what sticks me is what Macartney
did all this _for_!"

"Me," said Paulette very bitterly. "At least, at first; I'm not so sure
about it now. When I first met Dick we were in Russia. He'd got into
trouble over a copper mine--you've heard Macartney talk of the
Urals?"--if we both spoke of him as though he were two different men
neither of us noticed. "He came to me in Petrograd, penniless, and I
helped him. But when I came to America, alone, I turned him out of my
flat. He may have loved me, I don't know; but when I wouldn't marry him,
he said he'd make me; that he'd hound me wherever I went and disgrace
me, till I had to give in and come to him. And he _must_ have done it at
the Houstons', if I don't know how; for the police would take me now for
those emeralds I never stole, if they knew where I was. I can't see
where Dick could have been or how he managed the thing, but all the rest
Dudley told you and him about that night at the Houstons' was true. I
did give Van Ruyne sleeping stuff to keep him quiet while I got away,
but it was because it came over me--the second I knew those emeralds
were gone--that Dick must be in that house!--that if I didn't run away,
he'd come in and threaten me till I had to go with him. And I'd have
died first. I slipped out of the house unseen; and it was just the
Blessed Virgin," simply, "who made me find Dudley's car stalled outside
the Houstons' gate!"

"D'ye mean you'd known Dudley before?"

She nodded. "I'd met him: and I liked him, because he never made love to
me. He hadn't been at the Houstons' that night; he was only coming back
from Southampton alone, without any chauffeur. I knew no one would ever
think he'd helped me, so I just got into his car. But I never should
have let him bring me here," bitterly; "I should have known Dick would
find me, and play gold robberies here to pay Dudley out. He told me he
would, unless I'd go away with him--that first night you heard me
talking to him--but I didn't see how he could work it. I thought I could
tire him out by always balking him--till that night I didn't meet him,
and he killed those four men. Then I knew I couldn't fight him; and the
reason was that Dick's a finished mining engineer who never ran straight
in his life!"

"What?" I knew both things, only I saw no connection with Paulette.

But she nodded. "He could get good work anywhere, but he won't work
honestly. All he cares for is the excitement of big things he can get
at