what I've told you--not even
+Mr. Tunbridge. I don't know myself exactly what I'm to do yet. Mrs.
+Lawson expects me downstairs in about half an hour, so I've got to
+hustle. If I need your help later on, I'll get word to you somehow."
+
+"I hope you will need me, Miss Jordan." Gretchen was taking Janet's
+frocks from the wardrobe trunk.
+
+"And I hope I shan't!" said Dorothy, and she disappeared into the
+bathroom.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XII
+
+                                 TESTS
+
+
+Dorothy came down the wide staircase a few minutes before eleven-thirty.
+She wore a dark blue morning frock of her cousin's, its simplicity
+relieved only by the soft white collar and deep cuffs. Except for being
+rather tight across the shoulders it fitted her as though she had been
+poured into it. She had selected this dress because she knew it was just
+the sort of thing a new secretary would be expected to wear.
+
+She crossed the broad hall to the open door of the library, and there
+found Mrs. Lawson standing before a window staring into the storm.
+Although Dorothy's footsteps made practically no sound on the thick pile
+of the handsome Bokhara rug, the woman turned like a flash at her
+entrance.
+
+"Oh, good morning, Janet." The frown on her face gave way to a pleasant
+smile. "I hope you were comfortable last night. Did you sleep well?"
+
+"I dropped off as soon as my head touched the pillow," she answered,
+taking Mrs. Lawson's outstretched hand. Dorothy did not believe in
+telling a lie unless it was in a good cause; but when necessary, she
+invariably made the lie a good one.
+
+"I hope the storm didn't wake you," smiled Laura, holding Dorothy's
+hand.
+
+Dorothy did not reply at once. Two long fingers were lightly pressing
+her wrist, and she saw that Mrs. Lawson's eyes had strayed to the
+grandfather's clock in the corner of the room. "Test number one," she
+said to herself. "Mrs. du Val, alias Lawson is counting my pulse. Well,
+I've got a clear conscience, perhaps I can give her a shock." She drew
+her hand away and answered the woman's question in her normal voice.
+"Oh, the storm! No, I never heard it, Mrs. Lawson. If that hot lemonade
+had been drugged, I couldn't have slept any sounder!"
+
+"What makes you say that?" snapped her employer, and beneath the velvet
+tone, Dorothy sensed the ring of steel.
+
+She dropped her eyes, and turning toward the open hearth, held out her
+hands to the crackling blaze. "Oh, I don't know," she said sweetly and
+like the clever little strategist that she was, opened her own offensive
+in the enemy's territory. "I have the bad habit of occasionally walking
+in my sleep, Mrs. Lawson--and especially when I spend the night in a
+strange bed. Perhaps it's nervousness--I don't know."
+
+Mrs. Lawson threw her a sharp glance. "Sit down, Janet," she suggested,
+pointing to a chair near the fire, and taking one herself across the
+hearth. "You're--I mean, you don't seem to be at all nervous this
+morning."
+
+"Good old pulse!" thought Dorothy. Then aloud--"No, I feel splendidly,
+thank you. But, you see, I didn't walk in my sleep last night."
+
+"But surely you can't tell when you do it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I can." Dorothy's manner and tone were those of the simple
+schoolgirl proud of an unusual accomplishment.
+
+"You don't expect me to believe that you know what you're doing when you
+walk in your sleep, Janet. That's impossible!"
+
+"Not while I'm sleepwalking, Mrs. Lawson. That wasn't what I said--but
+when I have been sleepwalking--there's a difference, you see?"
+
+"Well?" The lady of the house objected to being contradicted and took no
+trouble to hide it.
+
+"It's really very simple," explained Dorothy, painstakingly, as though
+she were speaking to a rather stupid child. "I found out how to do it.
+You see, I've been walking in my sleep ever since I was a little thing.
+When I get in bed at night I leave my slippers on the floor beside it
+pointed outward--away from the bed. We all leave them that way, I guess.
+It's the natural thing to do."
+
+"But what have slippers got to do with it?" Laura was becoming
+impatient.
+
+"Everything, so far as I'm concerned, Mrs. Lawson. When I've been
+walking at night, I always find them in the morning beside the bed, but
+pointing _toward_ it. I evidently slip them off before I get back into
+bed, and--"
+
+"I'm beginning to think you are quite a clever girl, Janet."
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Dorothy with a guilelessness that was sheer
+camouflage. "Has anybody been saying I'm stupid? I've always stood high
+in my classes at school."
+
+"Oh, not stupid, child--but nervous--perhaps a little unbalanced,
+especially this past week."
+
+Dorothy raised her heavy lashes and looked Mrs. Lawson squarely in the
+face. This might be a test she was undergoing and it probably was; but
+here was a heaven sent chance to stir up discord in the enemy's camp.
+She must work up to it gradually.
+
+"I know that I was nervous and upset past all endurance." She leaned
+forward, her hands on the arms of the chair. "How would you like your
+father to lock you in your bedroom for a week, without ever coming to
+see you, or giving you any explanation for such outrageous treatment? Am
+I a child to be handled like that? To be shipped up here to strangers,
+whether I wanted to go or not? How would you feel about it, Mrs. Lawson,
+if you were me? Don't say you would submit to it sitting down."
+
+"But I am taking you on as my secretary," the lady hedged. "Offering you
+a good position for which you'll be paid twenty dollars a week. That's
+not to be thought of lightly, especially in these times."
+
+"But it doesn't seem to strike you that I might like to have something
+to say about it," Dorothy replied calmly. "As for the salary--that's no
+inducement. My mother left me five thousand a year. I came into the
+income on my last birthday, so you see I have nearly a hundred dollars a
+week, whether I work or not."
+
+"I didn't know that, of course," Mrs. Lawson admitted and none too
+graciously. "Your father wants you to be here while he's away. I hope
+you aren't going to be difficult, Janet."
+
+"I hope not, Mrs. Lawson. I shall be glad to stay here for a while and
+do the work you'd planned for me; but if I do, it must be as a guest and
+not as a paid dependant."
+
+"But you are a guest, Janet."
+
+"I shall not accept a salary, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+"Very well, my dear, if you wish it that way."
+
+"Thank you very much."
+
+"To get back to our former topic," Mrs. Lawson said, and lit a
+cigarette. "I can understand that your father's conduct in confining you
+to your room might be exasperating--but why should it make you nervous?
+And my husband tells me that when he visited you in your room you acted
+as though you were in deadly fear of something or somebody every time he
+saw you. What was the trouble, Janet? Was anything worrying you?"
+
+"Yes, there was, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+Dorothy looked down at the andirons, and her hands on the chair arms
+twisted embarrassedly. From the corner of her eye she saw a smile of
+satisfaction light up the older woman's face. She knew she was playing
+with fire and that Mrs. Lawson was watching her as a hawk watches its
+defenseless prey before it strikes. But all unknown to her inquisitor,
+Dorothy had been leading her into this trap as a move forward in her own
+game. Genuine dislike for the woman as well as a mischievous impulse on
+her part drew her to make the scene as dramatic and convincing as
+possible.
+
+"Yes--I--I--was afraid," she went on, dragging out the words slowly.
+
+"Then don't you think you'd better tell me about it, Janet? I'm nearly
+old enough to be your mother. Let me take your mother's place, dear.
+Give me your confidence. I feel sure I'll be able to help you, child."
+
+This reference to Janet's dead mother by a woman who was the vilest kind
+of a hypocrite swept away Dorothy's last compunction. She herself was
+going to commit justifiable libel. Mrs. Lawson, on the other hand, was
+attempting to lead Janet Jordan into a confession of shamming sleep at
+the fateful meeting a week ago. And such a confession meant a sentence
+of death from this beautiful siren who gazed at her so winningly, who
+puffed a cigarette so nonchalantly while she waited for an unsuspecting
+girl to commit herself.
+
+"Well, I don't know--I can't help hesitating to tell _you_, Mrs.
+Lawson," Dorothy began timidly.
+
+"There's no need to be afraid of anything," replied the woman, only half
+veiling the sneer that went with the words.
+
+"Oh, but you see, there is, Mrs. Lawson!" Dorothy's manner was still
+indecisive. "I don't want--in fact, I hate awfully to hurt you this
+way."
+
+"Hurt me!" Mrs. Lawson's cigarette snapped into the fireplace like a
+miniature comet. "Hurt me, child? What in the wide world are you talking
+about?"
+
+"Just what I say, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+Mrs. Lawson sniffed. "Don't be ridiculous, Janet. Out with it now. What
+did you fear when you were locked in your room?"
+
+"Your husband, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+"My husband!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But--why--I don't believe you."
+
+"Oh, very well. You asked the question, I was trying to answer it,
+that's all."
+
+Mrs. Lawson bit her lip. She was furious. "As long as you've said what
+you have, you'd better go on with it," she said acidly.
+
+"There isn't any more," returned Dorothy. "That's all there is."
+
+"But surely he must have given you reasons for your assertion." Mrs.
+Lawson had walked beautifully into Dorothy's trap. Her own plan to snare
+an unsuspecting girl had been blotted out by the shadow of the Green
+Goddess, Jealousy. "Tell me what my husband did or said to make you fear
+him, and tell me at once."
+
+"It wasn't what he did, Mrs. Lawson--it was the way he looked."
+
+"What do you mean--the way he looked?"
+
+Dorothy had thrust a painful knife into the mental cosmos of her
+adversary. Now she deliberately turned it in the wound. "Very probably,"
+she said quietly, looking her straight in the eyes, "you can remember
+how Mr. Lawson looked when he first made love to you. I don't want to be
+made love to, and I don't like _him_, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+"What did you do?"
+
+"I told him to leave me--and when he would not go, I simply walked into
+my bathroom and locked the door."
+
+"But what happened the next time he came? Martin went in to see you
+every day, didn't he?"
+
+"He did. But he talked to me through the bathroom door. Just as soon as
+I heard the key turn in the lock I'd hop in there."
+
+The man she had been talking about must have been listening just outside
+in the hall, for now he strode into the room and up to Dorothy. "That,"
+he said menacingly, "is a deliberate lie, Miss Janet Jordan!"
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIII
+
+                                WINNITE
+
+
+Dorothy looked up and smiled carelessly at the man. "You're very polite,
+Mr. Lawson. Perhaps it isn't my place to say it to a man old enough to
+be my father--but eavesdroppers rarely hear good of themselves."
+
+Martin Lawson, who prided himself upon his youthful appearance, grew
+angrier than ever. "I--I won't stand for such outrageous libel," he
+thundered. "I've always treated you as though you were my own--well,
+daughter, if you like."
+
+"I _don't_ like it, Mr. Lawson--but that doesn't make any difference,"
+Dorothy's tone was one of pained acceptance. "If you listened long
+enough, you will know that I didn't bring this matter up myself. Mrs.
+Lawson was asking questions and I was trying to answer them, that's all.
+If you prefer it, I'll say that it was the wind whistling outside the
+windows that made me afraid." She looked over at Mrs. Lawson, who was
+watching them through half shut eyes, as though to say, "--you
+understand, of course--anything for peace."
+
+Martin Lawson intercepted the glance and became even more furious, if
+that were possible. "You--you little viper!" he snarled. "Laura, don't
+you believe a word of it. The whole thing's her own invention--a pack of
+lies!"
+
+"A silly schoolgirl fancy, if you like, Martin." Laura Lawson's tone was
+expressionless. "But I can understand it just the same. Yes, I can
+understand it."
+
+"What do you mean--you understand it?"
+
+"I was a girl once myself," she replied in the same colorless tone. "And
+then, you see, I know you very, very well."
+
+"Oh, you do, do you?"
+
+"He's off again," sighed Dorothy, but quite to herself.
+
+"And you have the nerve to insinuate--?" the angry man went on, beside
+himself with rage. "You know as well as I do, Laura, that this girl was
+afraid because of what she saw and heard at the meeting. She--"
+
+"That will be quite enough, Martin." His wife interrupted him sharply.
+"And what is more--you probably have not noticed that since Janet has
+been here and with other people, she is very much herself--and afraid of
+nothing at all."
+
+"What meeting is he talking about, Mrs. Lawson?" Dorothy pointedly
+ignored the angry husband.
+
+Mrs. Lawson stood up. "Never mind that now," she decreed, albeit
+pleasantly. "Come along with me to my office. I have some typing I'd
+like you to do for me before luncheon. Martin!" She swung round on her
+husband. "You will wait here for me. I'll be back in a few minutes--I
+want to talk to you." She slipped her arm through Dorothy's and drew her
+from the room.
+
+Once in the entrance hall, she led her back and under the gallery to a
+corridor which opened at the right of the broad stairs. Dorothy saw that
+there were several doors in the right hand wall. Mrs. Lawson stopped at
+the second of these and opened it.
+
+They walked in and Dorothy saw that they were in the office. It seemed
+very businesslike and austere after coming from the luxury of the
+library and spacious hall. Near the one window stood a broad table desk,
+and opposite that a typewriter desk. Two steel filing cabinets and three
+plain chairs completed the room's furnishings. The walls were hung with
+framed blueprints and a large-scale map of Fairfield County,
+Connecticut.
+
+Mrs. Lawson took some papers from a drawer in the large desk and handed
+them to Dorothy. "This is in longhand, as you see," she explained,
+"please type it, double space, and I'd like to have a carbon copy." She
+glanced at a small wrist-watch set with diamonds. "It is just noon now.
+Luncheon is at one. Do you think you can finish the work by that time?"
+
+Dorothy glanced at the manuscript. "This won't make more than four
+typewritten sheets. I can do it easily in an hour and have time to
+spare."
+
+"Good!" The older woman patted her lightly on the shoulder. "Take your
+time about it. Do you think you can read my handwriting?"
+
+"Nothing could be plainer, Mrs. Lawson." Dorothy smiled back at her.
+
+"Very well, then. I'll see you at lunch. The dining room is across the
+hall from the library."
+
+At the door, she stopped and turned as though she had just remembered
+something.
+
+"Don't let what my husband said bother you, Janet."
+
+"That's forgotten already," Dorothy said easily.
+
+"Like most men, he flies off the handle when irritated. Pay no attention
+to it."
+
+"I understand."
+
+Mrs. Lawson hesitated for the fraction of a second. "By the way, Janet,"
+she remarked. "When was the last time you walked in your sleep--that you
+found your slippers pointed toward your bed in the morning?"
+
+Dorothy pretended to think. "Let me see," she said slowly. "Yes--it was
+the night before Daddy locked me in my room! I found that I couldn't get
+out in the morning, and naturally, I wanted to know the reason why. I
+still do, for that matter. Except for some foolishness about my being
+ill, I'm still waiting for an explanation. As a matter of fact, I was
+perfectly well. I'm terribly annoyed, of course, and it worries me to
+think that Daddy should act this way, but so far as my health goes, I've
+never felt better."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it, dear. We'll check up on your father when he
+returns. I'm your friend, you know. Don't let the matter prey on your
+mind."
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Lawson. I'll try to do as you say." Dorothy thought she
+was going then, but it seemed that the woman had still another question
+that she had been holding back.
+
+"When you are in this somnambulistic state," she said, "when you are
+sleepwalking, I mean, doesn't it terrify you to awaken and find yourself
+out of your bed?"
+
+Dorothy frowned and seemed puzzled. "Perhaps it would," she admitted.
+"But then, you see, I can't remember ever wakening while I was walking
+during the night. I must sleep very soundly. At school the night
+watchman or one of the teachers would frequently find me walking about
+the building. They would lead me back to bed, or just tell me to go
+there, and I would always obey. Until they told me about it next day, I
+knew nothing of course. That's how I got onto the business of the
+slippers, you see."
+
+"Oh, yes. I wondered how you'd been able to check on it. Well, I must
+trot along now and let you get to work. Until luncheon then, my dear."
+
+She was gone at last and Dorothy made a face at the closed door. "Of all
+the plausible hypocrites I've ever met," she muttered, "you certainly
+take the well known chocolate cake!"
+
+She sat down at the typewriter desk, pulled out the machine, and slipped
+in two sheets of paper and a carbon that she found in one of the
+drawers. Halfway through a perusal of Mrs. Lawson's first page, she
+looked up. The door opened quickly and Mr. Tunbridge came into the room.
+
+"I've just a moment," he prefaced hurriedly. "They mustn't find me here.
+What was the row in the library?"
+
+Dorothy explained briefly.
+
+"Fine! Put you through the hoops, eh? I had a good idea she would do
+something of the kind. You came out of a difficult situation with flying
+colors, I take it. But be careful about run-ins with Lawson. He's a
+slick article--in fact, the two of them are a pair of the slickest
+articles it's ever been my misfortune to run across. And they're going
+it hammer and tongs in the library right now. I was a bit worried about
+you, that's why I took this chance."
+
+"When do I get my instructions for tonight?"
+
+"Late this afternoon, probably. I'll get them to you somehow."
+
+"Thanks. And here's something else. This script I'm going to type for
+Mrs. L. has to do with the properties of a highly explosive gas which
+seems to burn up everything it comes in contact with and lets off fumes
+of deadly poison while it's doing that! Shall I make a copy for you?"
+
+"Please do!" His hand rested on the doorknob. "Yes, it's important that
+we have a copy. That's the stuff Doctor Winn has just invented, without
+a doubt."
+
+"Awful!" exclaimed Dorothy. "Just think what would happen if that were
+used in a war!"
+
+"That's the government's business, Miss Dixon."
+
+"'Ours but to do--and die--'" she quoted and her tone was deadly
+serious.
+
+"Quite right. But make the carbon copy just the same--and don't let them
+catch you at it."
+
+"I won't, Mr. Tunbridge."
+
+"Bye-bye, then. I'll get along now. There may be some home truths
+floating out of the library that will give me extra dope on the
+du-Val--Lawson pair."
+
+The door closed, and after slipping an extra carbon and a sheet of very
+thin copy paper into the typewriter, Dorothy read Mrs. Lawson's treatise
+on "Winnite and Its Properties" from start to finish.
+
+"Horrible!" she murmured, as she finished reading. "Simply horrible!"
+Again her eyes sought the last paragraph. "The effect is easily
+estimated of an airplane dropping a single bomb filled with the
+explosive, inflammable and deadly poison gas, Winnite, upon Manhattan
+Island, for instance: the bomb would explode upon detonation and within
+an inconceivably short space of time, not only would the City of Greater
+New York be in flames, but every living thing within that area would be
+dead from the poison fumes. This includes not only human, animal and
+insect life, but all vegetable matter as well."
+
+Dorothy sighed. "And I am supposed to help keep this terrible stuff from
+the hands of thieves so that our government may use it in time of war.
+Well--we'll see--and that's not that by a long shot!"
+
+She put down the manuscript and began to type it.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIV
+
+                               PROFESSOR
+
+
+Dorothy, upon finishing the article on Winnite, laid the original and
+first carbon copy of the typewritten sheets on Mrs. Lawson's desk. The
+almost transparent sheets of the second carbon copy she folded carefully
+as though she meant to place them in an envelope. But instead of this,
+her right foot slipped out of its walking pump, the sheer silk stocking
+followed it. Then she put on the stocking again, but now the soft papers
+rested between the stocking and the sole of her foot. The pump fitted
+more snugly than before, although not uncomfortably so. Content with her
+morning's work, she had closed the typewriter and was studying the
+effect of a new shade of powder in her compact mirror when Mrs. Lawson
+came into the room.
+
+"I take it you've finished the work?"
+
+"The original and copy are beside the longhand manuscript on your desk,"
+said Dorothy, toning down her efforts with the puff. "I've read it over
+and I don't think you'll find any mistakes."
+
+Mrs. Lawson ran her eyes over the typewritten sheets. "They are without
+a fault," she declared, placing them in a drawer. "If you take dictation
+as accurately as you type, Janet, you'll be the perfect secretary."
+
+"Thank you," said Dorothy demurely and slipped the compact into the
+pocket of her frock. "It is very nice of you to say that."
+
+"Then we'll go in to luncheon, shall we? That is, if you're ready?"
+
+Dorothy stood up. "Quite ready, Mrs. Lawson, and good and hungry, too."
+
+"Splendid!" enthused her hostess, as they walked down the corridor
+toward the entrance hall. "Doctor Winn declares this Connecticut Ridge
+country is the most healthful section of the United States. And even if
+some people have other ideas on the subject, I can testify that it is a
+great appetite builder."
+
+Dorothy smiled, but said nothing. She was wondering how healthful she
+was going to find this particular spot in the Ridge country after what
+she had to do tonight.
+
+"Doctor Winn always lunches in his study," continued Mrs. Lawson. "That
+is the room just beyond my office. My husband has been called to New
+York on business. He won't be back until after dinner tonight, so we
+will be alone at luncheon."
+
+For some reason of her own, Laura Lawson had become affability itself.
+And for this Dorothy gave thanks. That she disliked this truly beautiful
+creature was only natural. But it is much more pleasant to lunch with a
+person who puts herself out to be charming and affable, no matter what
+your private opinion of the other's character may be.
+
+The dining room proved to be a low-ceiled apartment paneled in white
+pine; heavy beams of the satin-finished wood overhead, and on the walls
+several colorful landscapes in oils, evidently the works of artists who
+knew and loved this Ridge country. A cheerful log fire burned brightly
+on the open hearth beneath a high mantelpiece. Outside, the heavy snow
+continued to drive past frosted window-panes, but within all was warmth
+and coziness.
+
+Dorothy enjoyed the meal thoroughly. Like most girls, she revelled in
+luxury when it came her way. Not only was her hostess an interesting and
+entertaining conversationalist, the delicious food served by Tunbridge
+and a second man in plum-colored knee breeches, added materially to her
+pleasure. She was really sorry when the butler lighted his mistress'
+cigarette and Mrs. Lawson rose from the table.
+
+"I have no work for you this afternoon, Janet," said the lady, as they
+strolled into the spacious hall with its suits of polished armor and
+trophies of war and the chase decorating the walls. "I have some work to
+complete with Doctor Winn, so I won't be free to entertain you. There
+are periodicals and novels in the library. If it weren't such a beastly
+day, I would suggest a walk."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind a snowstorm!" Dorothy smiled at her. "I'd love to be
+out in it for a while."
+
+"But I'm afraid you might get lost. The blizzard is driving out of the
+northeast--and that means something in this country. You'll find it more
+disagreeable than you think."
+
+"I'm not afraid to walk in a blizzard," Dorothy argued, "we used to do
+it a lot at school--I love it."
+
+"Oh, very well, then," went on Mrs. Lawson. "I used to enjoy that sort
+of thing myself. Somebody had better go with you, though. Let me see--"
+She hesitated. "Oh, yes--Gretchen will be just the person. She's a nice
+little thing--a native of Ridgefield, you know. Gretchen can show you
+round the place, and there'll be no chance of your getting lost."
+
+Dorothy was amused by this pretended concern for her safety. She knew
+that Mrs. Lawson feared she might take it into her head to walk to the
+railroad station and board the first train back to town. Gretchen as
+guide and chaperone would be able to forestall anything like that. Mrs.
+Lawson was not yet sure of the new secretary!
+
+Dorothy's features betrayed no sign of her thoughts. "That will be ever
+so much pleasanter than going alone," she agreed. "Gretchen seems to be
+a sweet girl. I saw her this morning when she brought my breakfast and
+unpacked my clothes. I'm sorry, though, that you can't come too."
+Deception, she found, was becoming a habit when treating with her
+hostess.
+
+"Thank you, my dear--I'm sorry, too." Mrs. Lawson went toward the
+tasselled bell rope that hung beside the fireplace. "Run upstairs now
+and get into warm things. I'll ring for Gretchen and have her meet you
+down here in quarter of an hour."
+
+Fifteen minutes afterward, warmly dressed in whipcord jodhpurs, a heavy
+sweater and knee-length leather coat of dark green, Dorothy came out of
+her room onto the gallery, pulling a white wool skating cap well down
+over her ears. With a white wool scarf twisted about her throat, the
+long ends thrown back over her shoulders, she looked ready for any
+winter sport as she ran lightly down the stairs, the rubber soles of her
+high arctics making no sound on the broad oaken steps.
+
+Gretchen, well bundled up in sweater and heavy tweed skirt was waiting
+for her.
+
+"You certainly do look like a picture on a Christmas magazine cover,
+Miss Jordan," the girl exclaimed, while they walked to the front door.
+"I'm glad you've got warm gauntlets. It's mighty cold out--you'll need
+them."
+
+Dorothy laughed gaily and swung open the door. "Nothing could be more
+becoming than your own costume, Gretchen. That light blue skating set is
+just the color of your eyes."
+
+"That," chuckled Gretchen, "is the real reason I bought it."
+
+They were outside now and standing under the wide porte-cochere of glass
+and wrought iron.
+
+"It's glorious out here, and not too cold, either." Dorothy sniffed the
+sharp air enthusiastically. "I hate staying indoors on a wild day like
+this. Look at those big flakes spinning down and sideslipping into the
+drifts. It makes one glad to be alive."
+
+"You said it, Miss Jordan. I love it myself--though I never thought of
+snowflakes being like airplanes before. Which way do you want to go?"
+
+"You're the leader, Gretchen. Anywhere you say suits me."
+
+"Then let's tramp over to the pond, Miss Jordan. The ice ought to be
+holding. We'll stop at the garage and fetch a broom along. There's too
+much snow for skating, but we might make a slide."
+
+"That will be fun," agreed Dorothy, as they came down the steps and
+swung along the white expanse of driveway. "I haven't done anything like
+that since I was a kid. How far's the pond from here?"
+
+"About half a mile. Doctor Winn owns several hundred acres. It's down
+yonder in a hollow. This time of year when the trees are bare, you can
+see it plainly from the house. Today there's too much snow."
+
+"There certainly is plenty of it!" Dorothy was ploughing through the
+fluffy white mass nearly up to her knees. "A good eighteen inches must
+have fallen already and it's drifting fast. If it doesn't stop by
+tonight, Winncote will be snowed in for a while. What's that building
+over there, Gretchen--gray stone, isn't it?"
+
+"That's the laboratory, miss. It's really a wing of the house. The
+stables are just beyond, but this storm's so thick, it blots them out.
+Well, here we are at the garage. If you'll wait a minute, I'll step
+inside and get a broom."
+
+"Get two if you can," suggested Dorothy. "Then we'll both get some
+exercise, and they'll come in handy while we're getting through the
+drifts."
+
+"I'll do my best," said Gretchen. She disappeared through a door in the
+side of the building.
+
+Dorothy looked about her. Rolling clouds of windswept snowflakes made it
+impossible to see objects more than a few yards away with any
+distinctness. The dark shadow of low clouds painted the white of her
+landscape a cold, dull gray. But she noticed, as she waited, that the
+storm was driving in gusts, that occasionally there would be a short
+lull when the sun, tinging the sky with rose and yellow, seemed fighting
+to break its way through to this white-blanketed world. Then Gretchen, a
+broom in each hand, joined her.
+
+"Whew! that place was stuffy," she said, handing one of the brooms to
+Dorothy, and starting ahead at right angles from the way they had come.
+"Hanley made a fuss giving me two--he would! It's a wonder the cars
+don't melt in there. He keeps the place like an oven. All the help from
+the city is like that. They can't seem to get warm enough, and the way
+they hate fresh air is a caution! I roomed with Sadie, the other
+chambermaid, when I first came, and you won't believe it, but that girl
+had nailed our window shut so it couldn't be opened! I spoke to Mr.
+Tunbridge next morning, and he gave me a room of my own. I always did
+like Mr. Tunbridge. He's a real gentleman, he is."
+
+They forged ahead through the drifts to the crossfire of Gretchen's
+light chatter, and Dorothy was given a series of entertaining stories
+concerning the habits of the Winncote servants and their life
+below-stairs. It was rough going with the storm in their faces, and
+Gretchen eventually ceased her gossiping from sheer lack of breath. The
+ground began to slope gently downward, and finally they came to a belt
+of trees in a hollow. Fifty yards farther on, a broad expanse of white
+marked the extent of Winncote Pond beneath its thick, flat quilt of
+snow.
+
+"Think the ice will hold?" Dorothy walked to the brink of the little
+lake. "I'd hate to go in on a day like this."
+
+"Oh, that's all right. I was down here for an hour yesterday afternoon
+with my skates before the snow began, and it was much warmer then. The
+ice was wonderful--slick as glass and solid as a rock."
+
+By dint of considerable exercise they cleared two narrow paths that ran
+parallel across the ice. Then they commenced a series of sliding
+contests, each girl on her own ice track. Starting at a line in the snow
+a few yards above the low bank, they would race forward to the brink and
+shoot out on the ice, vying with each other to see who could slide the
+farthest. There were several tumbles at first, but the deep snow along
+the sides of the tracks prevented bad bumps. Soon, however, they both
+became adepts at the sport. Dorothy, aided by her extra weight, for she
+was at least twenty pounds heavier than little Gretchen, invariably won.
+
+After a half an hour of this rather violent sport, they cleared the snow
+from a fallen tree trunk and sat down for a rest. Here in the hollow,
+surrounded by trees, the wind lost a great deal of its force. But the
+snow continued to fall unabated, and their hot breath clouded like steam
+in the cold air. Their cheeks were tingling crimson from the racing, and
+both felt in high good spirits.
+
+"I can't understand why so many rich people go south every winter,"
+Gretchen said earnestly. "I wouldn't miss out on this fun--the snow and
+the skating, tobogganing--for anything in the world."
+
+"People like that," decreed Dorothy, "just don't know how to live. You
+can have lots of fun in summer, of course. I don't know which I love the
+best. But this sort of thing makes you feel just grand. It certainly put
+the pep into--." She stopped short and sprang to her feet. From
+somewhere close by and seemingly below her, had come a low, moaning
+sound.
+
+Gretchen jumped up. Her doll-like face with its round, blue eyes took on
+a look of startled wonder. "What was that?" she cried. "It sounded as if
+I--as if I was sitting on it!"
+
+Again came the low cry in a weird, minor key.
+
+"You were. It's coming from the inside of this log. An animal of some
+kind."
+
+"Why, I guess you're right. Whatever it is, the thing gave me the
+heebie-jeebies for a minute."
+
+The snow had drifted over the butt of the half-rotted tree. Dorothy took
+her broom and swept it clear.
+
+"The log's hollow!" she exclaimed and bent down. "Yes, there's something
+in there--I can see its eyes--come here, Gretchen! You can see for
+yourself."
+
+"Not me!" declared that young woman. "I don't want to get bit--I mean,
+bitten, miss."
+
+"Oh, never mind the grammar." Dorothy was almost standing on her head,
+trying to get a better view. "But do cut out the polite trimmings when
+we're alone. You're Gretchen and I'm Dorothy--savez?"
+
+"All right--Dorothy. But please be careful. That thing may jump out at
+you."
+
+"I wish it would. Then I'd know what it is. And whatever it is, the
+animal in there can't be much bigger than a rabbit. The hole isn't wide
+enough."
+
+"Maybe it is a rabbit." Gretchen came nearer.
+
+"Did you ever hear a rabbit make a noise like that?" Dorothy's tone was
+disdainful.
+
+"Then--maybe it's a wildcat!" said Gretchen fearfully.
+
+"Well, if it is, it's a small one. Here, puss--puss. The silly thing is
+too far in to reach. She just blinks at me."
+
+"Perhaps she's hurt and crawled in there to die, Dorothy."
+
+"Aren't you cheerful! She probably crawled in there to get out of the
+storm, and is half-frozen, poor thing."
+
+"Well, I don't know what we're going to do about it," sighed Gretchen,
+still keeping her distance.
+
+Once more the low moan came from the log, but now that the end was free
+from snow, the sound was much clearer.
+
+"That's no wildcat, either!" Dorothy twisted her head, first to the
+right, then to the left, in an attempt to get a better light on the
+log's occupant. "There's too much of a whine in that cry. The thing's
+probably a young fox. How does one call a fox, Gretchen? I'm hanged if I
+know."
+
+"Nor me, neither, Dorothy. It's the first time I've ever heard of
+anybody wanting to call one."
+
+They both laughed. "You don't seem to know much about foxes," teased
+Dorothy. "Didn't you ever see a fox?"
+
+"No. But my father says the way they steal eggs and suck them is a
+caution."
+
+"Well," admitted Dorothy, "we can't stand around here all day, trying to
+get frozen foxes out of hollow logs. I'll try whistling, and you can
+make a noise like a sucked egg. If that doesn't work, we'll have to
+leave him in his lair." With a wink at the giggling Gretchen, she bent
+down again and whistled shrilly. "Here, boy!" she called. "Come on out
+to your mama!"
+
+There was a scrambling noise within the log, and Gretchen started for
+the pond.
+
+"Oh, be careful, Dorothy! Do be careful!" she cried, as she saw her
+friend gather a small creature into her arms. "What is it, anyway--is it
+a fox?"
+
+"No, a first cousin." Dorothy shook the ends of her wool scarf free from
+snow and wrapped them around the small animal.
+
+"A first cousin?" Gretchen came nearer. "What in the world do you mean
+by that?"
+
+"Come and take a look," her friend invited. "He won't bite you, will
+you, boy?"
+
+Gretchen saw her pat a little black nose that poked its way out of the
+scarf. A long pointed head, brindle and white, in which were set two
+snapping black eyes, followed the nose. "Why, why, it's a fox terrier--a
+fox terrier puppy!" she gasped. "How do you suppose he ever came to
+crawl into that log?"
+
+Dorothy patted the dog's head. "Got lost in the storm, I guess. The poor
+little chap can't be over three months old. Does he belong up at the
+house?"
+
+"No, he doesn't. What's more, none of the people who live around here
+have a fox terrier pup that I know of."
+
+Dorothy examined the pup's front paws, but did so very gently. "This
+little man has come a long way." She covered him again. "The bottom of
+his feet show it. They're cut and badly swollen. And he's half-frozen
+and starved into the bargain, I'll bet. Let's go back to the house and
+make him comfortable."
+
+"I'll carry the brooms," said Gretchen. "You have an armful, with him.
+By the way, you're going to keep him, aren't you?"
+
+"Surest thing you know! That is, unless someone comes to claim him."
+
+They trudged off through the trees and up the hill, Gretchen shouldering
+the brooms.
+
+"What are you going to call him?" she asked, after a while.
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"Why, I don't know. Wait a minute, though--there's a girl who lives over
+in Silvermine named Dorothea Gutmann. Daddy sometimes does work for her
+father. Dorothea has a fox terrier pup and she calls him 'Professor.' Do
+you know why?"
+
+"I give up," said Dorothy, floundering through the snow beside her. "Why
+does Dorothea Gutmann call her fox terrier pup Professor?"
+
+"Because," smiled Gretchen in delight, "he just about ate up a
+dictionary!"
+
+Dorothy laughed merrily, and hugged the warm little bundle in her arms.
+"And when you've got outside a lot of words like that, even a pup would
+know as much as the average professor, I s'pose."
+
+"That's the way Dorothea thought about it. I've been over to the
+Gutmanns a couple of times with Daddy and her dog looks enough like
+yours to be a twin!"
+
+"We run into doubles nowadays, every day!" Dorothy chuckled. "First it's
+Janet and me who can't be told apart. Then it's Dorothea's dog and mine.
+I know her, too, by the way. She's in the New Canaan Junior High. But I
+haven't seen her puppy. Our names are almost alike, too, but not quite,
+thank goodness. If any more of this double identity business comes
+along, I'll just have to give up. A girl's got to have some sort of a
+personality all her own, you know."
+
+"I wouldn't let that worry me," said Gretchen. "There's only one Dorothy
+Dixon, after all."
+
+"Thanks for those kind words, Gretchen. That's really very sweet of you,
+though. If the pup was a lady, I'd call him 'Gretchen'. Since he isn't,
+'Professor' will do very nicely. We'll try him on a dictionary when we
+get home, that is, after he's had some nice warm bread and milk, and a
+good sleep."
+
+"If," smiled Gretchen, "what you said just now was meant for a
+compliment--well, I'm glad Professor is not a lady. You'd better go on
+to the house, while I drop these brooms in here at the garage. I'll come
+to your room just as soon as I can slip into my uniform, and I'll bring
+up the bread and milk."
+
+"I always knew you were a dear," said Dorothy, and she continued to push
+her way on toward the house.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XV
+
+                             TEA AND ORDERS
+
+
+After she had changed her clothes and fed the famished pup with a bowl
+of warm milk and bread, Dorothy took him down to the library. Gretchen
+brought a small open basket and a blanket and they made him a bed near
+the open fire. Professor promptly went to sleep, and his mistress curled
+up in a deep chair beside him, reading and dozing for the rest of the
+afternoon. To amuse Gretchen, she had placed a dictionary near the
+basket, to see if Professor would follow his double's example and so
+justify his name. When he awoke, however, about four o'clock, he merely
+jumped out of his bed on to the book, and up to Dorothy's lap, where he
+went to sleep again.
+
+"Good ole pup!" Dorothy rubbed his smooth, warm head between his ears.
+"You show your intelligence by using the dictionary as a stepping stone
+to better things, don't you, Prof!"
+
+She yawned, closed her book, and promptly went to sleep again herself.
+
+She awoke with a start, to find Mrs. Lawson smiling down at her.
+Tunbridge was laying the tea-things on a table at the other side of the
+fire. "Well, my dear," the lady said, her eyes on the fox terrier, "I
+see you've found a new friend."
+
+"Oh, yes, isn't he just too darling? I found him out in the blizzard, he
+was half frozen and almost starved!" She went on to tell Mrs. Lawson
+about it.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm not very fond of animals, Janet." Dorothy noticed that
+she did not attempt to touch the puppy. "I don't dislike them, you
+understand, but somehow they never seem to like me."
+
+"That's too bad," said Dorothy. "I do hope you won't mind my keeping
+him--at least until we learn who his owner is?"
+
+Laura Lawson looked doubtful. "Well, I don't mind. But--this is Doctor
+Winn's house, you know, and his decision, after all, is the one that
+counts. You will have to ask him about keeping the dog, Janet."
+
+"Is Doctor Winn going to have tea with us, Mrs. Lawson?"
+
+"He most certainly is, my dear. That is, if you ladies will pour him a
+cup."
+
+Dorothy glanced up, and beside her stood an old gentleman, very tall and
+spare, but bowed with the weight of his years. She knew that the
+scientist was well over eighty. Catching up the fox terrier, she rose to
+her feet.
+
+"How do you do, Doctor Winn?" She smiled and offered him her hand.
+
+The old gentleman bent over it with courtly grace. "Good afternoon, Miss
+Janet Jordan. Welcome to Winncote." Merry gray eyes twinkled at her from
+behind pince-nez attached to a broad black ribbon. An aristocrat of the
+old school, Dorothy thought, as she studied his handsome, clean shaven
+face crisscrossed with the tiny wrinkles of advanced age. She had
+imagined him to be quite a different sort of person. His next words
+proved that he read her thoughts.
+
+"You expected to see a musty old fellow, with a long white beard,
+wearing a smock stained by chemicals, eh?" He chuckled softly. "Now,
+tell me, young lady, isn't that so? Though I admit these flannel slacks
+and old Norfolk jacket are hardly fashionable habiliments when one is
+taking tea with ladies!"
+
+He released her hand and smiled a greeting to Mrs. Lawson. The second
+footman, he of the plum-colored knee-breeches, set the tea table before
+that young matron, under the supervision of the stately Tunbridge.
+
+Dorothy liked this gallant old scientist and his courtly ways. Her own
+eyes sparkled gaily back at him. "Yes, you did surprise me, Doctor
+Winn," she confessed. "Please don't think I'm being forward, but--but
+you seem much more like the English fox-hunting squires I've read about,
+than the world-renowned chemist you really are, with stacks of letters
+after your name. But ever so much nicer, and jollier, you know!"
+
+Doctor Winn beamed. "Now that, my dear, is a most charming compliment.
+Old fellows like me aren't used to compliments from young ladies,
+either. Do sit down again, please, and tell me how you like Winncote and
+our New England snowstorms. We old people need young folks around. I can
+see that we are going to be good friends."
+
+He sat down in a chair the butler drew up for him.
+
+"Mrs. Lawson will tell you," replied Dorothy, "that I love it out here
+in the country." She accepted a cup of tea from Tunbridge and added
+sugar and a slice of lemon. The butler was followed by his liveried
+assistant, bearing silver platters of hot, buttered scones and tiny iced
+cakes. Professor immediately began to show interest in the proceedings.
+Dorothy held him firmly out of harm's way, and placed her tea and
+eatables on the broad arm of her chair.
+
+Mrs. Lawson looked up from her place behind the shining silver and old
+china of the tea table. She smiled graciously. "Oh, yes, Janet loves
+blizzards, too, Doctor Winn. She went out for a walk this afternoon and
+acquired a fox terrier puppy, as you see."
+
+"And naturally, she wants to keep him." The old gentleman leaned forward
+in his chair, the better to look at Professor. "You certainly may,
+Janet. And by the way, I hope you'll agree that it's an old man's
+privilege to call you by your first name?"
+
+"Oh, that is sweet of you!" Dorothy cried delightedly, and the Doctor's
+chuckle echoed her pleasure.
+
+"The dog's got a fine head--a very fine head, indeed. If anybody
+advertises for him, or comes to claim him, I'll take pleasure in buying
+the puppy for you."
+
+"Why, you're nicer every minute," declared Dorothy. "Isn't he,
+Professor?"
+
+The pup yawned with great indifference, which set all three of them
+laughing. His mistress put him in his blanket where he promptly curled
+up and fell into slumber once more.
+
+"I sadly fear," said Doctor Winn, as he polished his pince-nez with a
+white silk handkerchief, "that you are a good deal of a flirt Janet. But
+inasmuch as I am old enough to be your grandfather, or
+great-grandfather, for that matter, you are pardoned with a reprimand."
+He chuckled deep in his throat, a habit he had when pleased. "Now tell
+me, how you happened to find him out in the snow."
+
+Dorothy recounted the story in detail. When she came to the part about
+Gretchen's fear of the wildcat and the fox, even Mrs. Lawson, who was
+none too sure she liked the turn things were taking, broke into a merry
+peal of laughter.
+
+"Capital, capital!" Doctor Winn beamed. "I only wish I'd been there to
+see it. But why, may I ask, do you call him Professor?"
+
+Dorothy explained about the dictionary and Gretchen's idea of the pup's
+resemblance to Dorothea Gutmann's fox terrier.
+
+"Better and better," exclaimed the Doctor. "This is the jolliest tea
+we've had in this house for ages. We need young people around us to be
+really happy. You and I and Martin, Laura, have been working too hard of
+late. 'All work and no play'--We've been bothering too much about things
+scientific, and neglecting things personal. Well now, we can rest a
+while, and become human beings again."
+
+Mrs. Lawson leaned forward eagerly. "Then, the formula is complete?" she
+asked in a low voice, in which Dorothy detected the barely controlled
+tremor of excitement.
+
+"Yes, indeed. Finished and locked in my safe. I added the final figures
+and quantities three-quarters of an hour ago. Tomorrow, or if the
+weather doesn't clear by then, the next day at latest, I shall take it
+on to Washington."
+
+"I congratulate you, Doctor. And I know that once it is in the hands of
+the government, a great load will be taken off your mind."
+
+"You're right, my dear, you are right. I've been jumpy as a cat with
+eight of its lives gone for the past year." He turned to Dorothy. "Thank
+goodness, you're young and without responsibilities, Janet. There are so
+many unscrupulous people about nowadays. If those papers were lost or
+stolen, there is no telling what would happen. I dare not think of it.
+The whole world might suffer if that formula got into the wrong hands!"
+
+Dorothy could not help thinking that the world at large would be much
+better off if the formula were destroyed. She, therefore, merely nodded
+and looked impressed. How this gentle, kindly old man could have brought
+himself to invent such a ghastly menace to life, she found it difficult
+to understand.
+
+Laura Lawson stood up. "Doctor Winn likes to dine early, Janet, so if we
+are to be dressed by six-thirty, we had better start upstairs."
+
+"My word, yes!" The old gentleman snapped open the hunting case of his
+repeater and got stiffly to his feet. "Time flies when one is enjoying
+oneself. It's nearly six o'clock. This has been very pleasant indeed,
+the first of many afternoons, I hope." He snapped the watch shut and
+returned it to his pocket. "You ladies will excuse me, I'm sure." He
+bowed to them both, and holding himself much more erect than he had
+formerly, walked stiffly from the room.
+
+"He's simply darling," exclaimed Dorothy in a hushed voice.
+
+"Yes, he's a very simple and a very fine old gentleman," said Laura
+Lawson. She seemed lost in her thoughts and evidently unaware that she
+uttered them aloud. "Sometimes--I hate to hurt him so."
+
+"Why--why, what do you mean?" Dorothy could have bitten her own tongue
+out for speaking that sentence.
+
+"Mean--? Oh, nothing, child. Run along now, and change. But take your
+dog with you. I'll see that one of the men gives him a run in the
+stables while we're at dinner."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Dorothy. She turned the sleeping pup out of
+his bed, caught up the basket, and with Professor at her heels, ran
+lightly from the room.
+
+Just outside the door she collided with Tunbridge, and Professor's
+basket was jerked from her grasp.
+
+"Oh, I'm so very sorry, Miss Jordan!" His acting was perfect. Dorothy
+knew that Mrs. Lawson was close behind them. Then as they both stooped
+to retrieve the basket their heads came close together. "Under your
+pillow!" It was hardly more than the breath of a whisper, but Dorothy
+caught the words, nodded her understanding, and stood up.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm to blame, Tunbridge. I didn't see you coming."
+
+"Not at all, Miss. It was my fault, entirely. Very clumsy of me I'm
+sure!"
+
+From the corner of her eye Dorothy caught a glimpse of Laura Lawson
+watching them from the doorway.
+
+"Don't let it worry you, Tunbridge. I'm not hurt, neither is the basket.
+Professor will probably park himself on my _pillow_ tonight, anyway.
+Puppies have a way of doing such things, you know. So it really wouldn't
+matter much if you had smashed it."
+
+She gave him a nod, and picking up the dog made for the staircase.
+
+"So instructions are waiting under my pillow," she mused, as she slowly
+mounted the broad stair. The afternoon had been a pleasant one, but the
+evening, with those instructions ahead of her, portended to be something
+quite different. It had been so nice and cheerful, chatting round the
+tea table; so cozy sitting before the glowing logs, just talking of
+jolly things and forgetting all worry and responsibility. Of course,
+beyond the curtained windows, the blizzard howled. And it whipped the
+swirling snowflakes into disordered clouds with its arctic lash before
+it let them seek the shelter of their fellows in the drifts. She felt
+very much as though she too were a snowflake, tossed hither and thither
+on the storm of circumstance, to be whipped forward by the secret lash
+of underlying crime.
+
+If she could only drop down on to her bed and sleep--and awake to find
+it all a bad dream! She sighed and went toward her door on the gallery.
+Her pillow held no peace for her tonight--nothing more nor less than
+detailed instructions as to how Tunbridge wished her to rob a safe. Why
+didn't the man do his own stealing? Her part was to take Janet's place
+out here, and kill suspicion in Laura Lawson. Well, she'd done that,
+hadn't she? And now they loaded this other job on to her. It wasn't
+fair. She had done enough--she'd--
+
+"Oh, shucks!" She pulled herself up mentally as her hand fell on the
+doorknob. "I'll be losing my nerve altogether, if I let my thoughts run
+on this way. D. Dixon, you just _must not_ funk it!"
+
+She turned the knob and entered her room.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XVI
+
+                           CAUGHT IN THE ACT
+
+
+When Dorothy went down to dinner that evening, she knew exactly what she
+had to do. After reading Tunbridge's note which she found had been
+slipped between the pillow case and the pillow itself, she had memorized
+the combination to Doctor Winn's safe, and destroyed the missive as she
+had his warning of the night before. After a bath and a complete change
+of clothing, she felt refreshed and in a much better frame of mind. She
+had selected one of the prettiest gowns in Janet's wardrobe, a turquoise
+blue crepe, with a cluster of silver roses fastened in the twisted
+velvet girdle, put on slippers to match, and surveyed the result in the
+mirror.
+
+"Decidedly becoming, my girl," she smiled at her reflection, and gave a
+last pat to her shining bob that she had brushed until it lay like a
+bronze cap close about her shapely head. "Might as well look my best at
+my criminal debut!" She made a face at herself, turned and kissed the
+sleeping puppy in his basket, and went downstairs.
+
+Doctor Winn and Mrs. Lawson were standing talking in the entrance hall,
+near the fireplace. The old gentleman, dressed in immaculate dinner
+clothes, looked more than ever like the English squire in his ancestral
+hall. He came forward to meet her, both hands outstretched.
+
+"As charming as an English primrose and twice as beautiful!" he greeted
+gaily.
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir." She dropped him a little curtsey and let him
+lead her to Mrs. Lawson.
+
+"Our little secretary has blossomed into a very lovely debutante," he
+beamed.
+
+Dorothy bit her lip, remembering her own phrase of a few moments before,
+then smiled at her employer. Mrs. Lawson was regal in black velvet,
+trimmed in narrow bands of ermine. She returned Dorothy's smile, and
+lifted her finely pencilled brows at the Doctor. "Oh, you men. You are
+all alike. A pretty gown, a pretty face intrigues you, young or old. Pay
+no attention to his flattery, Janet. I can hardly blame him, though. You
+look lovely tonight. That is an exquisite frock. Did you buy it abroad?"
+
+"Oh, no, at a little place on fifty-seventh street." Of course Dorothy
+had no idea where Janet had bought the dress. "It is a Paris model,
+though, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+"I thought as much. Ah, here comes Tunbridge with the cocktails. I
+wonder which side of the fence you are on?"
+
+"I'm--I'm afraid I don't know quite what you mean, Mrs. Lawson."
+
+"I'll explain," broke in the old gentleman. "I'm the prohibitionist in
+this house, Janet. Mrs. Lawson is one of the antis. She likes a real
+cocktail before dinner. I prefer one made of tomato juice."
+
+Mrs. Lawson had already helped herself to a brimming glass and a small
+canape of caviar from the silver tray Tunbridge was holding.
+
+"Oh, I love tomato cocktails," smiled Dorothy. She took one from the man
+and helped herself to the caviar. "Daddy asked me not to drink until I
+was twenty-one--and I'm not so keen on the idea, anyway."
+
+"I try to keep an open mind about such things," the Doctor said
+seriously, "but I've never found that the use of alcohol did anyone any
+good. Well, here's your very good health, ladies!" He raised his glass
+of tomato juice and drank.
+
+Dinner was announced a few minutes later. Doctor Winn offered his right
+arm to Mrs. Lawson and his left to Dorothy and they walked into the
+dining room. Dorothy did not enjoy that meal as much as she had her
+luncheon. True, the food was delicious and the panelled room with its
+cheerful fire on the hearth and the soft glow of candle light was
+delightfully homey, while Doctor Winn's easy chatter and fund of
+interesting reminiscence helped to break the tedium of the courses. But
+Dorothy found it difficult to play up to his amusing sallies. The old
+gentleman appeared to be in very good spirits indeed. Laura Lawson, on
+the other hand, was unusually quiet. At times she seemed distrait and
+merely smiled absently when spoken to. She drank several glasses of
+claret, but hardly touched her food. Dorothy felt surer than ever that
+the Lawsons had planned their coup for tonight. She shrewdly surmised
+that this cold-blooded adventuress had become fond of the genial,
+fatherly old man, and realized that at his age the blow she contemplated
+might very well prove a fatal one.
+
+As the dinner wore on, Dorothy felt more and more ill at ease. The sight
+of Tunbridge, soft-footed and efficient, waiting on table or
+superintending his satellite of the plum-colored kneebreeches, sent her
+thoughts to the night's work ahead every time the detective-butler came
+into the room. She was glad when at last the meal was over and they
+repaired to the library where after-dinner coffee was served. Dorothy
+rarely drank coffee in the evening, but tonight she allowed Tunbridge to
+fill her cup a second time. There must be no sleep for her until the wee
+hours of the morning, and she knew from former experience that the black
+coffee would keep her awake.
+
+Mrs. Lawson, after wandering aimlessly about the room, finally picked up
+a technical magazine and commenced to read. Doctor Winn suggested a game
+of chess to Dorothy. She was fond of the ancient game and told him so.
+Many a tournament she and her father had played with their red and white
+ivory chessmen. Dr. Winn was a brilliant player, of long experience.
+Soon he began to compliment Dorothy upon a number of strategic moves.
+But although several times she managed to place his king in check, it
+was invariably her own royal chessman who was checkmated in the end. As
+the evening wore on, the beatings became more frequent, for Dorothy
+simply could not keep her mind on the game.
+
+For a while she sat watching the log fire and talking to the Doctor in a
+desultory way while Mrs. Lawson continued to read. Then as the
+grandfather clock chimed ten, Laura Lawson laid down her magazine and
+stood up.
+
+"I think I'll go to bed now, if you don't mind." The half stifled yawn,
+sheer camouflage thought Dorothy, was nevertheless a masterpiece of
+deception. "I've a bit of a headache, so I'll say good night."
+
+Doctor Winn and Dorothy got to their feet. "I'm for bed myself,"
+announced the old gentleman, "and in spite of the coffee you drank after
+dinner, I know you're sleepy, Janet. Your chess playing toward the end
+proved it." His eyes twinkled at her. "But in storm or clear weather,
+there's nothing like the air of this Connecticut Ridge Country to make
+one eat and sleep. By the way, Laura, when do you expect Martin?"
+
+"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Doctor--he won't be back tonight. He phoned
+me from town just before dinner, that on account of the blizzard, he had
+decided to stay in until tomorrow. If you need him sooner, he said to
+call up the Roosevelt. He always stops there, you know."
+
+"Yes, yes, but I shan't need him, thank you." He turned to Dorothy. "The
+railroad has taken upon itself to discontinue all service to
+Ridgefield," he explained. "Branchville is our nearest station, and
+driving will be difficult tonight. There must be very deep drifts by
+this time."
+
+"I should think it would be mighty unpleasant to get stuck out in a
+blizzard like this. I'm glad I don't have to go out into it. But in a
+way I'm thankful for the snow, because we ought to have a white
+Christmas, and it's ever so much more fun."
+
+"Bless my soul! I'd entirely forgotten that Christmas comes next week.
+Well, this year we must celebrate the Yuletide in the good old fashioned
+way. Thank you, Janet, for reminding me."
+
+Good nights were said, and a few minutes later Dorothy was again alone
+in the Pink Bedroom. Or so she thought, as she entered. But at once she
+noticed that a single shaded wall-light sent a pleasant glow from the
+bay window, and curled up in the cushioned recess, Gretchen was reading.
+
+Dorothy stopped short in surprise and the girl sprang to her feet. "Oh,
+Miss--Miss Jordan, Mr. Tunbridge told me to come and help you undress
+and get ready for the night. Of course I didn't know if you would want
+me--" then she added in a whisper, "but he thought you might be sort of
+blue and I could cheer you up, I guess."
+
+Dorothy smiled at Gretchen's pretty, earnest face. "Why, of course I
+want you, Gretchen. Tunbridge is very thoughtful. I've never had the
+luxury of a personal maid and I don't know that I'll ever feel helpless
+enough to need one! But if you want to stay and talk, I'd love it."
+
+"But I can help you, too," Gretchen insisted. "I'm not really a trained
+maid, you know, but Nanette--that's Mrs. Lawson's French maid--has been
+teaching me. Gee, I'd certainly love to be _your_ personal maid, Miss
+Jordan."
+
+"Well, you may be, some day, who knows?" she laughed. "But you can help
+me tonight, though there'll be no bed for me until much later."
+
+Gretchen, who was arranging the pillows and smoothing the covers on the
+bed, turned her head sharply. "Secret Service Work?" she queried in an
+excited whisper.
+
+Dorothy nodded and tossed her dress on to a chair. She continued
+speaking in a tone just above a whisper. "At twelve o'clock tonight I've
+got to go downstairs and commit justifiable burglary in Doctor Winn's
+office. The real thief will be along later--at least, I hope so, for
+everybody's sake. In the meantime I want you to do something for
+me--will you?"
+
+"I sure will, miss--gee, this is exciting!"
+
+"Don't let it cramp your style." Dorothy laughed, and pulling off her
+stocking, she handed Gretchen the packet of thin paper, the manuscript
+on "Winnite" that she had typed that morning. "When you finish up in
+here, I want you to find Mr. Tunbridge and give him these papers. You'd
+better pin it inside your uniform now, and be very careful that nobody
+sees you giving it to him."
+
+"You can trust me," declared Gretchen, and she put the papers safely
+within her dress. "Is Mr. Tunbridge really a detective?"
+
+"He certainly is, Gretchen."
+
+"I'd never have guessed it if you hadn't told me. But then, I suppose
+not looking like one makes him all the better?"
+
+"That's the idea." Dorothy put Janet's quilted satin dressing gown on
+over her pajamas. "Now that I'm ready for bed, and you've put all my
+clothes away so nicely, I think you'd better run along, Gretchen. Not,"
+she amended, "that I wouldn't love to talk to you while I'm waiting for
+twelve o'clock, but we must not let certain people in this house get
+wise to our friendship."
+
+"And Mrs. Lawson is one awful snoopy lady," Gretchen observed candidly.
+"Well, good night, Miss Jordan. Thank you a lot for letting me in on
+this. I'll see that Mr. Tunbridge gets your papers all right. Good
+night--and take care of yourself." She stood before Dorothy with an
+anxious frown on her honest brow. "I sure do wish you the very best
+luck!"
+
+Dorothy grinned. "Thank you. I certainly need it. Good night."
+
+The door closed upon the little maid and Dorothy looked at her wrist
+watch. It was ten minutes to eleven. For a time she sat on the edge of
+her bed and stared unseeingly at the rug under her feet. Presently she
+got up, locked her door, turned off her lights and went over to the
+window. She drew aside the curtains and was surprised to see that it had
+stopped snowing. There was no moon, but what sky she could see was
+fairly a-crackle with stars. The heavy blanket of snow looked silver in
+the starlight. A remote world and cold. Dorothy allowed the curtains to
+drop back into place, and sat down on the window seat. Lost in thoughts
+pleasant and unpleasant, she sat there for the next hour, while the
+faint noises of the big house gradually subsided into stillness.
+
+At exactly five minutes to twelve, Dorothy raised the window, letting in
+the cold night air. Then she turned off the heat and got into bed. After
+lying there for possibly a minute, she threw back the covers, thrust her
+feet into the fur-lined slippers she had left at the bedside and moved
+like a dim shadow to the closet.
+
+It was crowded with Janet's suits, coats and frocks, and she was careful
+not to disturb them on their hangers, as she pushed between them in the
+darkness to the rear wall and pressed her foot on the board in the
+corner. The panel slid upward with a noiselessness that spoke for
+well-oiled machinery somewhere in the walls. Dorothy stepped cautiously
+through the opening. Her fingers sought the handle to this sliding door,
+found it, and she pulled the panel down again.
+
+Then for the first time she made use of the small flashlight which she
+carried in the pocket of her gown. She saw that she was standing on the
+top step of a narrow circular stair that wound downward. Off went her
+light again--she was taking no unnecessary chances tonight--and with her
+hand on the metal handrail, she felt her way slowly down the stair,
+holding her free hand well in advance of her body.
+
+When her extended fingers touched a wall that blocked further progress,
+she felt with a slippered foot out to the right. The board gave
+slightly, the wall panel moved upward and she stepped forth to find
+herself in the great fireplace of the entrance hall, just beyond the
+embers of the dying logs. The hall was illuminated in the dim glow of a
+night light in the ceiling. As she turned to pull down the sliding
+shutter, there came a streak of white from the dark passage and
+Professor bounded into the hall.
+
+Dorothy was completely startled, and just as exasperated as she could
+be. She could not call him, for the slightest sound might bring the
+wakeful enemy to the spot. The pup, after his long sleep, was playful,
+and scampered about madly, his bright eyes watching her every move. She
+attempted to catch him, but he eluded her with an agility that made her
+still more angry. He seemed to think that this was a splendid game,
+raced across the floor in high glee, but ever watchful to keep beyond
+her reach.
+
+Dorothy gave it up as a bad job. She dared not pursue him too
+determinedly, for fear he would bark. She pulled down the sliding
+shutter in the fireplace, and leaving Professor to his frolic, hurried
+on to the door of Doctor Winn's office.
+
+Inside the room with the door shut, her flashlight came into play for
+the second time. It took her but a moment with the memorized combination
+at her fingertips to open the safe. The door was surprisingly heavy, but
+at last the interior of the small vault came within her line of vision.
+From a drawer she took a folded sheet of white paper. Out of her pocket
+came a pencil and another sheet of paper. In an amazingly short time she
+copied the formula and replaced the original in the safe drawer. She
+tucked the copy into the fur lining of her slipper under her bare foot.
+Then suddenly she sprang up.
+
+Her heart leaped into her throat. In the corridor just outside there
+came the sound of a footstep. There was no time to do more than shut off
+her torch and drop it, together with her pencil, into the waste paper
+basket. The door opened, lights flashed on, and Martin Lawson walked
+into the room.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XVII
+
+                          PROFESSOR MAKES GOOD
+
+
+In that moment, Dorothy knew what she must do. A shiver ran over her
+slender frame and she blinked as though partly awakened by the flash of
+lights. Then, with eyes wide open and staring straight ahead, she slowly
+walked toward Martin Lawson and the open doorway.
+
+"_Stop!_"
+
+The command, though low, was uttered in a tone of deadly menace, and
+Dorothy saw the blue-black muzzle of an automatic revolver pointed at
+her heart. She stopped on the instant, but continued to stare straight
+ahead without change of expression. She noted that he wore a soft felt
+hat pulled over his eyes and a heavy ulster with its broad collar turned
+up half hiding the lower part of his face. His high arctics bore traces
+of melting snow.
+
+"Sleepwalking, eh! Well, I don't believe it." His sharp eyes took in the
+open door of the safe. "Snap out of that playacting and tell me what you
+are doing here!"
+
+Dorothy did not move a muscle.
+
+Without warning, he grasped her wrist and jerked her savagely toward
+him. She screamed and went limp in his arms. Lawson clapped a hand over
+her mouth.
+
+"So you're up to your old tricks again, Martin!"
+
+Mrs. Lawson, fully dressed, and wearing a three-quarters mink coat and
+brown felt cloche, appeared in the open doorway. "So our little
+sleepwalker interrupted a very pretty piece of double-crossing!" She
+pointed toward the safe.
+
+Lawson flung the weeping girl into an arm chair where she lay apparently
+half stunned and shaking in every limb.
+
+"Double-cross, nothing!" he snapped at his wife. "How do you get that
+way, Laura? I came in here just now and found Janet in the room."
+
+"Was she at the safe?"
+
+"No, she wasn't. She was standing in the middle of the floor. Making her
+getaway without a doubt when I turned on the lights."
+
+"Why do you pretend Janet opened the safe? The Doctor, you and I are the
+only ones who know the combination. Laugh that off if you can, my dear!"
+
+They were both fast losing their tempers.
+
+"Combination or no combination, the safe was open when I got here," he
+snarled. "She was after the formula, of course. That father of hers is
+in back of it. That Irishman is the double-crosser--and how! Figured on
+working Winnite into his racket without coughing up a cent for it,
+either. Call me a sucker if you like, Laura. I qualify, and so do you,
+for that matter. The other stuff's the bunk."
+
+Dorothy stopped her pretended crying and lay back as though utterly
+exhausted. She knew Tunbridge must be up and about. What in the world
+could the man be doing?
+
+Mrs. Lawson who seemed to be weighing matters, slowly unbuttoned her
+coat. "If you are so blameless," she said coldly to her husband, "How do
+you happen to be here at all? Your part of the job was to bring up the
+car--or the plane, if it had stopped snowing."
+
+"Well, it's no longer snowing, my dear, and the plane is just where it
+should be. I got tired of waiting, that's why. Thought there must be a
+slip-up. You were due out there half an hour ago."
+
+"And I would have been," said Laura Lawson evenly, "if that secret
+service fool hadn't been snooping outside my door."
+
+"Tunbridge?"
+
+"Who else!"
+
+"What did you do--croak him?"
+
+"No, I didn't. He's not worth burning for."
+
+As they talked, the two dropped their artificial cloaks of refinement as
+if they had never been.
+
+"It's hanging in this state," sneered Martin.
+
+"What's the difference! I rang for him, instead. When he knocked on the
+door, I opened up and beaned him with the poker. He'll wake up tomorrow
+with a headache, but I dragged him into my room and tied him up, just to
+make sure."
+
+Dorothy's heart sank to the very soles of her bare feet.
+
+"Atta girl!" cheered Lawson. "That's the way! And look here, Laura. Just
+to prove I'm on the straight with you--go over and frisk that kid
+yourself. She's got the paper."
+
+"Thanks--I intended to." Mrs. Lawson threw a grim smile at her husband
+and turned to Dorothy. "Pass it over, Janet."
+
+"But, really, Mrs. Lawson! I don't know what you're talking about--"
+
+The woman cut her short. "Stand up and come here!"
+
+Dorothy reluctantly obeyed. "I haven't any paper," she protested. "All I
+know is that I woke up just now and found Mr. Lawson--"
+
+"Hold your tongue!" snapped Mrs. Lawson, and after exploring Dorothy's
+empty pockets, ran her fingers over the quilted gown and the girl's
+pajamas. In the midst of her search, Professor, still playful, bounded
+into the room and stood watching them expectantly.
+
+Mrs. Lawson stepped back. "She hasn't got it, Martin." Her tone was
+acid. "What a hard-boiled liar you are, anyway!"
+
+"Hard-boiled, if you like--but no liar." He strode to the safe and
+thrust his hand inside. "Here it is," he called, and held up the paper.
+"I must have got here before she could nab it."
+
+Laura Lawson eyed him appraisingly. "Didn't you say Janet was in the
+middle of the room when you switched on the light?"
+
+"Sure--she heard me coming, of course."
+
+"If Janet heard you coming, why didn't she swing the door shut? Don't
+try to pull that stuff on me, Martin. Even if the girl knows the
+combination she couldn't open that safe in the dark. Why lie about the
+business? I know you opened it yourself--and what's more, while I've
+been wasting time arguing with you and searching Janet, the formula was
+in your pocket the whole time--that is, until you pretended to take it
+out of the safe, just now!"
+
+Martin Lawson's hard and cruel mouth twisted into a crooked smile. "The
+world is full of liars," he said equably, "but your husband doesn't play
+that kind of a racket, Laura--anyway, not to you."
+
+"Then prove it by giving me that paper!" his wife held out her hand.
+
+"Nothing doing, Sweetheart. The formula will be perfectly safe with me."
+
+He started to put it in an inside pocket, when Laura Lawson sprang for
+the paper. She grasped his wrist. There was a tussle and the folded
+sheet fell to the floor. Professor, seated on his haunches and very
+interested in these exciting proceedings, dove forward and snapped it
+up. For half a moment he shook the paper as though he took it for a new
+species of rat. Then as they went for him, he darted between Martin's
+legs and scampered out of the room.
+
+"You big goop!" flared his wife. "Why didn't you pot the cur!"
+
+She rushed out of the room after Professor while Martin stared rather
+stupidly at the gun in his hand. Suddenly his eyes took on a
+particularly hard glint and he swung round on Dorothy.
+
+"This," he rasped, "is the second time you've got me in wrong with my
+wife, Miss Janet Jordan. And there just ain't going to be no third time,
+kid!"
+
+"Wha--what are you going to do, Mr. Lawson?" She was still playing the
+terrified, innocent Janet, but she no longer feared the man. During the
+Lawsons' struggle, she had prepared herself for something like this. She
+had also shifted her position and was standing near the open door, now
+several yards away.
+
+"You're going to answer my questions, Janet--and answer them truthfully,
+or you'll do your sleepwalking in another world after this." He menaced
+her with the automatic, "It's the bunk, isn't it? The sleepwalking, I
+mean."
+
+"It sure is, Mr. du Val!" drawled Dorothy with a sweet smile.
+
+Lawson was thoroughly surprised and looked it. "Yes--it naturally would
+be, seeing you know who I really am."
+
+"And all about you."
+
+"Oh, you do, eh? You were awake, of course, at the meeting?"
+
+"Not me--Janet Jordan."
+
+"What do you mean--not you--Janet Jordan?"
+
+"I mean that certain people have been making fools of you and your wife,
+Mr. du Val."
+
+"Is that so! In what way, may I ask?"
+
+"Why, you see, I'm not Janet Jordan."
+
+"Not Janet Jordan!"
+
+"I wish," said Dorothy, "you wouldn't echo my words. No, I am not--most
+decidedly, not Janet Jordan, although even you have guessed by this time
+that I look like her. We changed places on you, big boy! Night before
+last, just before you came into Janet's room with her father, Janet was
+climbing out the window when you knocked the first time. It was rather
+embarrassing."
+
+"It's going to be even more embarrassing for you in a moment or two,
+Miss Not Janet Jordan! You know too much to live. Who in thunderation
+are you--a government dick?"
+
+"That's right, big boy. I also happen to be Janet's double cousin."
+
+"You're her double, I'll voucher that," agreed du Val alias Lawson. "And
+all this high-hat cockiness ain't going to do you one little bit of
+good. What's the moniker, kid? Make it snappy, I'm pressed for time."
+
+"Dorothy Dixon's my name. And--meet Flash!" Her right hand gave a quick
+twist and Martin Lawson dropped the exploding automatic with a scream of
+mingled rage and pain. She sprang for the revolver, covered the man and
+retrieved the knife from the floor just behind him. "Sit down over
+there!" She pointed to a chair. "You're not really hurt, you know. Flash
+only skinned your knuckles. Better tie them up in your handkerchief
+though. You're ruining the rug."
+
+Gretchen's blond head peered round the door frame. "Oh, Dorothy!" she
+shrilled, and rushed into the room. "Are you hurt? Did he wound you?"
+She flung herself on her friend in a frenzy of fright and hysterics.
+
+From the hall came Laura Lawson's voice. "Martin!" she called. "They're
+out in front of the house. They've got the car! Hurry!"
+
+Lawson wasted no time. While Dorothy struggled with the excited
+Gretchen, he nipped out of the room and was gone.
+
+"That tears it!" cried Miss Dixon, freeing herself from the little
+maid's embrace, and she dove into the passage.
+
+Under the gallery she stopped short. There was nobody in sight, but from
+the staircase came two sharp detonations of a revolver which were
+answered by two more from the dining room. Then as she moved warily
+forward, Bill Bolton ran into the hall with Ashton Sanborn close at his
+heels. Dorothy saw them disappear up the stairs and ran after them.
+
+At the top of the stairs she spied them standing outside a bedroom door.
+She hurried to join them. "Hello! Gone to cover?"
+
+"You're a great guesser, kid." Bill grinned and nodded.
+
+"Where's Tunbridge?" asked Mr. Sanborn.
+
+Dorothy motioned toward the door. "In there. He's got a broken head and
+he's tied up into the bargain. Laura Lawson did it. That's her room."
+
+"We've got to get the door down," said Bill, and he stepped back for a
+rush.
+
+"Just a sec, Bill!" Dorothy fired three shots from Lawson's automatic
+into the lock.
+
+"Smart girl!" Ashton Sanborn opened the door to disclose the
+detective-butler bound and unconscious, lying on the floor. Otherwise
+the room was empty of occupants. "I thought as much," muttered the
+secret service man, while Dorothy ran to Tunbridge and began to cut his
+bonds. "They have beat it, all right!"
+
+"Secret passage?" This from Bill.
+
+"Yes, the walls are honeycombed with them. But Tunbridge never learned
+the secret of this room, poor fellow."
+
+"Doctor Winn would know," said Dorothy. "His suite is right at the end
+of this corridor. He must surely be awake with all this racket going
+on."
+
+"I'll get him." Mr. Sanborn was half way to the door. "Look after
+Tunbridge, you two. Better phone for a doctor." He was gone.
+
+Dorothy and Bill lifted the unconscious man on to Mrs. Lawson's bed.
+Then while young Bolton undressed him, Dorothy telephoned. She then gave
+Bill a hasty account of the night's happenings.
+
+"If Gretchen had only stayed put in her room, I'd have caught Martin
+Lawson, anyway," she lamented.
+
+"Mr. Jordan and the bunch outside will take care of that pair," promised
+Bill. "Fetch a wet towel from the bathroom. This bird is breathing
+pretty hard."
+
+Dorothy sped to obey, talking the while. "Not Uncle Michael!" she called
+back in astonishment.
+
+"Yep. Uncle Michael showed up in Sanborn's New York office this morning,
+all on his own."
+
+"What was he doing--wanting to turn state's evidence and peach on his
+pals?" She brought in the wet towel and laid it on Tunbridge's hot
+forehead.
+
+"Nothing like that, kid." Bill was grinning. "Give another guess."
+
+"Then he wasn't really a member of that gang with the numbers?"
+
+"Sure he was--in good standing, too."
+
+"Oh, spill it, Bill! What do you think I'm made of, anyway?"
+
+"Snips and snails and puppy dog's tails," said Bill promptly.
+
+"Huh! The story book says 'little boys' belong in that category. Come,
+Bill, out with it!"
+
+"Well, then, cutie pie,--Uncle Michael is a secret service man."
+
+"And Ashton Sanborn didn't know it! Don't talk rot, Bill!"
+
+"I'm not talking rot, Dorothy. Uncle Michael happens to be in the
+British Secret Service, that's why!"
+
+"Ain't that the nerts!" exploded Miss Dixon.
+
+"You said it, kid! He got on to The Nameless Ones--that's what they call
+themselves--over on the other side, in Europe, you know--worked his way
+into their confidence and joined up. Of course, with his government's
+sanction."
+
+"And what were they up to?"
+
+"Out to blow up the world with Winnite, I reckon. The Lawsons were to
+get two million plunks for the formula. Martie-boy was Number 1, by the
+way. The whole thing was financed by the Reds."
+
+"Nice people! What's being done about it?"
+
+"Plenty," returned Bill. "Mr. Jordan brought in the goods--letters,
+confidential papers of the organization, and that kind of thing. All the
+ringleaders, both in this country and abroad, have been apprehended and
+jailed by this time."
+
+"Except," she suggested, "the du Vals, alias Lawson."
+
+"That's right! Let's go downstairs and find out about them. Nothing more
+can be done for Tunbridge until that doctor shows up. He's had hard luck
+all the way round this evening. The Lawsons fooled him nicely about the
+time--and then this crack on the nut into the bargain!"
+
+"What do you mean--about the time?"
+
+"Why, he overheard the fair Laura telling her hubby that they would
+vamoose at two this morning, and that she would nab the formula just
+before leaving. That's why Tunbridge specified midnight. He thought that
+two hours leeway would have been plenty of time for you."
+
+"I 'spose they suspected him then, and were just giving him the razz?"
+
+Bill nodded. "Q.E.D., old girl. You're learning, aren't you?"
+
+Dorothy made a face at him and pushed him out of the room. "By the way,"
+continued Bill, as they entered the corridor, "I wonder if Mrs. Lawson
+got the paper away from Professor?"
+
+"She did not!" declared Dorothy. "Look!"
+
+They paused on the stairs to view the scene below in the entrance hall.
+Groups of frightened servants whispered among themselves and here and
+there a strange man was posted, with somewhat of an air of grim
+watchfulness. Crouched on the hearth and chewing up the last shreds of
+some white substance was the puppy.
+
+"The end of a perfect formula," declared Bill. "You'd better call the
+pup Winnite. He's full of it by this time. Lucky you made the copy,
+Dorothy."
+
+"It certainly is!" A voice spoke behind them and they turned to see
+Ashton Sanborn descending the broad stair. "Doctor Winn tells me the
+passageway from the Lawson woman's room comes out into the sunken
+gardens a quarter of a mile from the house. And I distinctly heard the
+whirr of an airplane just now from his open window. They've made their
+getaway in fine style by this time."
+
+"Well--" Dorothy breathed a deep sigh. "I can't help being glad of it."
+
+Bill stared at her. "Well!" he mimicked. "I must say you have
+astonishing reactions!"
+
+"What's the matter, my dear?" asked Mr. Sanborn. "You've done brilliant
+work on this case, and then, you know, you've saved Winnite."
+
+Dorothy was not impressed. "That's just it," she retorted. "If I wasn't
+a government servant for the time being, I'd destroy the copy of that
+terrible formula myself. As it is, I've got to turn it over to you!"
+
+Ashton Sanborn laid a fatherly hand on her shoulder. "Fortunes of war,
+Dorothy. Sorry, but you must, you know."
+
+"Oh, I know!" She took the sheet of paper from her slipper and handed it
+to him. "And that," she announced grimly, "spoils all the fun on this
+racket."
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XVIII
+
+                          THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
+
+
+Christmas eve was, as Dorothy had predicted, a starry night of frost and
+blanketing snow. Red candles twinkled in every holly-wreathed window of
+the Dixon home, and a large fir tree before the house glittered with
+colored Christmas lights.
+
+If old Saint Nick had peeped into the dining room windows, he would have
+seen a merry company standing round the dinner table, gay with the
+crimson-berried holly and waxy mistletoe. At the head of the table stood
+Dorothy, appropriately and becomingly dressed in ruby-red velvet. On her
+right there was an empty place, and beyond it, old Doctor Winn, a
+boutonniere of holly in the lapel of his dinner coat; Mr. Bolton, Bill's
+father, was next down the table, and just beyond stood Ashton Sanborn.
+Facing Dorothy at the other end, her father chatted with a bright-eyed
+Gretchen, who had Bill on her right. Next to Bill came Doctor Winn's
+ex-butler, John Tunbridge, looking none the worse for his part in the
+mixup of the fatal night. Beyond Tunbridge stood Dorothy's Uncle
+Michael, and then another empty chair.
+
+"Just a moment, Dorothy," said her father as she was about to sit down.
+"We've a surprise for you."
+
+"Oh, are there more people coming?" She indicated the extra places to
+her right and left. "I thought our party was as nearly complete as
+possible. Of course it would have been swell if Janet and Howard could
+have been with us."
+
+"Dum--dum--de dum!" hummed Bill, beating time with his hand like an
+orchestra conductor. From the drawing room a piano crashed into the
+opening chords of Wagner's beautiful wedding march.
+
+"Here Comes the Bride ..." sang the guests at table, and Dorothy's heart
+skipped a beat.
+
+Through the curtained doorway, walked a blushing girl, leaning on the
+arm of a tall young man. She wore a bridal gown of white satin, and her
+smiling face, below the draped tulle veil, was the exact counterpart of
+the astonished girl at the head of the table.
+
+"Janet! Howard!" Dorothy ran to them and was caught in her cousin's
+arms. "Where under the sun did you come from? I thought you sailed for
+South America last week!"
+
+"That," said Howard, grinning broadly, "is a surprise that Mr. Sanborn
+sprang on us the day after we were married. He persuaded me to give up
+the South American job and got me a much better one with Mr. Bolton."
+
+"Meet Mr. Howard Bright, the new manager of my Bridgeport plant," cried
+Bill's father, and everyone clapped.
+
+"Why, that's marvelous!" exclaimed Dorothy. "It's only an hour's drive
+over there from New Canaan. We'll be able to see a lot of each other,
+Janet."
+
+Then Uncle Michael, looking very happy and proud, kissed his daughter
+and led her to the chair between his place and Dorothy's.
+
+"Daddy gave me the wedding dress," whispered Janet. "It's a little bit
+late for it, but he insisted."
+
+"You look simply darling," began her cousin, then stopped. Doctor Winn,
+who had pushed in her chair, was addressing the company.
+
+"Ladies, and gentlemen," he said, "before we start on the Christmas
+cheer which our little hostess and her father have so graciously
+provided, I would like to propose a toast or two, and may I ask you to
+stand again while you drink them with me?" He held up his glass of
+golden cider. "First, let us drink long life and great happiness to our
+charming bride, Mrs. Howard Bright, and her gallant husband!"
+
+The company drank the toast enthusiastically. Then Uncle Abe, the
+Dixon's darkey butler, better known to some of Dorothy's friends as "Ol'
+Man River," grinning from one black ear to the other, laid small leather
+jewel cases before Janet and Howard.
+
+"Just a little Christmas gift, my children," explained Doctor Winn.
+
+"Oh, may we open them now?" asked Janet eagerly.
+
+"You most certainly may, my dear."
+
+They snapped open the lids and the company leaned forward to get a
+better view of the contents.
+
+"I don't know how to thank you, Doctor Winn," began Howard, fingering
+his handsome gold repeater and chain.
+
+"Nor I--why--my goodness! I never thought I'd have a string of real
+pearls. They are simply too exquisite for words!"
+
+Doctor Winn laughed and held up a protesting hand. "I'm sure I'm glad
+you like them, but guests are requested not to embarrass the speaker.
+Now, I have another toast to propose; and this time we will drink a very
+Merry Christmas, long life and great happiness to Miss Margaret Schmidt,
+my new companion-housekeeper!"
+
+Gretchen was overwhelmed and blushed furiously. Uncle Abe placed another
+jewel case before her, which she opened and found therein a pearl
+necklace, the counterpart of Janet's. All she could do was to sit and
+gaze at it with her wide open china-blue eyes. Mr. Dixon raised the
+necklace, slipped it over the embarrassed girl's head, and nodded to the
+old gentleman.
+
+Doctor Winn took the hint and turned the attention of the table guests
+to himself. "Third and last, but not in any way the least," he said, "we
+will drink to the heroine of the already famous case of the Double
+Cousins. Ladies and gentlemen, I pledge you Dorothy Dixon--whose bravery
+and loyalty to her country gained the nation's thanks through its
+mouthpiece, our President in Washington this week. A very Merry
+Christmas, my dear, long life and great happiness to you and to our
+friend Professor, alias Winnite! By the way, where is the pup? I have a
+little remembrance for him, too."
+
+"He's right here beside me, asleep in his basket, Doctor Winn." Dorothy
+picked up the yawning pup and sat him on her lap.
+
+The old gentleman took a slightly larger morocco case out of his pocket,
+this time, and laid it on the white cloth before her. With a smile of
+thanks, she pressed the spring and disclosed, lying on a velvet pad, a
+double string of gleaming pink pearls. She looked at him, speechless
+with pleasure, then down again at the necklace. As she did so, she
+started, for beneath the pearls lay an envelope.
+
+She picked it up and drew forth a paper--"Why! why, it's my copy of the
+Winnite formula!" she cried.
+
+"The only existing copy, my dear, which I hereby present to your puppy."
+
+"But, Doctor Winn, I don't understand!"
+
+"My terms to the government were that Winnite should be used for
+national defense alone," he said solemnly. "Washington would not agree.
+Therefore I wish the formula destroyed."
+
+"Oh, what a darling you are!" Dorothy leaned over and kissed him. "But
+let's not give it to Professor this time, please. The last one made him
+horribly sick."
+
+She held the paper over a lighted candle and watched Winnite burn to
+charred ash. "I certainly am the happiest girl in the world tonight--but
+there is just one more toast I'd like to propose before we commence
+dinner. Here's a long life and a Merry Christmas to Mr. and Mrs. Martin
+Lawson--if it hadn't been for them, think of all the fun we'd have
+missed!"
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin, by
+Dorothy Wayne
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DIXON, DOUBLE COUSIN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44670.txt or 44670.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/6/7/44670/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
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