Pud and Tim shared a big four-poster bed in the room always occupied by the former when, once a year, he accompanied his parents to Great-Aunt Sabrina’s. This was at the back of the house, to the left, the smallest of the rooms on the second floor. Opposite, across the broad hall that ran from front to back, was a huge bathroom, containing an old-fashioned zinc tub boxed in walnut paneling, and cutting off a corner of it was a stairway leading down to the kitchen. Harmon was given a bed made of two thick comforters from the maid’s room, doubled lengthwise and laid on the floor. A single blanket answered for covering. As the day had been, on the whole, fairly strenuous, all hands were fast asleep before ten. Pud, though, didn’t slumber very peacefully. He had overindulged in the preserved ginger, I think. At all events, while Tim, having once fallen asleep, scarcely moved, Pud thrashed about a good deal and awoke more than once to the sound of Harmon’s gurgling respirations and the gentle, persistent patter of the rain outside. They had left the door open, such being their custom when at home, and it was when Pud had returned to full consciousness for the second or, possibly, third time that he heard a sound that could be attributed neither to Harmon nor the rain. The sound came from somewhere below and suggested to the curious listener the opening of a stubborn drawer containing some metallic contents that rattled together. His first thought was, of course, that Aunt Sabrina had returned home, and the thought was accompanied by an unpleasant sinking sensation. It also had the effect of bringing him very wide awake. For a minute he lay in bed and considered a course of action. It might be that, if he did nothing at all, his presence, and that of his companions, would remain unsuspected until morning. On the other hand, it was more probable that Aunt Sabrina’s sharp eyes would see that things were not just as she had left them, or that the maid would miss the comforters and blanket and institute a search for them. On the whole, as little as the plan appealed to him, Pud decided finally that right now was the time to appear and explain. Of course, Aunt Sabrina would look very fearsome and probably have quite a lot to say about boys with wet feet dirtying up her floors and helping themselves to her victuals and―― Right there Pud sat up in bed very suddenly, staring amazedly into the gray darkness. Why, it couldn’t be Aunt Sabrina! It just _couldn’t_ be Aunt Sabrina for the simple reason that he had locked the front door on the inside and the big iron key still remained where he had turned it! And without the key, how could Aunt Sabrina have got in? He simply couldn’t imagine either Lydia, the middle-aged maid and companion, or Aunt Sabrina forcing a window and climbing over the ledge! But if it wasn’t Aunt Sabrina stirring quietly about downstairs, who could it be?