handsome woman
urged as they came down into the drawing-room after a wash.

Tea was served, and over it much chatter about people and places. Mrs.
Bond was, like her friend Benton, a thorough-going cosmopolitan. Hugh
had no idea of her real reputation, or of her remarkable adventures.
Neither had he any idea that Molly Maxwell was wanted by the Paris
Surete, just as he himself was wanted.

"Isn't this a charming place?" remarked Benton as, an hour later, they
strolled on the long terrace smoking cigarettes before dinner. "Mrs.
Bond was indeed fortunate in finding it."

"Beautiful!" declared Hugh in genuine admiration. Since that memorable
night in Monte Carlo he had been living in frowsy surroundings,
concealed in thieves' hiding-places, eating coarse food, and hearing the
slang of the underworld of Europe.

It had been exciting, yet he had been drawn into it against his
will--just because he had feared for Dorise's sake, to face the music
after that mysterious shot had been fired at the Villa Amette.

Mrs. Bond was most courteous to her guests, and as Hugh and Benton
strolled up and down the terrace in the fast growing darkness, the elder
man remarked:

"You'll be quite safe here, you know, Hugh. Don't worry. I'm truly sorry
that you have landed yourself into this hole, but--well, for the life
of me I can't see what led you to seek out that woman, Yvonne Ferad. Why
ever did you go there?"

Hugh paused.

"I--I had reasons--private reasons of my own," he replied.

"That's vague enough. We all have private reasons for doing silly
things, and it seems that you did an exceptionally silly thing. I hear
that Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo, after the doctors operated upon her
brain, has now become a hopeless idiot."

"So I've been told. It is all so very sad--so horrible. Though people
have denounced her as an adventuress, yet I know that at heart she is a
real good woman."

"Is she? How do you know?" asked Benton quickly, for instantly he was on
the alert.

"I know. And that is all."

"But tell me, Hugh--tell me in confidence, my boy--what led you to seek
her that night. You must have followed her from the Casino and have seen
her enter the Villa. Then you rang at the door and asked to see her?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

"I had my own reasons."

"Can't you tell them to me, Hugh?" asked the tall man in a strange, low
voice. "Remember, I am an old friend of your father. And I am still your
best friend."

Hu