sked quickly.

"It is my business to know things," I told her. "I'm a professional
caretaker of secrets now."

She looked at me blankly and I saw that he had not told her everything.
It behoved me to play the game warily until I was sure of my ground.

"What are you doing here, Moira?" I asked her point-blank.

"That's a question I could ask you," she countered. "But I am here, not
from any desire to meet you--I didn't know you were here--but because he
sent for me."

"And why should he send for you?" I persisted.

There was just the faintest flicker of a smile moving about her lips
now; she had turned a little and the light was playing on her face.

"For just the simplest reason in the world. He wanted me."

"Why should he want you?" I demanded.

She looked at me a moment as if astonished that I should ask such a
question. But there was that in my eyes which told her that my ignorance
was anything but assumed.

"You really mean to say you don't know?" she asked incredulously.

"If I did know I wouldn't question you about it," I said shortly. "What
is the reason?"

"Well, you see," she answered lightly, with just a slight uplift of her
eyebrows--an old theatrical trick that I used to admire in the days gone
by--"he happens to be my uncle."

"That puts another complexion on matters," I said half to myself. But
her quick ear caught the drift of my remark and she was down on me like
the wolf on the fold.

"You're in with him, are you?" she questioned, with that devouring flame
I knew so well flaring up in her golden-brown eyes. "You're in with
him ... in this?"

In a way I wasn't. As a matter-of-fact I suspected from her last words
that she knew more about everything than I did, but I was perfectly sure
that she wouldn't believe me if I denied it, so I said instead, "Yes, I
am."

"I might have known it," she said with a little shake of her head. I
didn't quite follow her logic, but I judged it best to let it pass. One
would think from the way she spoke that there was something
reprehensible in being mixed up in anything conducted by her venerable
relative. I wondered why.

"Yes, you might have known it," I said, falling in with her own humor.
"I have a habit of doing things I shouldn't."

I knew she understood my veiled allusion, for I saw her bite her lip and
again the lambent flame leaped up in her eyes. But it died as suddenly
as it had come, and in another instant the old tantalising smile was
p