"Mind the what?" snapped Preston. "The mice--the white mice that she used to keep as pets," explained the landlady. "Had half a dozen or more of them running over her shoulders, but I told her that I couldn't stand for that. She could keep 'em in her room if she wanted to, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Guess it was on their account that she didn't have any other visitors. S'far as I know Mr. Gerard was the only one who called on her." "When did Miss Vaughan leave?" Hal inquired. "Mrs. Vaughan," corrected the woman. "She was a widow--though she was young and pretty enough to have been married any time she wanted to be. Guess the men wouldn't stand for them mice, though. She didn't stay very long--just about six weeks. Left somewheres about the middle of July." "About two weeks before Gerard did?" "About that--though I don't just remember the date." A few more inquiries elicited the fact that Mrs. Vaughan's room had been rented since her departure, so Preston gave up the idea of looking through it for possible connecting links with the expert in bankruptcy. Returning to the hotel, the operative settled down to an examination of the scraps of torn telegrams which the chief had handed him. Evidently they had been significant, he argued, for Gerard had been careful to tear them into small bits, and it was long past midnight before he had succeeded in piecing the messages together, pasting the scraps on glass in case there had been any notations on the reverse of the blank. But when he had finished he found that he had only added one more puzzling aspect to the case. There were three telegrams, filed within a week and all dated just before Gerard had left town. "Geraldine, Anna, May, and Florence are in Chicago," read the message from Evanston, Illinois. "George, William, Katherine, Ray, and Stephen still in St. Louis," was the wire filed from Detroit. The third message, from Minneapolis, detailed the fact that "Frank, Vera, Marguerite, Joe, and Walter are ready to leave St. Paul." None of the telegrams was signed, but, merely as a precaution, Preston wired Evanston, Detroit, and Minneapolis to find out if there was any record of who had sent them. "Agent here recalls message," came the answer from Detroit the next day. "Filed by woman who refused to give her name. Agent says sender was quite large, good-looking, and very well dressed." "Anna Vaughan!" muttered Preston, as he tucked the telegram in his pocket and asked to be shown a copy of the latest Railway Guide.