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An hour or so later in a living-room whose terrors had departed, Miss Cornelia, her niece, and Jack Bailey were gathered before a roaring fire The local police had co and his nephew had been removed to the h under suone off under charge of the detective As for Doctor Wells, he too was under arrest, and a brokenhad been throughout the priht escape with a coht sentence In a little while the newspaperreat journals would be at the door--but for a roup at Cedarcrest enjoyed a temporary respite and they htly and the lovers, hand in hand, sat before it But Miss Cornelia, birdlike and brisk, sat upright on a chair near by and relived the greatest triumph of her life while she knitted with automatic precision

"Knit two, purl two," she would say, and then would wander once arden the ruins of the garage and her beloved car were still sh the broken pane where not so long before the bloody hand of the injured detective had intruded itself On the door to the hall, still fastened as the Bat had left it, was the pathetic little creature hich the Bat had signed a job--for once, before he had completed it

But calmly and dispassionately Miss Cornelia worked out the crossword puzzle of the evening and announced her results

"It is all clear," she said "Of course the Doctor had the blue-print And the Bat tried to get it from him Then when the Doctor had stunned him and locked him in the billiard room, the Bat still had the key and unlocked his own handcuffs After that he had only to get out of aand shut us in here"

And again: "He had probably trailed the real detective all the way from town and attacked him where Mr Beresford found the watch"

Once, too, she harkened back to the anonymous letters-"Itwhen they found rieassu of the house ostensibly for their safety but in reality for the treasure, and that one moment of irresolution when he did not shoot the Doctor at the top of the ladder And thereafter lost his chance-It somehoeakened her terrified ad but acclaim for the escape he had made from the Hidden Room itself