k
clothing, she slipped from the house.

A taxi' stand was two blocks away on the Avenue, and as Willa stepped
into the first cab, a taller, portlier figure entered the second, and
followed slowly but persistently through the maze of traffic. The girl
glanced from the window at the back to make sure of her espionage, then
took up the speaking-tube.

"Never mind that address I gave you. Drive into the Park, to where you
can find a sharp turn in the road; get around it as fast as the law
will let you and then stop, but keep your engine going. There's a good
tip in it for you if you obey instructions."

"Right, Miss."

The car swerved into the Park entrance, and Willa sat back with a
peculiar light in her eyes. When it stopped abruptly she sprang out,
and, walking rapidly back to the turn in the driveway, waited beside a
screening clump of shrubbery.

In a moment the second taxi' hummed about the corner. The girl stepped
forward with her arm thrown up and the chauffeur, bewildered, brought
his car to a stop with a grinding jar of the brakes. In a moment Willa
had the door open.

"Get out, Liane," she commanded briefly, and with one look at her
blazing eyes the woman meekly obeyed. Willa turned to the chauffeur.
"How much does your meter register? Take it out of this, keep the rest
for yourself and go. Your fare will not need you any longer."

The man hesitated, but his late passenger made no move, and the
proffered banknote was a tempting one. He took it and went.

When the humming of his engine had died away Willa addressed herself to
the cowering maid.

"You can walk back now, and tell your employer that you have failed.
Tell her, too, that your services are no longer required, and mind you
stay only long enough to pack your things, for if I find you there on
my return, I'll show you what we do to spies where I come from!"

"But, Mademoiselle, I was obeying my instructions!" The maid
gesticulated vehemently. "Madame commanded that I follow and observe
who is at the rendez-vous. If Mademoiselle will be calm and tranquil
we may come to an understanding, is it not so? I would prefer to be
wholly in the service of Mademoiselle, and we might together arrange a
little story for Madame----"

"Sell her out, would you, you treacherous Jane!" The old vernacular
returned unbidden to Willa's lips. "You'd play both ways from the ace
and take in the look-out? If I had you down in Mexico I'd shoot you
fu