r Crest, would
receive him and treat him at least no worse than an enemy with whom
there was a half hour's truce. Sure enough, when he rang the bell of her
suite, Maggie herself admitted him to her sitting-room. She was taut and
pale, her look neither friendly nor unfriendly.

"Don't you know the risk you're running," she whispered when the door
was closed--"coming here like this, in the open?"

"The time has come for risks, Maggie," he announced.

"But you were safe enough where you were. Why take such risks?"

"For your sake."

"My sake?"

"To take you away from these people you're tied up with. Take you away
now."

At an earlier time this would have been a fuse to a detonation of
defiance from her. But now she said nothing at all, and that was
something.

"Since I've come out into the open, everything's going to be in the
open. Listen, Maggie!" The impulse had suddenly come upon him, since
his plan to awaken Maggie by her psychological reactions had apparently
failed, to tell her everything. "Listen, Maggie! I'm going to lay all
my cards on the table, and show you every card I've played. You were
invited to come out to Cedar Crest because I schemed to have you come.
And the reason I schemed to have you invited was, I reasoned that being
received in such a frank, generous, unsuspecting way, by a woman like
Miss Sherwood, would make you sick of what you were doing and you would
drop it of your own accord. But it seems I reasoned wrong."

"So--you were behind that!" she breathed.

"I was. Though I couldn't have done it if Dick Sherwood hadn't been
honestly infatuated with you. But now I'm through with working under
cover, through with indirect methods. From now on every play's in the
open, and it's straight to the point with everything. So get ready. I'm
going to take you away from Barney and Old Jimmie."

The mention of these two names had a swift and magical effect upon her.
But instead of arousing belligerency, they aroused an almost frantic
agitation.

"You must leave at once, Larry. Barney and my father were here before
dinner, and they've just telephoned they were coming back!"

"Coming back! That's the best argument you could make for my staying!"

"But, Larry--they both have keys, and Barney always carries a gun!"

"I stay here, unless you leave with me. Listen to some more, Maggie. I
laid all the cards on the table. Do you know the kind of people you're
tied up with? I'll not say anything abo