sterious person who had taken such possession of her
thoughts since she had met him in the highway--whose personality had
so pricked her curiosity. She comforted herself by calling her interest
mere curiosity. That was it! If this man were what they claimed he was
she might help in revealing him as an enemy of the poor folks.

And then to her came another thought.

She looked around the offices where she worked and bitter lines were
etched in her forehead and about her mouth.

The place had become hateful. She was conscious of a passionate desire
to be free from the atmosphere of that central web of the Great Spider.

She bent over her work and hurried.

What was the shadow over her home?

She realized that she was not thinking clearly in the matter. She
knew that impulse was driving her. But it was impulse which was
uncontrollable. For a long time she had understood the sinister
influence which had radiated from that office in the First National
block. But it had been rather the impersonal influence of partisan
politics and she had had little knowledge of the persons concerned. But,
now that the situation had been so sharply pointed by recent happenings,
she understood better what had gone on in the past.

This stranger, whoever he was, seemed to be fighting for the good of the
people. She had heard him declare his principles boldly; she knew the
selfishness of the men who opposed him. She resolved to know more.

It was close upon six o'clock when she finished the transcription.

She had given much thought to her own affairs while she had been
working. And now she allowed impulse to dominate. She resolved to leave
that employment which brought her into contact with Richard Dodd and
where her duties required her to prepare material for the ruin of a man
who seemed to be doing an unselfish duty, no matter what they said. She
did not try to analyze that quixotic impulse; she merely obeyed.

She tied up the packet of manuscript, addressed it to Colonel Dodd, and
slipped under the string a sealed note. In that note she resigned her
position, stating that a matter of personal honor demanded that she
leave instantly. She did not qualify that statement by any explanation.
But she knew in her own heart just what it meant. For when she left the
office she did not hasten straight home as her anxious fears prompted
her; she made a detour around by Gamonic Mill in search of one
Provancher, who, she had learned, tended the