boards were his reward, until as he approached the
bed he felt a heavy rag rug.

Feeling over this, he discovered it to be slightly raised in the middle.
Carefully rolling it back, he was rewarded by seeing light and hearing
the hum of voices.

At last Garry was an unseen listener to the plot being hatched below!

CHAPTER XVII.

THE RUSSIAN'S TALE.

Garry crawled under the bed, laying so that he could both look down into
the room and hear what was being said. Then he arranged the rug that it
could be flipped back into place in an instant.

Then he peered down into the room below. One was Jean LeBlanc, who, of
course, he knew. The second man he placed as Lafe Green, a great hulk of
a man with flaming red hair. He recognized him from the description
given by Ruth. The other three were strangers. Two wore the ordinary
garb of the woods, but the third was dressed in well-made clothes. He
was a striking looking man with a lustrous black beard and moustache.

As Garry listened, LeBlanc again took up the conversation. It seemed
that the details of the trip to bring the consignment of furs across the
border had been settled. Garry was sorry he was too late to hear this,
but of course there was no help.

"Now we shall come to the main business of the evening, ma fren's. I
have already told you, this man, his name is Boris Borefski, who comes
from Russia with a great scheme, a fine scheme, oui, it is magnifique.
Beside it, the bringing of a few furs is nothing. Were it not for the
fact the furs have been bought, pouf! we should throw away the plan like
so many dead leaves. M'sieu Boris shall himself tell you his story. He
speaks not the English, so me, I shall act as the interpreter and tell
you what he says as he goes along. Eh bien, M'sieu, begin."

Speaking rapidly in French, as many well educated Russians are able to
do, and being stopped occasionally by LeBlanc while a translation was
being made, Boris began:

"My new acquaintance and already my good friend LeBlanc has told you
that I have a plan. True I have, one that will make for us all much
money.

"I was for many years the private secretary to the Grand Duke Sidis in
Russia, a man immensely wealthy. Among his prized possessions were a
number of magnificent jewels. They were only second in value to those of
the Grand Duke Boris, cousin to the Czar.

"Of course you know what happened during the war, how the masses arose
against the Czar and took th