The sigh that he drew was one of immeasurable relief.  “Well, you are awake now, my dear, and the goblin sha’n’t chase you any more.  But I’m greatly troubled about what you tell me, about your having opened the safe.  I want you to come with me now.  Is your aunt home?  Yes?  Well, I’ll telephone my sister to call for her and take her out somewhere.  Then we’ll return, and I will take all the responsibility of what I think it’s best to do.  One thing is quite evident:  your mother’s valuables are not safe, if they haven’t already been tampered with and stolen.  You see—­well, I’ll explain as we go.  I’ll get rid of Mrs. Mellows first.”

A few telephone calls arranged matters, and a message brought his motor from its neighboring waiting place.  “You see,” he continued, as the machine throbbed its way northward, “there are several possibilities.  One is, that this anonymous person is mad.  In that case, we can’t take too many precautions.  The ingenuity of the insane is proverbial.  Then, this may be a vicious vengeance; someone who hates your splendid mother, and would hurt her through you.  You can see that if you had believed this detestable story it would have broken her heart.  Now such a person, hoping that you would investigate, would have been quite capable of stocking your mother’s secret compartment with stuff that at the first glance would have seemed to substantiate the story.  You see, they knew all about the combination and the inner compartment, and they must have had access to your home.  They probably took you for a silly little fool, full of curiosity, and counted on the shock of falling into their trap being so great that you would be in no condition to reason matters out; that you and your mother would be hopelessly estranged, or at least that you would so hurt and distress her that they could gloat over her unhappiness.  You know you are the one thing she loves in all the world, Dorothy.”

He had talked looking straight ahead of him, striving to give his words judicial weight.  Now he glanced down at Dorothy’s face.  It was calm, and a little color was returning to her cheeks.  She pressed his hand fervently.

“But it’s so wicked!” she repeated.  “It frightens me to think of such viciousness so near to us, and we don’t know and can’t guess who it is.”

“We’ll find a clew.  I’ll have detectives to watch the house, and to trace the messenger who brought that letter, if possible.  Say nothing to anyone, not even to Tante Lydia.  Perhaps it would be best not to worry your mother at all about it.  She’s not well, you see.  In the meantime, I’m going to take everything out of the safe, and transfer it to my own.  I’ll make a list.  Then we’ll change the combination.”

“Oh, I wish I’d come to you the very first minute,” sighed Dorothy.  “You’re such a tower of strength, and you make everything so easy and simple.  I’m ashamed of my fright, and my crying like a baby.  You are so good to me—­I—­I just love you.”