ntings.

MacMaster pursed up his lips and sat down, his overcoat still on.
"Well, James, this is something of a--something of a jolt, eh? It never
occurred to me she'd really do it."

"Lord, you don't know 'er, sir," said James bitterly, still staring at
the floor in an attitude of abandoned dejection.

MacMaster started up in a flash of enlightenment, "What on earth have
you got there, James? It's not-surely it's not--"

"Yes, it is, sir," broke in the man excitedly. "It's the _Marriage_
itself. It ayn't agoing to H'Australia, no'ow!"

"But man, what are you going to do with it? It's Lichtenstein's property
now, as it seems."

"It ayn't, sir, that it ayn't. No, by Gawd, it ayn't!" shouted James,
breaking into a choking fury. He controlled himself with an effort
and added supplicatingly: "Oh, sir, you ayn't agoing to see it go to
H'Australia, w'ere they send convic's?" He unpinned and flung aside the
sheets as though to let _Phaedra_ plead for herself.

MacMaster sat down again and looked sadly at the doomed masterpiece.
The notion of James having carried it across London that night rather
appealed to his fancy. There was certainly a flavor about such a
highhanded proceeding. "However did you get it here?" he queried.

"I got a four-wheeler and come over direct, sir. Good job I 'appened to
'ave the chaynge about me."

"You came up High Street, up Piccadilly, through the Haymarket and
Trafalgar Square, and into the Strand?" queried MacMaster with a relish.

"Yes, sir. Of course, sir," assented James with surprise.

MacMaster laughed delightedly. "It was a beautiful idea, James, but I'm
afraid we can't carry it any further."

"I was thinkin' as 'ow it would be a rare chance to get you to take the
_Marriage_ over to Paris for a year or two, sir, until the thing blows
over?" suggested James blandly.

"I'm afraid that's out of the question, James. I haven't the right stuff
in me for a pirate, or even a vulgar smuggler, I'm afraid." MacMaster
found it surprisingly difficult to say this, and he busied himself with
the lamp as he said it. He heard James's hand fall heavily on the trunk
top, and he discovered that he very much disliked sinking in the man's
estimation.

"Well, sir," remarked James in a more formal tone, after a protracted
silence; "then there's nothink for it but as 'ow I'll 'ave to make way
with it myself."

"And how about your character, James? The evidence would be heavy
against you, and eve