But he may be late.

He won't come until he's had a long talk with the Commissary of Police, and tried to thrash matters out." "If only your theory's right, then,--if he hasn't dared yet to throw suspicion on du Laurier, and if the loss of that letter-case with its contents is as much of a mystery to him as it is to us, we have a little time before us still: we're comparatively safe for a few hours." "We're as safe," answered Maxine, with a kind of desperate calmness, "as if we were in a house with gunpowder stored underneath, and a train laid to fire it.

But"-- she broke off bitterly, "why do I say '_we_'.

To you all this can be no more than a regret, a worry." "You know that's not just!" I reproached her.

"I'm in this with you now, heart and soul.