e box back to the conductor,
then took the letter from between his knees, holding it in his right
hand, when Jennie, as if swayed by the motion of the car, lurched
against him, and, with a sleight of hand that would have made her
reputation on a necromantic stage, she jerked the letter from the amazed
and frightened man; at the same moment allowing the bogus document to
drop on the floor of the car from her other hand. The conductor had just
emerged from Room A, holding his nose and looking comical enough as he
stood there in that position, amazed at the sudden apparition of the
lady. The Russian struck down the conductor's fingers with his right
hand, and by a swift motion of the left closed the door of Compartment
A, all of which happened in a tenth of the time taken to tell it.

"Oh, pardon me!" cried Jennie in English, "I'm afraid a lurch of the car
threw me against you."

The Russian, before answering, cast a look at the floor and saw the
large envelope lying there with its seal uppermost. He quietly placed
his huge foot upon it, and then said, with an effort at politeness,--

"It is no matter, madam. I fear I am so bulky that I have taken up most
of the passage."

"It is very good of you to excuse me," said Jennie; "I merely came out
to ask the conductor if he would make up my berth. Would you be good
enough to translate that to him?"

The Russian surlily told the conductor to attend to the wants of the
lady. The conductor muttered a reply, and that reply the Russian
translated.

"He will be at your service in a few moments, madam. He must first make
up the berth of the gentleman in Room A."

"Oh, thank you very much," returned Jennie. "I am in no hurry; any time
within the hour will do."

With that she retired again into her compartment, the real letter
concealed in the folds of her dress, the bogus one on the floor under
the Russian's foot. She closed the door tightly, then, taking care that
she was not observed through either of the holes the conductor had bored
in the partition, she swiftly placed the important document in a deep
inside pocket of her jacket. As a general rule, women have inside
pockets in their capes, and outside pockets in their jackets; but
Jennie, dealing as she did with many documents in the course of her
profession, had had this jacket especially made, with its deep and roomy
inside pocket. She sat on a corner of the sofa, wondering what was to
be the fate of the unfortunate mes