"The truth!" exclaimed Helen.
"I won't tell you a thing!" cried the strange girl. "You haven't any right to that vase."
"Nor have you," Ruth told her.
"Well——"
"Nor has Margaret Rolff," went on Ruth, coolly. "I take it you are acting for her, aren't you?"
"Why," cried Helen, beginning to understand. "That is the girl who left Ardmore last year?"
"And came to the Red Mill after spending the summer at a camp on the Lumano and helped Aunt Alvirah," Ruth added, with a smile.
"Well, I never! Not Maggie?" demanded Helen.
"I think I am right," Ruth said quietly. "Am I not?" to the other girl. "Our Maggie is Margaret Rolff, and you must be her sister. At least, you look enough like her to be some relative."
The other made a gesture of resignation and dropped her hands. "I might as well confess it," she admitted. "You are Ruth Fielding, and Margy told me long ago you might be trusted."