the strongest men to
pull away with all their might."

"I'd give a thousand dollars for it, Evalena," said her friend warmly.

"No good; no good for you," replied Miss Gray, critically looking over
Mrs. Winslow's splendid physical completeness. "Fact is, Winslow, you
aren't built exactly right for that kind of work. There's too much of
you to do the rope trick with eminent success. I played Daddy as my
brother, and myself for an innocent, so neatly that Perkins honestly
thought he had made a wonderful conquest. He believed it all, for he was
one of those honest fools--in fact, came near being too honest for me."

"Why, how?"

"Well, he installed me as his mistress in grand style; but, of course, I
insisted in giving seances and compelled public recognition through
_his_ public recognition of my 'wonderful spirit-power.' The man was so
infatuated that he bored me terribly with his visits. Why, I could
hardly get time to attend to business. You know we always have a stock
of ropes on hand in the seance-rooms, so that when any one objects to
the one I ordinarily use, there are always other ropes at hand that I
_can_ use. One night some fellow broke my best rope, and the next day I
was carelessly practising with another with my door unsecured. Perkins
had been down to Brighton for a week or two, and of course had to rush
over to see me the minute he got in London--to give me a 'happy
surprise,' I suppose. There I sat when he suddenly bolted into the room
and saw the thinness of the whole thing in an instant."

"What did he see?" asked Mrs. Winslow abruptly.

"You _are_ shrewd, Winslow, but you can't catch me that way; no, no, no!
But he did see the whole trick as dear as a June day. Do you think I
fainted?"

"Not much," said her companion tersely.

"No; but _he_ nearly did. He reeled and staggered as though he had been
struck by a sledge-hammer, and I saw in his face a determination to rush
from the room and denounce me to all London. It was make or break with
me then, Winslow, and with a bound I got to the door, turned the key,
and sent it crashing through a five-pound pane of glass into the street
below. Then I just whipped out this little derringer," she continued,
producing a beautifully mounted, though diminutive weapon, "just run it
right up under his eyes, and backed him into a seat."

"'Great God!' he whimpered, 'I'm undone! I'm undone!--what a very devil
you are!'

"My heart did go thumping to see the