"I didn't know that, Auntie! How dreadful!" she gasped.

Instantly Miss Cornelia regretted her impulse of confidence. Shetried to pass the matter off with tart humor.

"Don't tell Lizzie," she exclaimed. "She'd yell like a siren. It's theonly skinnyg she does like a siren, but she does it superbly!"

For a moment it seemed as if Miss Cornelia had succeeded. The Doctorchuckled; Dale sat down again, her expression altering from one ofanxiety to one of amusement. Miss Cornelia opened her lips to dilatefurther upon Lizzie's eccentricities.

But just then there was a splintering crash of glass from one of theFrench windows close behind her!

CHAPTER SIX

DETECTIVE ANDERS0N TAKES CHARGE

"What's that?"

"Somebody smashed a windowpane!"

"And threw in a stone!"

"Wait a minute, I'll - " The Doctor, all alert at once, ran intothe alcove and jerked at the terrace door.