ing a wrathful
glance at Flora Harris, who for once in her life could think of nothing
to say.

There was the sound of a closing door, then Phil's voice rang out in
tones of bitter denunciation:

"Miss Harris, you are the cruelest, most despicable girl I have ever
known. Madge reverenced the memory of her father as something too
sacred for discussion. I know that her greatest ambition in life was to
find some one who had been his friend, some one who could tell her of
him. Happily for Madge, I do not believe your accusation to be true. I
am equally sure that her motive for silence is one you could never
understand."

With a stiff little nod to the others Phil walked proudly to the door.
She was followed by Lillian and Eleanor. Three minutes later Flora
Harris and Alfred Thornton stood alone in the pretty banqueting room.
Her revenge had cost her far more dearly than she had anticipated.

CHAPTER X

ADRIFT ON CHESAPEAKE BAY

"Alfred Thornton, you must do it." Flora Harris spoke under her breath.
Half an hour had passed since she and Alfred Thornton had left the
hotel.

The young man was about to say good night to her at her gate after
having stubbornly refused to execute a certain commission for her.

"I can't do it," he protested. "If I were you, I'd let Madge Morton and
her crowd alone. I did not believe to-night, until the last minute,
that you would do as you had threatened. You didn't distinguish
yourself by it."

Flora Harris shrugged her thin shoulders in the darkness. "Don't
pretend to be shocked," she sneered, "and never mind lecturing me. Are
you going to help me or are you going to play the coward at the last
moment?"

"I have given you my answer. I'm not going to change it, either,"
repeated the youth sullenly, edging away from Miss Harris. "I think
Miss Morton and her friends have had trouble enough. I don't wish to do
anything that might possibly endanger their safety."

"Oh, very well," rejoined Flora angrily. "You know the alternative. If
you won't do what I ask of you, I shall tell my father that you have
been down here as a hired spy to find out about Jimmy Lawton's
invention. I shall tell him that you offered Jimmy thousands of dollars
for his patent, and advised him to sell out to you, and then to tell
the Government that he had failed with his model. It would ruin not
only your reputation, Alfred Thornton, for me to tell this story about
you, it would probably do your father a