"They gagged you——"
"But not in a ruffianly manner! No, I'm not afraid. If Miss Darrel will let me stay here a while longer, I believe I can ferret out——"
"Stay as long as you like, dear child," and Lucille smiled kindly on her, "and I'll help you. I'm fond of puzzles, myself, and maybe I can help more than you'd think!"
"Now, I want to go and see Win, and tell him all about it," Iris announced; "mayn't I?"
"I think I can arrange that——" began Hughes; but Lucille said, "Not now, Iris, you must have some food first. Why, you've had no dinner at all, and it's after four o'clock!"
"I'm not hungry," Iris insisted, but Miss Darrel carried her off to the dining room.
"Mighty queer mix-up," Hughes said to the lawyer.
"It is so, but I can't think there's any importance to that pin. These theories don't hold water."
"I dunno's they do, but they've got to be looked into. That pin's safe for the present, I think, safer'n it'd be in a bank. That is, unless somebody was lookin' in the window. Miss Clyde was mighty careful to draw the shades in the other room, but she forgot it in here—and so did I."
"Oh, there's nobody to look in. The house is so far back from the road, and none of the servants are of the prying sort."