THE MYSTERY
GIRL

BY
CAROLYN WELLS
Author of “Vicky Van,” “Raspberry Jam,” &c.

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1922

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.

TO
HUBER GRAY BUEHLER
A GRAVE AND REVEREND SEIGNEUR WHO
POSSESSES THE ADDED GRACE OF A RARE
TASTE IN MYSTERY STORIES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A President-elect 9

II. Miss Mystery Arrives 28

III. Thirteen Buttons 47

IV. A Broken Teacup 65

V. The Tragedy 84

VI. An Incredible Case 103

VII. The Volume of Martial 121

VIII. Where is Nogi? 140

IX. A Love Letter 158

X. Who is Miss Mystery? 176

XI. The Spinster’s Evidence 193

XII. Maurice Trask, Heir 212

XIII. The Truesdell Eyebrows 231

XIV. A Proposal 250

XV. Fleming Stone Comes 269

XVI. Miss Mystery’s Testimony 287

XVII. Planning an Elopement 305

XVIII. Miss Mystery no Longer 322

THE MYSTERY GIRL

CHAPTER I
A PRESIDENT-ELECT

Quite aside from its natural characteristics, there is an atmosphere about a college town, especially a New England college town, that is unmistakable. It is not so much actively intellectual as passively aware of and satisfied with its own intellectuality.

The beautiful little town of Corinth was no exception; from its tree-shaded village green to the white-columned homes on its outskirts it fairly radiated a satisfied sense of its own superiority.

Not that the people were smug or self-conceited. They merely accepted the fact that the University of Corinth was among the best in the country and that all true Corinthians were both proud and worthy of it.

The village itself was a gem of well-kept streets, roads and houses, and all New England could scarce show a better groomed settlement.

In a way, the students, of course, owned the place, yet there were many families whose claim to prominence lay in another direction.

However, Corinth was by all counts, a college town, and gloried in it.

The University had just passed through the throes and thrills of one of its own presidential elections.

The contest of the candidates had been long, and at last the strife had become bitter. Two factions strove for supremacy, one, the conservative side, adhering to old traditions, the other, the modern spirit, preferring new conditions and progressive enterprise.

Hard waged and hard won, the battle had resulted at last in the election of John Waring, the candidate of the followers of the old school.

Waring was not an old fogy, nor yet a hide-bound or narrow-minded back number. But he did put mental attainment ahead of physical prowess, and he did hold by certain old-fashioned principles and methods, which he and his constituents felt to be the backbone of the old and honored institution.

Wherefore, though his election was an accomplished fact, John Waring had made enemies that seemed likely never to be placated.

But Waring’s innate serenity and acquired poise were not disturbed by adverse criticism, he was a man with an eye single to his duty as he saw it. And he accepted the position of responsibility and trust, simply and sincerely with a determination to make his name honored among the list of presidents.

Inauguration, however, would not take place until June, and the months from February on would give him time to accustom himself to his new duties, and to learn much from the retiring president.

Yet it must not be thought