The next day came District Attorney Matthews to interview Miss Stuart. Her absence from home annoyed him and he asked for her New York address. This no one knew, as she had not informed any of them where she was staying in the city, and Mr. Matthews went off in a state of angry excitement. But the household at Garden Steps was even more excited. For this was the first sign of a definite action against Pauline. What it meant or how far it would go, no one could say. And then, that afternoon, came a letter from Pauline herself. It had been mailed in New York that morning and contained the surprising news that Pauline had sailed at noon that day for Alexandria. "Get her back!" roared Haviland, as he read the letter. "Wireless the steamer and make her get picked up by some incoming ship! Don't think of expense! She musn't run off like that! It's equivalent to confession of the crime!" "Hush!" demanded Fleming Stone. "How dare you say that?" "It's true!" cried Anita. "Why else would Pauline run away? She knew she was on the verge of arrest and she fled to Carr Loria. He will hide her from her pursuers." "He can," said Haviland, thoughtfully: "maybe it's as well she's gone there. Of course, she did it." "Of course, she didn't!" and Fleming Stone's voice trembled in its very intensity. "And I shall prove to a lot of dunder-headed police that she didn't, but it will make my work much harder if you two insist on Miss Stuart's guilt. Why do you want to railroad her into conviction of a crime she never dreamed of?" "Then who did it?" demanded Anita. "To whom _was_ Miss Lucy speaking when she said those things I heard?" "If you harp on that string much longer," said Stone, looking at her, "one might almost be justified in thinking she said them to you." "No," said Anita, in a low, awed voice, and looking straight at Fleming Stone, "no, she did not say them to me." And Stone knew she spoke the solemn truth. But she had not spoken the truth when she said she saw Pauline Stuart coming from the boudoir of her aunt. XIX LETTERS FROM THE FUGITIVE Pauline's flight was deemed by many a confession of guilt. The District Attorney declared his intention of cabling a command to hold her for examination at Alexandria. Or, he said, perhaps it would be better to intercept her course at Gibraltar or Naples. The people at Garden Steps paid little attention to these suggestions, so absorbed were they in planning for themselves.