slow return to reason, to find himself a prisoner, too weak to lift
head or tend, and yet fully determined not to help his rapacious
captors to a fortune at his father's cost.

Since his return to reason he had, as much as possible, rejected what
he believed to be opiates, and had feigned sleep to avoid their
threats and importunities, and to meet cunning with cunning.

While thus sleeping (?) he had heard some of their whispered plotting,
and he was able to explain how it was that Mrs. Camp had succeeded in
carrying out her wild but successful adventure.

Among Smug's acquaintances was a certain widow, or a woman who passed
for such, who called herself a nurse, and whose services 'came high.'
However, she was 'one of the right sort,' who 'asked no questions,'
and 'always obeyed orders.' Upon the night of Harry's disappearance
there had been an unusual commotion in the house, and a recklessness
of speech quite uncommon; and before morning it was decided that Smug
should secure the services of this valuable nurse at an early hour, as
they must have 'another hand.'

Before noon Smug had reported the arrival of the nurse at an early
hour, and the fact that she was 'hard of hearing' was counted in her
favour. Smug had further said, to the satisfaction of Delbras--who
by-the-bye had never entered Trent's room without first assuming the
disguise of an elderly foreigner--that the woman was especially
willing to come because of a little difficulty with 'the cops,' who
were 'too attentive for comfort.'

Thanks to the successful attention of these same 'cops,' the woman had
left in Mrs. Camp's hands the means whereby she might penetrate this
stronghold of iniquity, and so be enabled to do what we had schemed
and planned to accomplish, and but for her might have made only a
partial success.

Mrs. Camp was the heroine of the hour, and we bent to her our
diminished heads, and willingly declared her a detective indeed; for,
while we had fathomed the disguises of the gang and tracked them home,
it was her masterly coup that had made of our raid the assured success
which it was.

To say that Mrs. Camp was made much of by Hilda O'Neil, June Jenrys,
and Miss Ross is to put it mildly, and the good woman cared far more
for the petting and praise of the two pretty girls than for the
gratitude and congratulations of all the rest of us; and the friends
she has found through her singular raid upon Smug and company will be
her friends