Ruth had retreated to Mr. Mayo's office. She heard one of the fire chiefs talking to the gentleman at the doorway.
"What caused that blaze anyway?" the fireman demanded.
"Nonsense! It acted more like benzine or naphtha to me. But you haven't told me how it got lit up?"
"I don't know. The porter says he first saw flames rising from the waste basket between the big desk and the file cabinet," Mr. Mayo said. "Then the fire spread both ways."
"Well! The insurance adjusters will be after you. I've got to report my belief. Looks as though somebody had been mighty careless with some inflammable substance. What were you using oil at all for here?"
"I--I could not tell you," Mr. Mayo said. "I will ask Mr. Legrand when he comes back."
But Ruth learned in the morning that Legrand had not returned. Nobody seemed to know where he lived. Mrs. Mantel said he had moved recently, but she did not know where to.
The insurance adjusters did make a pertinent inquiry about the origin of the fire. But nobody had been in the office with Legrand when it started save the porter, and he had already told all he had seen. There was no reason for charging anybody else with carelessness but the missing man.
Save in one particular. Mrs. Mantel seemed horror-stricken when she saw the charred remains of her desk and the file cabinet. The files of cards were completely destroyed. The cards were merely brown husks--those that were not ashes. The records of contributions for six months past were completely burned.
"But you, fortunately, have the ledgers in the safe, have you not, Mrs. Mantel?" the Chief said.
The woman in black broke down and wept. "How careless you will think me, Mr. Mayo," she cried. "I left the two ledgers on my desk. Legrand said he wished to compare certain figures----"
"The ledgers are destroyed, too?" gasped the man.
"There are their charred remains," declared the woman, pointing dramatically to the burned debris where her desk had stood.
There was not a line to show how much had been given to the Red Cross at this station, or who had given it! When Mr. Mayo opened the safe he found less than two thousand dollars in cash and checks and noted upon the bank deposit book; and the month was almost ended. Payment was made to Headquarters of all collections every thirty days.