“What?” asked Walter, producing pencil and paper. “Let’s get at this systematically.”
“Oh, well, there are lots of things you—you wouldn’t understand about,” said Cora, blushing slightly.
“That’s true enough,” Walter admitted with a smile. “You are not on the witness stand, so you needn’t mention face powder, nose rings——”
“Well, I like that!” cried Cora. “As if we used face powder!”
“Just for that he will have to eat at the second table,” pronounced Hazel.
“Come on!” challenged Jack, laughing. “Get down to business. What sort of things are missing, Cora?”
“Girls’ things, of course,” said his sister. “We didn’t have much else up here.”
And that, it developed, was what was missing. Trinkets, some toilet articles, including a silver-mounted set belonging to Cora which Jack had given her the previous Christmas, were gone. Hazel lost a silver-backed mirror and a box full of bright ribbons.
“Well, this beats me!” said Walter with a puzzled air, as he looked at the list he had made. “They took some things they may possibly dispose of at a pawnshop, but why grown men burglars should want hair ribbons, or neck ribbons, or whatever ribbons they are, gets me.”
“What makes you think they were men?” asked Belle.