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Rh simply because your mother is no longer with us and your stepfather lying injured upstairs that I must try to make you listen. You shall not go!"

Odell heard a little scuffle, and the handle of the great front door turned violently with a dull clang of bronze. Then Miss Meade's voice rose desperately.

"Sergeant Odell!"

He strode out into the hall to find the pretty girl, now flushed and with her cold blue eyes snapping fire, standing half in and half outside the door, with her aunt's restraining hand upon her arm.

"This is the young man from Headquarters of whom I told you, Cissie. My oldest niece, Miss Chalmers."

Odell bowed, and then glanced sharply at the traveling-bag in the girl's hands.

"You were going away, Miss Chalmers?" he asked in well-simulated surprise. "I am very sorry, but that will not be permitted. No one must leave this house on any pretext whatever until they are authorized to do so."

Cissie's lip curled.

"Are you aware that the butler has already gone?" she asked in her turn. "Surely if the servants—"

"The butler if he does not return here of his own volition will be caught in the dragnet and brought in before nightfall," Odell interrupted her sternly. "He will be taken to Headquarters, questioned for hours, and finally locked up on suspicion if on no graver charge. You will be suitably protected here in your own home, Miss Chalmers, and here you must remain."

She tossed her head.

"By whose authority?"