s, listening to
each word, watching each gesture. Suppose one of them had chanced to
hear what I did...."

Dan stared a moment longer, then he burst into a laugh.

"Oh, come, M. Chevrial," he protested. "You don't really believe that!"

"Believe what?"

"About the spies."

Chevrial's face grew a little grim.

"I am not one to offer advice where it is not desired," he said; "but I
assure you, M. Webster, that what I have told you is true, and
furthermore had any one of three or four persons who are on this boat
heard what I heard, that girl and her father would have been under
espionage for the remainder of their lives."

It was easy to see that Chevrial spoke in deadly earnest, and, in spite
of himself, Dan was impressed and sobered.

"I beg your pardon," he said; "perhaps you are right; but to an American
the very idea of such a system is laughable--it savours too much of
cheap melodrama. But why should the story Miss Vard told me interest any
one?"

"My dear sir," answered Chevrial, drily, "when a girl goes about
boasting that her father is more powerful than the Czar or Kaiser!
Suppose she had stopped there, any hearer would have concluded that he
was an anarchist, and therefore to be watched. But she went further: she
asserted that he can blow up forts and destroy armies! That he can wreck
battleships! Why, M. Webster, it is only four days since _La Liberte_,
the greatest of French battleships, was destroyed in the harbour of
Toulon by an agency not yet determined!"

Dan had turned a little pale.

"But you don't imagine," he stammered; "surely you don't think...."

Chevrial flipped away his cigarette-ash negligently.

"That _La Liberte_ was destroyed by this man? Absurd! But, nevertheless,
it is a bad time to make such boasts."

"I can see that," agreed Dan. "I will speak to Miss Vard."

"I would do so, by all means. She seems a most interesting girl, and I
should regret to see her involved in an unpleasant situation. Or her
father," Chevrial added. "A most interesting enthusiast!"

"You have talked with him?"

"Oh, yes; last night for some time. He has great ideas--too great, I
fear, to be practicable."

"Then you don't believe...."

"That he can destroy armies and all that?" and Chevrial laughed lightly.
"My dear M. Webster, do you?"

"No," said Dan, slowly, "I don't suppose I do. It's too much to
believe--without proof!"

"Assuredly," agreed his companion; "no one would believe it with