Housebreaking is a very different business from the forcible entry of country post-offices, and The Hopper was nervous.  This particular house seemed utterly deserted.  He stole upstairs and found doors open and a disorder indicative of the occupants’ hasty departure.  His attention was arrested by a small room finished in white, with a white enameled bed, and other furniture to match.  A generous litter of toys was the last proof needed to establish the house as Shaver’s true domicile.  Indeed, there was every indication that Shaver was the central figure of this home of whose charm and atmosphere The Hopper was vaguely sensible.  A frieze of dancing children and watercolor sketches of Shaver’s head, dabbed here and there in the most unlooked-for places, hinted at an artistic household.  This impression was strengthened when The Hopper, bewildered and baffled, returned to the lower floor and found a studio opening off the living room.  The Hopper had never visited a studio before, and satisfied now that he was the sole occupant of the house, he passed passed about shooting his light upon unfinished canvases, pausing finally before an easel supporting a portrait of Shaver—­newly finished, he discovered, by poking his finger into the wet paint.  Something fell to the floor and he picked up a large sheet of drawing paper on which this message was written in charcoal:—­

         &nb
sp;                              Six-thirty.
    Dear Sweetheart:—­

This is a fine trick you have played on me, you dear girl!  I’ve been expecting you back all afternoon.  At six I decided that you were going to spend the night with your infuriated parent and thought I’d try my luck with mine!  I put Billie into the roadster and, leaving him there, ran over to the Flemings’s to say Merry Christmas and tell ’em we were off for the night.  They kept me just a minute to look at those new Jap prints Jim’s so crazy about, and while I was gone you came along and skipped with Billie and the car!  I suppose this means that you’ve been making headway with your dad and want to try the effect of Billie’s blandishments.  Good luck!  But you might have stopped long enough to tell me about it!  How fine it would be if everything could be straightened out for Christmas!  Do you remember the first time I kissed you—­it was on Christmas Eve four years ago at the Billings’s dance!  I’m just trolleying out to father’s to see what an evening session will do.  I’ll be back early in the morning.

Love always,
ROGER.

Billie was undoubtedly Shaver’s nickname.  This delighted The Hopper.  That they should possess the same name appeared to create a strong bond of comradeship.  The writer of the note was presumably the child’s father and the “Dear Sweetheart” the youngster’s mother.  The Hopper was not reassured by these disclosures.  The return of Shaver to his parents was far from being the pleasant little Christmas Eve adventure he had imagined.