No comment was made upon his abrupt return, but Betty sensed a redoubled tension in the air. To her relief, however, the onus of suspicion seemed to have been lifted from her, although the house was so palpably under guard by the masculine members of the group that immediate escape was out of the question.
Betty had no need, as the hours lengthened, to feign fatigue. Her nervous exhaustion was manifest in her drawn face, and Mrs. Atterbury at length laid her hand upon the girl's arm.
"You are tired, my dear. Go to bed if you like but you will be obliged to sleep, for a while at least, with closed windows. Welch has connected all those on the second floor with the alarm system down here, and if one is raised during the night the whole house will be aroused again."
Betty understood the covert warning, but rejoiced that the privacy so vital to her was assured. Murmuring good night she ascended the stairs and disappeared around the gallery.
Scarcely had the soft thud of her closing door broken the silence, when Welch entered from the dining-room and approached the circle seated about the hearth, took his place uninvited among the rest.
"How're we going to make our get-away?" he demanded gruffly. "That's what I want to know, with the place surrounded—"
"Rot!" interrupted Wolvert. "For a thorough-going coward, commend me to a strong-arm bully every time. Yes, I mean you, Welch, don't try to bluff me, my man! You're in a blue funk and you'd conjure up a copper behind every tree! Why haven't they closed in on us, if the bulls are on the job?"
Welch muttered sullenly beneath his breath, but Doctor Bayard leaned forward in his chair.
"That is a reasonable conclusion," he remarked in his quiet, well-bred tones. "I admit, however, that taken in conjunction with the crowning misfortune which has come to us, the possibility is disquieting. You have examined the papers thoroughly, Marcia? You are sure that practically everything of value has been taken?"
"Everything." Mrs. Atterbury spread out her hands in an eloquent gesture. "We are cleaned! The result of five years of planning and scheming and desperate risk has vanished in an hour!"