he
spoke:

"Officer, kindly go up to my room and see if you can find a bag and
pack enough things to last a week or two."

"Yes, sorr." Gladwin flung out of the room.

He started noisily up the stairs until he saw that the thief had
turned his back to him, whereat he vaulted the banister and dropped
lightly upon a divan in a recessed niche that could not be seen from
the room he left.

The moment Gladwin vanished the thief turned to Helen and asked
sharply:

"What time did you see my friends here?"

"A little after five," replied the girl, recoiling slightly with a
look of dismay, for there was a new raw edge to the sharpness of his
tone.

"Did you tell them about the elopement?" he said less harshly, but
with a scarcely veiled eagerness.

"Why, they knew all about it," Helen hastened to reply, searching his
face apprehensively.

"Knew about it?" he mused, fairly grinding his brows together under
the pressure of his agitated thoughts.

"What did you tell them?" he queried steadily, measuring her fresh,
young beauty and vowing to himself that whatever struggle impended he
was going through with it to the limit of his resources.

"That we were to meet here," she answered with increasing fear.

"That we were to meet _here_?" he repeated.

"Yes, at half-past ten--oh, was it something I shouldn't have told
them?" she cried, coming toward him.

Once more Officer 666 snapped the tension. He had wriggled around the
staircase and found the suitcase Bateato had packed and left for him.
Hating to play the role of an eavesdropper any longer than necessary
he made a flying start and burst into the room.

CHAPTER XXX.

GLADWIN COMES OUT OF HIS SHELL.

"What the"----

The spurious aristocrat and art collector suppressed his torrid
exclamation. The impulse moved him to seize the uniformed butter-in
and pitch him through the nearest window. He was big and powerful
enough to do it, too.

In the furious glance he got, Travers Gladwin read a warning that in
an earlier stage of his career would have made him feel mighty
uncomfortable. Now he liked the smell of danger and met the message of
wrath without a flicker.

"What's that you've got there?" the thief, having mastered himself,
asked, pointing to the grip.

"'Tis the bag you asked for, sorr," drawled Gladwin.

"I told you to pack it," said the other, sharply.

"All packed, sorr. Hunting clothes, shirts, ties, socks"----

He looked up with a bo