“But who is it?” asked Aunt Josephine examining the print carefully and seeing nothing but a face masked and with a pair of hands before it, a seal ring on the little finger of one hand.

“Oh, I forgot that you hadn’t seen the ring before,” explained Elaine.  “Why, we knew him at once, in spite of everything, by that seal ring—­Mr. Del Mar!”

“Mr. Del Mar?” repeated Aunt Josephine, looking from one to the other of us, incredulous.

“I saw the ring at his own bungalow and on his own finger,” reiterated Elaine positively.

But what are you going to do, now?” asked Aunt Josephine.

“Have him arrested, of course,” Elaine replied.

Still talking over the strange experience of the night before, we went out on the veranda.

“Well, of all the nerve!” exclaimed Elaine, catching sight of a man coming up the gravel walk.  “If that isn’t Henry, Mr. Del Mar’s valet!”

The valet advanced as though nothing had happened and, indeed, I suppose that as far as he knew nothing had happened or was known to us.  He bowed and handed Elaine a note which she tore open quickly and read.

“Would you go?” she asked, handing the note over to me.

It read: 

Dear Miss Dodge,

If you and Mr. Jameson will call on me to-day, I will have something of interest to tell you concerning my investigations in the case of the disappearance of Craig Kennedy.

Sincerely,

M. Del Mar.

“Yes,” I asserted, “I would go.”

“Tell Mr. Del Mar we shall see him as soon as possible,” nodded Elaine to the valet who bowed and left quickly.

“What is it?” inquired Aunt Josephine, rejoining us.

“A note from Mr. Del Mar,” replied Elaine showing it to her.

“Well,” queried Aunt Josephine, “what are you going to do?”

“We’re going, of course,” cried Elaine.

“You’re not,” blurted out Aunt Josephine.  “Why, just think.  He’s sure to do something.”

But Elaine and I had made up our minds.

“I know it,” I interjected.  “He’s sure to try something that will show his hand—­and then I’ve got him.”

Perhaps I threw out my chest a little more than was necessary, but then I figured that Elaine with her usual intuition had for once agreed with me and that it must be all right.  I drew my gun and twirled the cylinder about as I spoke.  Indeed I felt, since the success of the snapshot episode, that I was a match for several Del Mar’s.

“Yes, Walter is right,” agreed Elaine.

Aunt Josephine continued to shake her head sagely in protest.  But Elaine waved all her protestations aside and ran into the house to get ready for the visit.

Half an hour later, two saddle horses were brought around to the front of Dodge Hall and Elaine and I sallied forth.

Aunt Josephine was still protesting against our going to Del Mar’s, but we had made up our minds to carry the thing through.  “You know,” she insisted, “that Mr. Kennedy is not around to protect you two children.  Something will surely happen to you if you don’t keep out of this affair.”