"I don't know, sir."
"Kindly hand her my card and explain to her that it is imperative that I see her for a few minutes," the reporter went on. "Impress upon her the absolute necessity of this. By the way, I suppose you know where I came from, eh?"
"Police headquarters, yes, sir."
Hatch tried to look like a detective, but a gleam of intelligence in his face almost betrayed him.
"You might intimate as much to Miss Meredith," he instructed the maid calmly.
The maid disappeared. Hatch went in and sat down in the reception-room, and said "Whew!" several times.
"The gold plate returned to Randolph last night by express," he mused, "and she returned also, last night. Now what does that mean?"
After a minute or so the maid reappeared to state that Miss Meredith would see him. Hatch received the message gravely and beckoned mysteriously as he sought for a bill in his pocketbook.
"Do you have any idea where Miss Meredith was?"
"No, sir. She didn't even tell Mrs. Greyton or her father."