glad to get into the open to summon a car,
Constance happened to turn. She had an uncomfortable feeling. She could
have sworn some one was following them. She said nothing about a figure
a few feet behind them.

The lively, all-night restaurant was thronged. Halsey seemed to throw
himself into the gayety with reckless abandon, ordering about twice as
much as they could eat and drink. But in spite of the fascination of
the scene, Constance could not forget the dark figure skulking behind
them in the shadow of the street.

Once she looked up. At another table she could just catch a glimpse of
Drummond, of the Burr Detective Agency, alone, oblivious.

Never did he look at them. There was nothing to indicate that he was
even interested. But Constance knew that that was the method of his
shadowing. Never for a moment, she knew, did he permit himself to look
into the eyes of his quarry, even for the most fleeting glance.

She knew, too, that there must be some psychological reason for his not
looking at them, as he otherwise must have done, if only by chance. It
was the method followed by the expert modern trailer. She knew that if
one looks at a person intently while in a public place, for instance,
it will not be long before the gaze will be returned. Try as she would,
she could not catch Drummond's eye, however.

Halsey, now that the strain of the game was off, was rattling along
about his losses in an undertone to her.

"But what of it?" he concluded. "Any day luck may change. As for
myself, I go always on the assumption that I am the one
exception--unlucky both at cards and love. If the event proves I am
right, I am not disappointed. If I am wrong, then I am happy."

There was something in the tone of the whimsicality that alarmed her.
It covered a desperation which she felt instinctively.

Why was he talking thus to her, almost a stranger? Surely it could not
have been for that that Bella LeMar had brought them together.

Gradually it came to her. The man had really, honestly been struck by
her from the moment of their introduction. Instead of allowing others,
to say nothing of himself, to lead her on in the path he and Mrs. Noble
and the others had entered, he was taking the bit in his teeth, like a
high-strung race horse, and was running away, now that Bella LeMar for
the moment did not hold the reins. He was warning her openly against
the game!

Somehow the action appealed to Constance. It was genuine,
d