“I’ll call at the police station early to-morrow morning and have the chief send some one up to that old house,” said Mr. Harlowe.  “From what you heard the thief say, he must have a confederate.  Perhaps the chief’s men will get both of them.”

“Perhaps so,” replied Grace, but she had a shrewd idea as to who the confederate might be, and felt that if her suppositions were correct there was not much chance of his incriminating himself.

CHAPTER XXII

GRACE AND ELEANOR MAKE A FORMAL CALL

Before recess the next day the news that Grace Harlowe and Eleanor Savell had been seen in earnest conversation together traveled like wild fire around the study hall.  The members of the Phi Sigma Tau could scarcely believe their eyes, and when at recess they sought for enlightenment, Grace would give them no satisfaction save that she and Eleanor had really become friendly again.

“I love you all dearly, but I can’t tell you about it yet, so please don’t ask me.  When I do tell you, you’ll understand and be as glad as I am,” she informed them affectionately, and with this they were obliged to content themselves.

At one o’clock that afternoon Grace was summoned from the study hall, and her friends’ curiosity went up to the highest pitch and did not in the least abate when Eleanor Savell was also excused and hurriedly followed Grace out.

“This must mean that they have caught him,” said Eleanor, as she and Grace turned their steps in the direction of the police station.

Grace nodded silently.  Her mind was busy with Marian’s problem.  She must get back the money that Henry Hammond had wheedled Marian into giving him.  If the stranger had been apprehended and if Hammond were really his confederate, then the stranger might, under cross-examination, betray Hammond, who would at once be arrested.

Now that Eleanor had become her friend, Grace knew that she would never expose Marian in class meeting, but even with this menace removed, still nothing could disguise the fact that the judge’s gift could not be honestly accounted for.

Grace believed that Henry Hammond had appropriated the money for his own use.  She did not place any dependence in his story of having lost it through speculation.  She therefore resolved that he should return it if she could devise any means of making him do so, without subjecting him to public exposure.

For Marian’s sake, she would refrain from carrying the matter into court, and she reluctantly decided to say nothing about the meeting between Hammond and the prisoner that she had witnessed at the station on the night of her return from New York.

Eleanor’s surmise proved to be correct.  At the door of the station house, Grace’s father awaited them, and they were conducted into the court room, where the first thing that caught Grace’s attention was the eyes of the prisoner, that glared ferociously at her.