uickly away and went down the stairs in some haste. At the
outer door she heard the doctor call down, "I must have your name and
address, please."

But Jennie did not pause to answer. She had no wish to undergo
cross-examination at an inquest, knowing that if she told the truth she
would not be believed, while if she attempted to hide it, unexpected
personal inconvenience might arise from such a course. She ran rapidly
to the street corner, hailed a fiacre and drove to a distant part of the
city; then she dismissed the cab, went to a main thoroughfare, took a
tramcar to the centre of the town, and another cab to the Palace.

CHAPTER XVII. JENNIE ENGAGES A ROOM IN A SLEEPING CAR.

Jennie had promised Professor Seigfried not to communicate with the
Director of Police, and she now wondered whether it would be breaking
her word, or not, if she let that official know the result of her
investigation, when it would make no difference, one way or the other,
to the Professor. If Professor Seigfried could have foreseen his own
sudden death, would he not, she asked herself, have preferred her to
make public all she knew of him? for had he not constantly reiterated
that fame, and the consequent transmission of his name to posterity, was
what he worked for? Then there was this consideration: if the Chief of
Police was not told how the explosion had been caused, his fruitless
search would go futilely on, and, doubtless, in the course of police
inquiry, many innocent persons would be arrested, put to inconvenience
and expense, and there was even a chance that one or more, who had
absolutely nothing to do with the affair, might be imprisoned for life.
She resolved, therefore, to tell the Director of the Police all she
knew, which she would not have done had Professor Seigfried been alive.
She accordingly sent a messenger for the great official, and just as she
had begun to relate to the impatient Princess what had happened, he was
announced. The three of them held convention in Jennie's drawing-room
with locked doors.

"I am in a position," began Jennie, "to tell you how the explosion in
the Treasury was caused and who caused it; but before doing so you must
promise to grant me two favours, each of which is in your power to
bestow without inconvenience."

"What are they?" asked the Director of Police cautiously.

"To tell what they are is to tell part of my story. You must first
promise blindly, and afterwards keep your p