As I watched his face, it changed first from despair to wonder, and finally it seemed to light up with the most remarkable look of relief and happiness that one could imagine.

“I shall be right over,” he cried, jamming the receiver down on the hook, and in the same motion reaching for his hat and coat.  “Walter,” he cried, “it is Elaine!  They have let her go!”

I seized my own hat and coat in time to follow him and we dashed out of the laboratory.

The suspense under which Aunt Josephine had been living had told on her.  Her niece, Elaine’s cousin, Mary Brown, who lived at Rockledge, had come into the city to comfort Aunt Josephine and they had been sitting, that morning, in the library.  Marie, the maid was busy about the room, while Aunt Josephine talked sadly over Elaine’s strange disappearance.  She was on the verge of tears.

Suddenly a startled cry from Jennings out in the hall caused both ladies to jump to their feet.  They could scarcely believe what they heard as the faithful old butler cried out the name.

“Why—­Miss Elaine!” he gasped.

An instant later Elaine herself burst into the room and flung herself into Aunt Josephine’s arms.  All talking and half crying from joy at once, they crowded about her.  Breathlessly she answered the questions that flew thick and fast.

In the excitement Aunt Josephine had seized the telephone and called our number.  She did not even wait to break the good news, but handed the telephone to Elaine herself.

We left the laboratory on the run, too fast to notice that just around the building line at the corner stood a limousine with shades drawn.  Even if we had paused to glance back, we could not have seen Wu Fang and Long Sin inside, gazing out through the corner of the curtains.  They were in European dress now and had evidently come prepared for just what they knew was likely to happen.

In all the strange series of events, I doubt whether we had ever made better time from the laboratory over to the Dodge house than we did now.  We were admitted by the faithful Jennings and almost ran into the library.

“Oh, Craig!” cried Elaine, as Kennedy, almost speechless, seized her by both hands.

For a few seconds none of us could speak.  Then followed a veritable flood of eager conversation.

I watched Elaine carefully, in fact we all did, for she seemed, in spite of the excitement of her return, to be almost a complete nervous wreck from the terrible experiences she had undergone.

“Won’t you come and stay with me a few days up in the country, dear?” urged Mary at last.

Elaine thought a moment, then turned to Aunt Josephine.

“Yes,” considered her aunt, “I think it would do you good.”

Still she hesitated; then shyly looked at Kennedy and laughed.  “You, too, Craig, must be fagged out,” she said frankly.  “Come up there with us and take a rest.”