our hand by having him waylaid, or searching his rooms,"
Blaine cogitated aloud. "I'll put another man on to-morrow morning.
Leave the address of the tobacconist with my secretary on your way
out, and if there is another message to-morrow, he'll get it first.
You needn't do anything more on this Paddington matter; I think the
other end needs your services more; and since you've already broken
ground up there, you'll be able to do better than anyone else. I want
you to return to the Bronx, get back your old room, if you can, and
stick close to the Brunells."

Back in his old rooms at Mrs. Quinlan's, Guy sat in the window-seat at
dusk, impatiently awaiting the appearance of a slender, well-known
figure. The rain, which had set in early in the afternoon, had turned
to sleet, and as the darkness deepened, the rays from a solitary
street lamp gleamed sharply upon the pavement as upon an unbroken
sheet of ice.

Presently the spare, long-limbed form of James Brunell emerged from
the gloom and disappeared within the door of this little house
opposite. Morrow observed that the man's step lacked its accustomed
jauntiness and spring, and he plodded along wearily, as if utterly
preoccupied with some depressing meditation. A light sprang up in the
front room on the ground floor, but after a few moments it was
suddenly extinguished, and Brunell appeared again on the porch. He
closed the door softly behind him, and strode quickly down the street.
There was a marked change in his bearing, a furtiveness and eager
haste which ill accorded with his manner of a short time before.

Scarcely had Brunell vanished into the encroaching gloom, when his
daughter appeared. She, too, approached wearily, and on reaching the
little sagging gate she paused in surprised dismay at the air of
detached emptiness the house seemed to exude. Then a little furry
object scurried around the porch corner and precipitated itself upon
her. She stooped swiftly, gathered up the kitten in her arms and went
slowly into the house.

Morrow ate his supper in absent-minded haste, and as soon as he
decently could, he made his way across the street.

Emily opened the door in response to his ring and greeted him with
such undisguised pleasure and surprise that his honest heart quickened
a beat or two, and it was with difficulty that he voiced the plausible
falsehood concerning his loss of position, and return to his former
abode.

Under the light in the little drawi