Bright Arrows (Musaicum Romance Classics). Grace Livingston Hill

her guardians had protected her. Bright tears flashed into her eyes.

      But suddenly the stranger turned to her again and asked several direct questions. Just what had been the actions of Mrs. Fane during her first stay in town that had made Eden dislike her, and how had the matter terminated? Eden told briefly of her unpleasant and insistent attempts to get a foothold in the house. Then he asked if she knew whether her father had a financial agreement with Mrs. Fane that made her leave.

      "Oh, no, I think not!" she said, very sure of her facts now. "Father didn't believe in bribes. That would have been bribing, wouldn't it? No, he simply made me pack up in a hurry one night and we went off to Europe, leaving no word behind except with Mr. Worden at the bank, Father's friend, you know, who has my affairs in charge. And, of course, Tabor and Janet knew how to get in touch with us. But they would never have told. They were our own family, you know." And she cast a grateful little flash of a smile at the two old retainers that was not lost on the lawyer.

      "Yes, of course," agreed Mr. Lorrimer, with a quick glance taking in the looks that passed between Eden and her servants, and appreciating the beauty of the sentiment between them all, realizing that on the surface, at least, there was nothing suspicious here.

      "And now," said Lorrimer, settling back, his pencil and notebook in hand ready for any item that needed jotting down, "Miss Thurston, I wonder if you can tell me about business matters? Was there anything valuable in that desk besides what we know about? Have you a list of what it contained?"

      Eden was thoughtful for an instant and then sprang up.

      "Why, yes, I think perhaps there was a list. I'll get it. It's up in my room in my desk. Father gave it to me after he was first hurt, but I was so worried about him that I'm afraid I didn't give much heed to it at the time."

      "Of course," said Lorrimer sympathetically.

      "Couldna I get it for ye, Miss Eden?" asked Janet, as Eden turned to hurry away.

      "No, thank you, Janet. You wouldn't know where to find it. I won't be long." And Eden hurried upstairs, while Mike and Tabor conversed in low tones about the way the room had been found that morning, and Janet stood with folded hands and waited. The young lawyer poised his pencil over the notes he had already taken and seemed to be summing them up and pondering.

      But Eden was back in a moment with her hands full of neatly folded papers, which she handed over to the lawyer, small groupings of them strapped with rubber bands.

      "These are some properties owned by the estate. He kept most of his important papers in the bank, of course. But these are a few securities he was going to explain to me about selling, and so on."

      The lawyer took them bunch by bunch, looked over the headings, glanced at them all, and jotted down something about each one.

      "I'll just have these checked over with the list we have at the bank," he explained to Eden. "That way we can tell if anything has been tampered with, or if there is anything missing."

      "Oh, yes," said Eden, "but I don't think my father left anything down here that would matter. He usually put valuables in the bank."

      The lawyer looked at her thoughtfully and then said: "It won't do any harm to make sure, of course. Your father wasn't able to get down to the library and make any changes in the contents of his desk after the accident, was he? Might not something have been forgotten?"

      It came to Eden as she listened that this young man was keen and didn't take anything for granted. But she answered still thoughtfully: "Of course, it is possible, but I don't think it likely. Dad sent me downstairs twice to get special papers for him and had me seal them in envelopes and send them to Mr. Worden at the bank at once."

      "Yes? Well, now I wonder if I could look at the desk and examine the room that was broken into?"

      So they went in a solemn little procession into the library, a room latterly lined with books.

      "I wonder," said the lawyer after he had gone through the drawers and written down the contents carefully, "whether there is any possibility that there might be a secret compartment in this desk. Do you know, Miss Thurston? Such a place does not usually manifest its presence for a casual glance like this."

      "Oh, yes, it seems to me I remember Father saying something long ago about a secret compartment, but he wouldn't likely have left anything valuable there, would he? Or I should think he would have spoken of it. Tabor, did you ever hear about that? Did you know of a secret drawer?"

      "Yes, Miss Eden, I'm sure there was. I remember he spoke to me about it once when he put some papers away in it. I'm not just sure where it was, but I think it is behind some drawer."

      "It's worth looking for, anyway," said Lorrimer. "Could it be possible that if there is one, that that Fane boy knew of it?"

      "Oh, no, sir. I don't think he would be likely to," said Tabor. "He was not allowed in this room. I had my orders when he was about."

      Then Janet spoke up.

      "Don't ye be too sure!" she said heatedly. "Thet lad was a little rat, and there was no room too locked up tae keep him oot. I foond him in here once meself, and he was always fussin' aroond wi' locks an' ketches. If there was a secret drawer, he'd find it!"

      The lawyer looked at her sharply and then walked over to the desk, tapping expertly in different parts of the desk, listening for hollow sounds.

       "Here!" he said. "Let's try this side, behind this first drawer. Pull it, would you, Tabor? Look! That drawer is not long enough for the whole depth of the desk. That's where it would be. Behind the end of the drawer perhaps. These compartments are very cleverly hidden. Have you a flashlight, Mike?"

      "Yes, sir, here!" And a fine clear light pierced the dark recess behind the drawer.

      "Yes! Here!" said the lawyer. "Pull out the next drawer. The compartment must be behind both of them, or perhaps even three."

      They pulled out the next two drawers, and at last they came to the hidden spring that released the little high narrow door and showed a generous space, with just a few scattering papers, none of special value but all of them mussed and looking as if they had been hastily stuffed back for a hurried departure.

      "Yes," said the lawyer thoughtfully. "And here is a thought, perhaps. This place is not in the careful order that seems to have been maintained throughout the rest of the desk, or room. If we only could be sure what was originally kept in this compartment, we might be able to check up. Perhaps Mr. Worden may be able to give us some light on this when he gets back. I'm looking for him to be home to-night or perhaps sooner. I'll ask him at once. By the way, let me feel back into that compartment. I have a hunch that there is still something more in there. You didn't reach all the way to the bottom, did you, Tabor?"

      "Why, yes, sir, I thought I did. But there didn't seem to be anything down there. It was all smooth. It almost seemed like it had been varnished."

      The lawyer was down on his knees again beside the desk, turning on the flashlight and examining every inch of the way most carefully. Then his hand went down into the compartment again and searched around. He seemed to be lingering longer than was necessary just to make sure that there was nothing further there. It almost seemed as if he was struggling with something, and then he reached out one hand.

      "Get me a screwdriver," he said from under the desk.

      Tabor gravely produced one and laid it in the reaching hand, and the rest of them stood watching, wondering if he had found anything.

      A moment more the lawyer worked away out of sight, and then he drew back and brought forth a white box, just the length of the lower part of the compartment.

      Then he rose, dusted off his hands and knees, and sat down in front of the desk, the white box still in his hands.

      "There!" he said triumphantly. "The box is covered with satin paper and feels like a smooth varnished surface. That's what fooled us. Could there possibly have been other such boxes in there?" He looked speculatively at Eden, but her eyes were full of wonder.

      "I