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He extracted a old case

"But look here," he went on,closer to Dale, "you didn't send for me to discuss this hypothetical poor depositor, did you? Mind if I sarette and puffed at it with enjoye Finally the words ca rather brutal Please don't ed to the cashier, Jack Bailey--"

Fle whistled "I see! And he's beat it!"

Dale blazed with indignation

"He has not! I' He's here, now, in this house--" she continued fierily, all her defenses thrown aside "My aunt thinks he's a new gardener He is here, Mr Fle, because he knows he didn't take the money, and the only person who could have done it was--your uncle!"

Dick Flearette in a convenient ash tray and crushed it out there, absently, not seeers or not He rose and took a turn about the roo indictainst a dead man," he said slowly, seriously

"It's true!" Dale insisted stubbornly, giving hiht"

He smiled--a smile that Dale didn't like

"Suppose it's true--where do I come in?" he said "You don't think I knohere the ht help to find it"

She went swiftly over to the hall door and listened tensely for an instant Then she ca

"If anybody co of yours," she said in a low voice He nodded understandingly She dropped her voice still lower

"Do you know anything about a Hidden Roo stared at her for a hter

"A Hidden Roo "Never heard of it! Now, let ht The idea is--a Hidden Room--and the money is in it--is that it?"

Dale nodded a "Yes"

"The architect who built this house told Jack Bailey that he had built a Hidden Roo stared at her as if he could not believe his ears Then, slowly, his expression changed Beneath the well-fed, debonair mask of the clubman about town, other lines appeared--lines of avarice and calculation--wolf- the craft and petty ruthlessness of the sentlemanly shell His eyes took on a shifty, uncertain stare--they no longer looked at Dale--their gaze see pile of gold And yet, the change in his look was not so pronounced as to give Dale pause--she felt a vague uneasiness steal over her, true--but it would have taken a shrewd and long-experienced wo's eyes at first glance--and Dale, for all her courage and coirl