The sound of her own voice in the silent, dark house was strange; Mary Louise found herself trembling. But only for a moment: courage and common sense came to her rescue. Hastily she gathered all the silver together and put it in a pile on the dining-room table.
“I may have to go out through the window again,” she figured, “so I’ll leave my stuff here. But first I’ll try the doors from the inside.”
There, however, she met disappointment. There were no dead latches on the doors; they were both locked securely, and the keys had been removed.
Now that she had familiarized herself with the plan of the house, she decided to make a systematic search, beginning with the upstairs and working her way down. Cautiously she ascended the wide stairway in the hall to the second floor.
There were four bedrooms, she saw by the aid of her flashlight, and a bathroom. A narrow staircase led to an attic above.
“I might as well begin with the attic,” she thought, “and do the thing thoroughly. That would be a natural place to hide things—especially if there’s a closet.”
There was a huge closet, she soon discovered, besides two trunks, and all sorts of odds and ends of furniture piled about the room. Naturally, Mary Louise began her search with the trunks: to her delight she found them unlocked.
“If I only have the same luck that I had in the dining room!” she wished as she began to examine the trays.
Things had apparently been stuffed in hit-or-miss fashion: ribbons, scarves, odd bits of costumes were all entangled together. Off in a corner of the tray she found a heavy box which looked especially inviting. Opening it excitedly she let out a wild whoop of joy. There was jewelry inside!
But when she examined the articles one by one she experienced only disappointment. There was nothing valuable in the whole collection; it was merely “five-and-ten-store” stuff, which nobody would wear except to a costume party.