CHAPTER PAGE I. A CERTAIN DATE 7 II. THE LOCKED ROOM 24 III. THE EVIDENCE OF THE CHECKBOOK 40 IV. TIMKEN AND HIS INQUIRIES 56 V. DOWNING'S EVIDENCE 71 VI. LUCILLE 87 VII. THE CASE AGAINST BANNARD 103 VIII. RODNEY POLLOCK APPEARS 119 IX. IRIS IN DANGER 135 X. FLOSSIE 151 XI. GONE AGAIN! 167 XII. IN CHICAGO 183 XIII. FLEMING STONE COMES 200 XIV. FIBSY AND SAM 216 XV. IN THE COLOLE 233 XVI. KIDNAPPED AGAIN 250 XVII. THE CIPHER 266 XVIII. SOLUTION AT LAST 282 CHAPTER I A CERTAIN DATE "Well, go to church then, and I hope to goodness you'll come back in a more spiritual frame of mind! Though how you can feel spiritual in that flibbertigibbet dress is more than I know! An actress, indeed! No mummers' masks have ever blotted the scutcheon of my family tree. The Clydes were decent, God-fearing people, and I don't propose, Miss, that you shall disgrace the name." Ursula Pell shook her good-looking gray head and glowered at her pretty niece, who was getting into a comfortable though not elaborate motor car. "I know you didn't propose it, Aunt Ursula," returned the smiling girl, "I thought up the scheme myself, and I decline to let you have credit of its origin." "Discredit, you mean," and Mrs. Pell sniffed haughtily. "Here's some money for the contribution plate. Iris; see that you put it in, and don't appropriate it yourself." The slender, aristocratic old hand, half covered by a falling lace frill, dropped a coin into Iris' out-held palm, and the girl perceived it was one cent. She looked at her aunt in amazement, for Mrs. Pell was a millionaire; then, thinking better of her impulse to voice an indignant protest, Iris got into the car. Immediately, she saw a dollar bill on the seat beside her and she knew that was for the contribution plate, and the penny was a joke of her aunt's.