Before he could realize her purpose the woman took a hasty step forward, and swept aside the curtain, thrusting her head past to where she could gain a view outside.  Hamlin pressed her back with one hand, planting himself squarely before the window.  She met his eyes spitefully.

“I was mistaken this time,” she acknowledged, drawing away, “but I ’d like to know why you were so anxious to prevent my looking out.  Do you know whom I thought you had there?”

“As you please,” rejoicing that the girl had escaped notice.

“That little snip of a Molly.  You made a hit with her all right, and she certainly don’t like me.  Well, delightful as it is to meet you again, I must be going.”  She turned away, and then paused to add over her shoulder.  “Don’t you think it would be just as safe for you to attend to your own business, Sergeant Hamlin?”

“And let you alone?”

“Exactly; and let me alone.  I am hardly the sort of woman it is safe to play with.  It will be worth your while to remember that.”

He waited, motionless, until assured that she had passed down the hall as far as the door of the dining-room.  The sound of shuffling chairs evidenced the breaking up of the party, in preparation to return to the ballroom.  If Miss McDonald’s absence were to escape observation, she would have to slip out now and rejoin the others as they left the house.  He again turned down the light, and held back the curtain.

“The way is clear now, Miss Molly.”

There was no response, no movement.  He stepped outside, thinking the girl must have failed to hear him.  The porch was empty.  He stepped from one end to the other, making sure she was not crouching in the darkness, scarcely able to grasp the fact of her actual disappearance.  This, then, was why Mrs. Dupont had failed to see any one when she glanced out.  But where could the girl have gone?  How gotten away?  He had heard no sound behind him; not even the rustle of a skirt to betray movement.  It was not far to the ground, five or six feet, perhaps; it would be perfectly safe for one to lower the body over the rail and drop.  The matted prairie grass under foot would render the act noiseless.  No doubt that was exactly the way the escape had been accomplished.  Alarmed by the presence of those others, suspecting that the woman within would insist on learning whom Hamlin was attempting to conceal, possibly overhearing enough of their conversation to become frightened at the final outcome, Miss McDonald, in sudden desperation, had surmounted the rail, and dropped to the ground.  The rest would be easy—­to hasten around the side of the house, and slip in through the front door.