y seems so surely won. And so, Jimmie, be
careful; use all that wonderful cleverness of yours as you have never
used it before, and--But there should be no need for that, it is so
simple a thing that I am going to ask you to do. Why am I writing so
illogically! Nothing, surely, can possibly happen. This is not like
one of my usual letters, is it? I am beside myself to-night with hope,
anxiety, fear, and excitement.

"Listen, then, Jimmie: Be at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and
Waverly Place at exactly half-past ten. A taxicab will drive up, as
though you had signalled it in passing, and the chauffeur will say:
'I've another fare, in half an hour, sir, but I can get you most
anywhere in that time.' You will be smoking a cigarette. Toss it out
into the street, make any reply you like, and get into the cab. Give the
chauffeur that little ring of mine with the crest of the bell and belfry
and the motto, 'Sonnez le Tocsin,' that you found the night old Isaac
Pelina was murdered, and the chauffeur will give you in exchange a
sealed packet of papers. He will drive you to your home, and I will
telephone to you there.

"I need not tell you to destroy this. Keep the appointment in your
proper person--as Jimmie Dale. Carry nothing that might identify you
as the Gray Seal if any accident should happen. And, lastly, trust the
pseudo chauffeur absolutely."

There was no signature. Her letters were never signed. He stood for a
moment staring at the closely written sheets in his hand, a heightened
colour in his cheeks, his lips pressed tightly together--and then his
fingers automatically began to tear the letter into pieces, and the
pieces again into little shreds. To-night! It was to be to-night, the
end of all this mystery. To-night was to see the end of this dual life
of his, with its constant peril! To-night the Gray Seal was to exit from
the stage forever! To-night, a wonderful climax of the years, he was to
see HER!

His blood was quickened now, his heart pounding in a faster beat; a mad
elation, a fierce uplift was upon him. He thrust the torn bits of paper
into his pocket hurriedly, stepped across the room to the corner, rolled
back the oilcloth, and lifted up the loose plank in the flooring, so
innocently dustladen, as, more than once, to have eluded the eyes of
inquisitive visitors in the shape of police and plain clothes men from
headquarters.

From the space beneath he removed a neatly folded pile of clothes