Again, no one would have dared to linger there long enough to have made an examination of the box, with an officer in the next room, and the sergeant passing.

The box had been removed, and the examination made elsewhere! An idea seized him.

Miss Faulkner was still absent, the mulatto had apparently gone home.

He quickly mounted the staircase, but instead of entering his room, turned suddenly aside into the wing which had been reserved.

The first door yielded as he turned its knob gently and entered a room which he at once recognized as the "young lady's boudoir." But the dusty and draped furniture had been rearranged and uncovered, and the apartment bore every sign of present use.