horne, who, pallid and weary, stood looking
on.

"Where are we?" he asked. "What house is this?"

"The Venezuelan legation," she answered. "We are standing less than
forty feet from the safe that was robbed. You see how easy--!"

"And whose room?" inquired Mr. Grimm slowly.

"Must I answer?" she asked appealingly.

"You must!"

"Senorita Rodriguez--my hostess! Don't you see what you've made me do?
She and Mr. Cadwallader made the trip to Baltimore in his automobile,
and--and--!" She stopped. "He knows nothing of it," she added.

"Yes, I know," said Mr. Grimm.

He stood looking at her in silence for a moment, staring deeply into the
pleading eyes; and a certain tense expression about his lips passed. For
an instant her hand trembled on his arm, and he caught the fragrance of
her hair.

"Where is she now?" he asked.

"Playing bridge," replied Miss Thorne, with a sad little smile. "It is
always so--at least twice a week, and she rarely returns before two or
half-past." She extended both hands impetuously, entreatingly. "Please
be generous, Mr. Grimm. You have the gold; don't destroy her."

Senor Rodriguez, the minister from Venezuela, found the gold in his safe
on the following morning, with a brief note from Mr. Grimm, in which
there was no explanation of how or where it had been found.... And two
hours later Monsieur Boissegur, ambassador from France to the United
States, disappeared from the embassy, vanished!

XII

THE VANISHING DIPLOMATIST

It was three days after the ambassador's disappearance that Monsieur
Rigolot, secretary of the French embassy and temporary
_charge-d'affaires_, reported the matter to Chief Campbell in the Secret
Service Bureau, adding thereto a detailed statement of several singular
incidents following close upon it. He told it in order, concisely and to
the point, while Grimm and his chief listened.

"Monsieur Boissegur, the ambassador, you understand, is a man whose
habits are remarkably regular," he began. "He has made it a rule to be
at his desk every morning at ten o'clock, and between that time and one
o'clock he dictates his correspondence, and clears up whatever routine
work there is before him. I have known him for many years, and have
been secretary of the embassy under him in Germany and Japan and this
country. I have never known him to vary this general order of work
unless because of illness, or necessary absence.

"Well, Monsieur, last Tuesday--this is F