I do."

It had cost him something to say that. He had not been able to accept
her help, even under false pretenses. Eagerly he watched to see whether
jealousy of the other woman played any part with her.

"I understand," she said with a hasty glance at her watch and a covert
look at Drummond. "Let us go. If we are to win we must keep our heads
clear. I shall see you to-morrow."

For hours during the rest of the night Constance tossed fitfully in
half sleep, thinking over the problem she had assumed.

How was she to get at the inside truth of what was going on across the
hall? That was the first question.

In her perplexity, she rose and looked out of the window at the now
lightening gray of the courtyard. There dangled the LeMar telephone
wire, only a few feet from her own window.

Suddenly an idea flashed over her. In her leisure she had read much and
thought more. She recalled having heard of a machine that just fitted
her needs.

As soon as she was likely to find places of business open Constance
started out on her search. It was early in the forenoon before she
returned, successful. The machine which she had had in mind proved to
be an oak box, perhaps eighteen inches long, by half the width, and a
foot deep. On its face it bore a little dial. Inside there appeared a
fine wire on a spool which unwound gradually by clockwork, and, after
passing through a peculiar small arrangement, was wound up on another
spool. Flexible silk-covered copper wires led from the box.

Carefully Constance reached across the dizzy intervening space, and
drew in the slack LeMar telephone wires. With every care she cut into
them as if she were making an extension, and attached the wires from
the box.

Perhaps half an hour later the door buzzer sounded. Constance could
scarcely restrain her surprise as Mrs. Lansing Noble stepped in quickly
and shut the door herself.

"I don't want her to know I'm here," she whispered, nodding across the
hall.

"Won't you take off your things?" asked Constance cordially.

"No, I can't stay," returned her visitor nervously, pausing.

Constance wondered why she had come. Was she, too, trying to warn a
newcomer against the place!

She said nothing, but now that the effort had been made and the little
woman had gone actually so far, she felt the reaction. She sank down
into an easy chair and rested her pretty head on her delicately gloved
hand.

"Oh, Mrs. Dunlap," she began convulsively, "I h