“And she is, Mrs Varian,” the young man said, earnestly. “For, North and I have been all over this place, and North is a sort of an architect, you know, and I’m sort of a detective, and we can’t find any place where any one could be concealed. Now, it doesn’t do any good, as some do, to say there must be a secret passage, or secret cupboard. If there were, we must have found it. And it’s too ridiculous, even to think for a minute that Betty killed her father! I know Betty, even better, perhaps than you or her father ever knew her. We have been sweethearts for nearly a year, and I tried many a time to persuade Betty to defy her father, and announce her engagement to me. She would have done so soon, I’m sure, but it was her love and respect for him that made her hold off so long. As to their little squabbles, they meant nothing at all. To imagine that girl shooting anybody is too absurd! I could rather imagine——” Granniss paused, and Minna took up his thought. “You could rather imagine her father shooting her! I’ve thought that over, but you see, it’s impossible, because there was no weapon found.” “It’s the strangest case I ever heard of! Now, about the reward. It’s time that was attended to.” “Yes; and I think we’ll make it as high as ten thousand dollars,——” “For Betty’s return?” “Yes, that is, for any information that may lead to knowledge of what happened to Betty and where she is now.” “Nothing about apprehending the criminal?” “You know, Mr Granniss, they make fun of me for imagining this ‘criminal.’ How could there be one? How did he get in the house? How did he disappear again? You say yourself there’s no secret passage,—we know nobody came in through the regular way,—how, then, even suggest a ‘criminal’?” “Yes, but why offer a reward, if there’s no one who could by any chance appear to claim it?” “That’s the point Doctor Varian makes. He says it doesn’t matter how large we make the offer, for it never will be claimed.” “Then we’ll just assume that criminal, and go ahead with the reward plan,” said Granniss, cheerfully. “I’ll attend to it, and we won’t speculate on its result at present. It surely can’t do any harm. But, Mrs Varian, we must do more than that.” “What, for instance?” “Detectives. I think you should get the best one you can and get him up here at once.” “Please do that, Mr Granniss. What do you do? Apply to a city agency?” “Yes; or get a private detective. I know of one,—the best there is in the country, but we might not be able to get him.” “Try, anyway. Offer any price,—any bonus. Only get him.” “Very well,—I’ll try. I have to go down to New York soon, for there are many important matters to see to with Mr Varian’s lawyers. I’ll see about this detective then.” Minna had replaced the servants who had left her with maids from the village. There were some who were glad to go to a house suddenly made famous by such an astounding mystery. Others declared the house was haunted, and wouldn’t go near it.