st attracted to
Geltmann, as you call him?"

Mullinix smiled a trifle.

"I was rather expecting that question would come along about here," he
said. "I only wish I could tell you; it might simplify matters. But so
far as the available evidence points, there is nothing to indicate that
either of them really cared for him or he for either of them. The
attentions which he paid them both, impartially, were those which a man
might pay to any woman, whether she was married or unmarried, without
creating gossip. There is no suggestion here of a dirty scandal. The
woman who is serving Geltmann's ends is doing it, not for love of him
and not even because she is fascinated by him, but for money. She has
agreed to sell out her country, the land she was born in, for hire. I'm
sure of that much."

"Then which of them is presumed to be in pressing need of funds?"

"Again you score. I was expecting that question too. As a matter of fact
both of them need money. Madame Ybanca belongs to a bridge-playing
set--a group of men and women who play for high stakes. She has been a
heavy loser and her husband, unlike many politically prominent South
Americans, is not a fabulously wealthy man. I doubt whether he would be
called wealthy at all, either by the standards of his own people or of
ours. As for Miss Ballister, I have reports which prove she has no
source of income except a modest allowance from her brother, the
senator, who is in moderate circumstances only; yet it is common talk
about Washington that she is extravagant beyond her means. She owes
considerable sums to tradesmen for frocks and furs, millinery, jewelry
and the like. It is fair to assume that she is harassed by her debts. On
the other hand, Madame Ybanca undoubtedly wants funds with which to meet
her losses at bridge. So the presumption in this direction runs as
strongly against one as against the other."

"Well then, barring these slight clews--which to my way of thinking
really aren't clews at all--and when you have eliminated the
circumstance of Goldsborough's having paid perfectly proper attentions
to both of them simultaneously, what is there to justify the belief that
one or the other must be guilty?"

Miss Smith's voice still carried a suggestion of scepticism.

"I'm coming to that. Of course their positions being what they are,
neither I nor any other Secret Service operative would dare question
either one or both of them. On a mere hazard you cannot go to t