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116 "I didn't!" Odell interrupted sharply. "Where did you search next?"

"The young lady, the youngest one, was sitting with her father, so I had a chance to give her room the once over; but there was nothin' doin' there either. She has a coal-grate, but it was clean and polished." Taylor sat back somewhat sulkily in his chair, but he was careful to reply promptly. "Her desk was full of the things a young society girl usually keeps—invitations and theater programs and dance-cards and all that flummery. There were some letters of condolence, too, on the death of her mother and brother, and a bundle tied with a blue ribbon; lot of sentimental kid stuff and all of them signed 'Tad.

"I know all about that." Odell cast a glance toward the door. "Anything else?"

"High-brow books and a golf-bag, riding-breeches, and a Red-Cross uniform that's seen a lot of wear." Taylor's good-natured grin reasserted itself. "She must be a regular girl if she is a swell, that Miss Nan. There wasn't a thing locked in her room, either."

"Her room is on the third floor opposite Mr. Chalmers's, isn't it? Did you see Porter?"

"I didn't see him but I heard him." Taylor's grin expanded into a chuckle. "Mr. Gene must have seen him on guard and invited him in, for from what I heard outside the door they were playin' 'rum' together and Porter had about mortgaged his next three months' pay to the young gentleman!"

Odell did not smile. He felt that he had taken Gene's measure to the weak, snobbish soul of him; and if he had