THE DISCOVERY
The members of the Hamlin household went early to their own rooms
that night.
Ruth at once flung herself down on a couch without removing her clothing.
In a few minutes she was fast asleep, for she believed their difficulties
were over. Bab did not feel as secure. She was still thinking of the
speech the newspaper girl had made to her in the car.
At ten o'clock the Assistant Secretary of State, who was sitting alone
in his study, heard a violent ringing of his telephone bell. He did
not know that, at this same instant, his daughter Harriet had crept
down to his study door intending to make a full confession of her
mistakes to him.
Mr. Hamlin picked up the receiver. "'The Washington News?' Yes. You have
something important to say to me? Well, what is it?" Mr. Hamlin listened
quietly for a little while. Then Harriet heard him cry in a hoarse,
unnatural voice: "Impossible! The thing is preposterous! Where did you
ever get hold of such an absurd idea?"
Harriet stopped to listen no longer. She never knew how she got back
upstairs to her room. She half staggered, half fell up the steps.
Suddenly she realized everything! She had been used as a tool by Mrs.
Wilson and Peter Dillon. Ruth and Barbara had been right. She had stolen
her father's state papers. A newspaper had gotten hold of the story and
already her father and she were disgraced.
In the meantime, Mr. Hamlin continued to talk over the telephone, though
his hand shook so he was hardly able to hold the receiver.
"You say you think it best to warn me that the story of the theft of my
papers will be published in the morning paper, that you know that private
state documents entrusted to me keeping have been sold to secret spies?
What evidence have you? I have missed no such papers. Wait a minute." Mr.
Hamlin went to his strong box. Sure enough, certain documents were
missing. Ruth and Bab had put the papers in the desk. "Have you an idea
who stole my papers?" Mr. Hamlin called back over the telephone wire, his
voice shaken with passion.
Evidently the editor who was talking to Mr. Hamlin now lost his courage.
He did not dare to tell Mr. Hamlin that his own daughter was suspected of
having sold her father's papers. Mr. Hamlin repeated the editor's exact
words. "You say a young woman sold my papers? You are right; this is not
a matter to be discussed over the telephone. Send some one up from your
office to see me at once."
Mr. Hamlin reeled over to his bell-rope and gave it a pull, so that the
noise of its ringing sounded like an alarm through the quiet house.
A frightened servant answered the bell.
"Tell Miss Thurston and my niece, Miss Stuart, to come to my study at
once," Mr. Hamlin ordered. The man-servant obeyed.
"Ruth, dear, wake up," Bab entreated, giving her friend a shake.
"Something awful must have happened. Your uncle has sent for us. He must
have missed those papers."
[Illustration: "What Have You Done With My Papers?"]
Ruth and Bab, both of them looking unutterably miserable and shaken,
entered Mr. Hamlin's study. Their host did not speak as they first
approached him. When he did he turned on them such a haggard, wretched
face that they were filled with pity. But the instant Mr. Hamlin caught
sight of Barbara his expression changed. He took her by the arm, and,
before she could guess what was going to happen, he shook her violently.
"What have you done with my state papers?" he demanded. "Tell me quickly.
Don't hesitate. There may yet be time to save us both. Oh, I should never
have let you stay in this house!" he groaned. "I suspected you of
mischief when I learned of your first visit to my office. But I did not
believe such treachery could be found in a young girl. Ruth, can't you
make your friend speak! If she will tell me to whom she sold my papers, I
will forgive her everything! But I must know where they are at once. I
can then force the newspaper to keep silence and force my enemies to
return me the documents, if there is only time!"
Barbara dropped into a chair and covered her face with her hands. She did
not utter a word of reproach to Mr. Hamlin for his cruel suspicion of
her. She could not tell him that his daughter Harriet was the real thief.
"Uncle," Ruth entreated, laying a quiet hand on Mr. Hamlin's arm,
"listen to me for a moment. Yes, you must listen! You are not disgraced;
you are not ruined. Look in your desk. Your papers are still there. Only
the old envelope is gone. I put the papers in this drawer only this
afternoon, because I did not know in what place you kept them. Some
papers were given away, a few hours ago, to two people, whom you believed
to be your friends, to Mrs. Wilson and Peter Dillon. But they were not
your state papers, they were only blank sheets."
Mr. Hamlin looked into his drawer and saw the lost documents, then he
passed his hand over his forehead. "I don't understand," he muttered. "Do
you mean that, instead of the actual papers, you saved me by substituting
blank papers for these valuable ones? Then your friend did try to sell
her country's secrets, and you saved her and me. I shall never cease to
be grateful to you to the longest day I live. For your sake I will spare
your friend. But she must leave my house in the morning. I do not wish
ever to look upon her again."
"Bab did not sell your papers, Uncle," Ruth protested passionately. "You
shall not make such accusations against her. It was she who saved you. I
did only what she told me to do. I did substitute the papers, but it was
Barbara who thought of it."
"Then who, in Heaven's name, is guilty of this dreadful act?" Mr.
Hamlin cried.
Neither Ruth nor Bab answered. Bab still sat with her face covered with
her hands, in order to hide her hot tears. She cried partly for poor
Harriet, and partly because of her sympathy for Mr. Hamlin. Ruth gazed at
her uncle, white, silent and trembling.
"Who, Ruth? I demand to know!" Mr. Hamlin repeated.
"I shall not tell you," Ruth returned, with a little gasp.
"Send for my daughter, Harriet. She may know something," Mr. Hamlin
ejaculated. Then he rang for a servant.
The two girls and the one man, who had grown old in the last few minutes,
waited in unbroken silence. The girls had a strong desire to scream, to
cry out, to warn Harriet. She must not let her father know of her foolish
deed while his anger was at its height.
It seemed an eternity before the butler returned to Mr. Hamlin's study.
"Miss Hamlin is not in her room," he reported respectfully.
"Not in her room? Then look for her through the house," Mr. Hamlin
repeated more quietly. He had gained greater control of himself. But a
new fear was oppressing him, weighing him down. He would not give the
idea credence even in his own mind.
Three--four--five minutes passed. Still Harriet did not appear.
"Let me look for Harriet, Uncle," Ruth implored, unable to control
herself any longer.
At this moment Mollie came innocently down the stairs. "Is Mr. Hamlin
looking for Harriet?" she inquired. "Harriet left the house ten minutes
ago. She had on her coat and her hat, but she would not stop to say
good-bye. I think her maid went with her. Mary had just a shawl thrown
over her head. I am sure they will be back in a few minutes. Harriet
must have gone out to post a letter. I thought she would have come back
before this."
Imagine poor Mollie's horror and surprise when Mr. Hamlin dropped into
a chair at her news and groaned: "It was Harriet after all. It was _my
own child_!"
"Uncle, rouse yourself!" Ruth implored him. "Harriet thought she was only
playing a harmless trick on you. She did not dream that the papers were
of any importance. Mrs. Wilson and Peter Dillon deceived her cruelly. You
must go and find out what has become of Harriet." Mr. Hamlin shook his
head drearily.
"You must go!" insisted gentle Ruth, bursting into tears. "Harriet does
not even know that the papers she gave away were worthless. If she has
found out she has been duped she will be doubly desperate."
At this instant the door bell rang loudly. No one in the study appeared
to hear it. Mollie had crept slowly back upstairs to Grace. Ruth, Mr.
Hamlin and Bab were too wretched to stir.
A sound of hasty footsteps came down the hall, followed by a knock at
the study door. The door flew open of its own accord. Like a vision
straight from Heaven appeared the faces of Mr. Robert Stuart and his
sister, Miss Sallie!
Ruth sprang into her father's arms with a cry of joy. And Bab, her eyes
still streaming with tears, was caught up in the comforting arms of
Miss Sallie.