"What's gone wrong with you, childie? You're the one that's in a run-down state. Here's your box, Jane dear. Look, it isn't stolen at all. Pinch yourself. Waken up. Everything's all right."

But Jane did not return her relative's smile; clutched both fat arms of the chair with both slim hands; stared ahead fixedly, as if trying to think.

"It is," she repeated under her breath, "_empty_."

From his urgent desire to relieve and help her, Pape intruded into her painful abstraction.

"Then it wasn't the box you valued, so much as its contents," he stated to her. "From the shock you have shown on finding it empty, I gather that the safe has been robbed after all. Will you tell me of what?"

Her lips moved. He had to lean low to hear her sporadic utterances.

"I have failed-in a trust. It meant more to me than-it will kill him-simply kill him. He trusted me. I can't understand-who--"

A sudden glance of virile suspicion she flung up into the young Westerner's eyes.

"Who and what are you?" she demanded. "Answer me!"

CHAPTER IX-SNUFFED

So unexpected was the girl's attack that Pape felt at a loss how best to meet it. At his look of confusion, she continued in quick, fierce tones:

"I can't see how my affairs concern you. How dare you question me? Why are you around, anyhow, here and at the-- How did you happen to open that safe so easily? Who and what are you-I insist on an answer?"

"My dear, don't let excitement make you unreasonable," Mrs. Sturgis intervened. "Mr. Pape is a detective from the a.r.s.enal. I've told you that. Jasper brought him over after I--"

"He isn't. I know very much better. He is nothing of the sort." The girl arose and straightened before him, all strength now. "I suppose you expect me to tell you all about everything like a little-like a ninny.

Well, I won't. I won't tell you anything. _You_ tell _me_!"

"Don't mind in the least. Fact, I'd gladly tell you a lot about the who and what of Peter Stansbury Pape, but you're not in a mood to hear. Out in Montana, where I hail from, we think a lot of straight friendship. If you could trust me, Miss Lauderdale, perhaps I'd be able to demonstrate the sort of friendship I mean."

"Well, I can't trust you."

"Pardon me. Yes, you can."

He faced her with an emphasized look of that sincerity which before had compelled her. But she shifted her eyes stubbornly and insisted:

"It's very strange that on this particular night, when I was to be robbed of something that matters more to me than-It does seem very strange, your forcing your way in as you did."

"He didn't force his way in. I tell you I sent for him," said Aunt Helene.

Pape, however, nodded in agreement. "It was and is strange. I ain't contradicting you, notice. Everything to-night seems mighty strange-to me, as well as to you. If you'd just stop to consider that all friends are strangers to start with, if you'd yield to your instinct, which won't lead you astray in my case, if you'd tag what's worrying you so that I could know where we're headed for--"

Again Mrs. Sturgis interrupted, this time from excitement within herself. She seized Jane's arm by way of claiming that difficult young relative's attention.

"It has just occurred to me what-Jane Lauderdale, do you mean for one minute to tell me that you've found--"

"I don't mean to tell anything."

The click of the girl's voice silenced further importunities. Mrs.

Sturgis clasped her hands tightly from nervous suppression, her continued mutterings clipped by a knife-like look from Jane.

"I do think you ought to tell if by hook or crook you've found- There now, don't flare up again! I don't wonder, poor dear, that you're upset.

Just remember that I'm upset, too. And I can't help feeling a little hurt that you don't show more confidence in one who has done her best to keep you from missing the mother who- But there, we won't speak of that now. What do you make of the case Mr. Po-Pape? What does your professional instinct tell you?"

In truth, Why Not Pape's "professional" instinct had not been very communicative. But the result of his unprofessional investigation-Jane's distress, climaxing in her suspicion of him-had brought him through a conclusive mental process. There had been a robbery and a peculiar one.

Money, bonds and valuable jewelry had been pa.s.sed by in the theft of an unnamed something vitally precious to a girl whom he had offered to befriend.

Already much valuable time had been lost through Mrs. Sturgis'

incert.i.tude, her summons of Jane and Jane's unwitting summons of himself. His impulsive partic.i.p.ation was delaying the more expert search which should have been instigated at once. The thief might have escaped through his interposition of himself. He felt that he ought to make amends if the time for such had not already pa.s.sed.

Through this mental summary, accomplished during the moment that followed the matron's demand, Pape managed the appearance of a man in deep study. At its conclusion--

"Looks like an inside job," he declared.

"By inside you mean- Please don't suspect any one within my household."

Mrs. Sturgis' color rose with the advice.

"I have no right to suspect any one-not yet, madam. I am considering only known facts. Your safe has been robbed within the last few hours of the contents of this heirloom snuff-box. I a.s.sume, Miss Lauderdale, that you are ready to swear your treasure was inside the box when you entrusted it to your aunt?"

"You may-" Jane crisply. "I am not given to figments of the imagination."

"I congratulate you, miss. The safe was opened by no ordinary robber, as proved by the valuables left. Somebody who appreciated the contents of-of Miss Lauderdale's treasure committed the theft and in such a hurry that he or she did not wait to extract the contents, but took box and all. Later this person, not knowing that Mrs. Sturgis had been to the safe in the meantime and discovered the loss, found opportunity to replace the now-empty box and, in the hurry of closing the door, jarred the mechanism of the lock."

Mrs. Sturgis nodded; looked really quite encouraged. "That could have been done while I went up stairs to dress after sending to the Metropolitan for my niece. But I do hope you're not going to make the mistake of accusing my servants. They've been with me for years."

"I am not going to accuse any one, although servants have a way of making less honest friends who use them. I simply say that no professional turned this trick. The case is one for Central Office men.

Even if it were in my line, I could not, under the circ.u.mstances, take the responsibility of it myself."

"Under what circ.u.mstances, Mr. Pope-that is, _Pape_? You don't intend to leave us-to desert us just when--"

Pape silenced Aunt Helene's protestations with a creditable gesture.

"The lack of confidence in me-even suspicion of me-shown by Miss Lauderdale makes it impossible for me to proceed. I have gone as far as I can in a case where I'm not to be given a hint of the nature of the stolen article which I am asked to replace. Since, however, I've been called in, I must discharge my obligation as an officer of the law.

Where is-oh, I see it. May I use your phone, Mrs. Sturgis?"

"Certainly. But w-what are you about to do?"

"To call up Headquarters and have a brace of bulls-beg pardon-a span of detectives sent up at once. We shall hope that they look more worthy of Miss Lauderdale's confidence."

With this dignified declaration Pape strode across the room to a telephone cabinet in the corner; sat down and lifted the receiver. But he never heard the response.

One ringless hand brushed past his lips and cupped the mouthpiece, another pressed down the hook. Jane's face, again disagreeable, strained, strange, bent over him. At just that moment he recalled that the line was said to be out of commission, a fact which they two appeared to have forgotten. Deeming the point of distance from Aunt Helene an advantage, he decided not to remind Jane, lest he silence what she was about to say.

"I've changed my mind," she quavered. "I don't want a detective-any detectives."

"Oh, yes, you do." Pape spoke in a tone authoritative from his sincere wish to get her the best possible advice in the least possible time. "Of course I'll see it through, too, if you want me to and ask me to. But I must have help on the case. Just let me get a good man detailed, then don't worry. We'll get a rope on your petty thief sooner than--"