"Extraordinary! Most extraordinary!" I exclaimed, pulling off my nightcap and starting to rise. "I must really dress and descend to take a look at that picture and the scene of the crime!" "You can't!" said Peaches, suddenly listless. "You can't--we are both locked in!" I could scarcely believe my ears. But Peaches was in earnest, there was no doubt about that. "Locked in!" I repeated incredulously. "What on earth are you saying, Alicia Pegg?" "I was saying a mouthful!" she responded. "Pa has locked us in." "But what for?" I demanded with proper indignation. "I told him I was going to follow Sandro," said Peaches, as if the explanation was the most obvious thing possible and she were just a trifle impatient of my stupidity. "Are you crazy?" I cried. "Follow him--follow that thief--that--that scoundrel? Aren't the police following him? Isn't that following enough?" "That's just why," she announced. "Wherever he is--wherever he goes, I am going too. After last night I can't do anything else. And if it's to jail--all right, I'll go to jail. But I won't stay away from him, and I will find him if the secret-service can't, and I hope most heartily they will make a flivver of it. And I'll never leave him again--believe me!" I was obliged to believe her. I had, indeed, only to look at her in order to do so. And as I looked, a gleam of human intelligence broke into my brain. "Peaches," I said solemnly, "did you tell on Markheim?" "Of course not!" she said, flushing hotly. "He--wasn't himself; I realize that now." "So you just told your father that you are through with Markheim and are in love with the duke?" She nodded dumbly. "No wonder he locked you up!" I gasped, falling back on the pillows. "Locked me up and said the marriage would go ahead as per schedule," she announced grimly. "Which is bunk of course. The point is--what shall we do about it?" "Have they caught the duke?" I inquired. "I don't believe so," said she. "There is nothing to that effect in the early afternoon newspapers from New York, though there's plenty about the robbery. Take a look!" "Let me see!" I exclaimed, stretching out my hand for the paper.