a scuffle there in
that chill room? The package was no doubt safely hidden in a corner he
could not quickly find. No he must wait, and watch.

"Good-by, until dinner," he said, "and may you find much in your wise
companion's book to justify your conduct."

He went out through the open window, and in another moment stood just
outside Miss Norton's room. She put a startled head out at his knock.

"Oh, it's you," she said. "I can't invite you in. You might learn
terrible secrets of the dressing-table--mamma is bedecking herself for
dinner. Has anything happened?"

"Throw something over your head, Juliet," smiled Magee, "the balcony is
waiting for you."

She was at his side in a moment, and they walked briskly along the
shadowy white floor.

"I know who has the money," said Magee softly. "Simply through a turn of
luck, I know. I realize that my protestations of what I am going to do
have bored you. But it looks very much to me as if that package would be
in your hands very soon."

She did not reply.

"And when I have got it, and have given it to you--if I do," he
continued, "what then?"

"Then," she answered, "I must go away--very quickly. And no one must
know, or they will try to stop me."

"And after that?"

"The deluge," she laughed without mirth.

Up above them the great trees of Baldpate Mountain waved their black
arms constantly as though sparring with the storm. At the foot of the
buried roadway they could see the lamps of Upper Asquewan Falls; under
those lamps prosaic citizens were hurrying home with the supper
groceries through the night. And not one of those citizens was within
miles of guessing that up on the balcony of Baldpate Inn a young man had
seized a young woman's hand, and was saying wildly: "Beautiful girl--I
love you."

Yet that was exactly what Billy Magee was doing. The girl had turned her
face away.

"You've known me just two days," she said.

"If I can care this much in two days," he said, "think--but that's old,
isn't it? Sometime soon I'm going to say to you: 'Whose girl are you?'
and you're going to look up at me with a little heaven for two in your
eyes and say: 'I'm Billy Magee's girl.' So before we go any further I
must confess everything--I must tell you who this Billy Magee is--this
man you're going to admit you belong to, my dear."

"You read the future glibly," she replied. "Are your prophecies true, I
wonder?"

"Absolutely. Some time ago--on my soul, it was only