Dick? Was it
the look, or was it the way he shook hands?

For he _was_ quelled. There's no doubt--or very little doubt--about
that. He was _friendly_ with Peter Storm. He and Peter and Caspian
talked together, and it was Camera-eyes who went away first. Ed was
ready to _cry_, I'm sure.

I asked Jack afterward (of course I breathed not a word to Pat), and he
said that she and he had guessed nothing of what was going on under the
surface of the introduction. They hadn't heard Peter's give-away words;
and without that clue there was no reason to suspect.

I shan't sleep to-night because of that "misunderstood virtue" of mine.
In other words, Curiosity is gnawing my vitals.

Your modern Pandora, alias

MOLLY.

XXIII

PETER STORM TO JAMES STRICKLAND

_Boston._

DEAR STRICKLAND:

Caspian has "let loose the dogs of war" on me, or, rather, the first dog
is loose. There will no doubt be others yapping on my track. You'll grin
when I tell you the first of the breed was your old henchman,
Camera-eyed Dick!

Hotel halls seem to be fatal to me lately. I shall get jumpy going into
one. Caspian was lying in wait for me to appear with Miss Moore and the
Winstons, we having "lost" the others and gone for a walk. Camera-eyes
was with him, and I thought it was touch and go for me. However, I
turned the tables by doing the camera-eye act myself. Also, I gave
Dick's hand a friendly grip. You remember that he's a Mason? Going away,
he contrived to palm me a card with a scrawled address: a small hotel
where he was spending the night.

Late in the evening I walked round there, taking it for granted that
Dick would be in, and that he had recognized me with certainty despite
the lapse of time. I counted on his not giving me away to his employer,
so I didn't hurry to pay my respects. And I hadn't trusted the old chap
in vain. He was loyal to Caspian, so far as not betraying any
instructions he may have had; but he did not mind admitting that he'd
come from New York to Boston on receipt of a telegram. I felt I owed him
the reward of an explanation, so gave a somewhat garbled one, in which
Dick was intensely interested. He confessed that he was "flabbergasted"
at sight of "the gentleman he'd come to be introduced to" (me) and for
once was disinclined to believe his eyes. He promised sile