meanwhile attend to our friend."

Fisher hurriedly led the Baron to his own bedroom. Savitch fell back
upon the bed. The Baden symptoms repeated themselves. In two minutes
the Russian was unconscious.

Fisher looked at his watch. He had three minutes to spare. He turned
the key in the lock of the door and touched the knob of the electric
annunciator.

Then, gaining the mastery of his nerves by one supreme effort for
self-control, Fisher pulled the deceptive wig and the black skull cap
from the Baron's head. "Heaven forgive me if I am making a fearful
mistake!" he thought. "But I believe it to be best for ourselves and
for the world." Rapidly, but with a steady hand, he unscrewed the
silver dome. The Mechanism lay exposed before his eyes. The Baron
groaned. Ruthlessly Fisher tore out the wondrous machine. He had
no time and no inclination to examine it. He caught up a newspaper
and hastily enfolded it. He thrust the bundle into his open
travelling-bag. Then he screwed the silver top firmly upon the Baron's
head, and replaced the skull cap and the wig.

All this was done before the servant answered the bell. "The Baron
Savitch is ill," said Fisher to the attendant, when he came. "There is
no cause for alarm. Send at once to the Hotel de l'Athenee for his
valet, Auguste." In twenty seconds Fisher was in a cab, whirling
toward the Station St. Lazare.

When the steamship Pereire was well out at sea, with Ushant five
hundred miles in her wake, and countless fathoms of water beneath her
keel, Fisher took a newspaper parcel from his travelling-bag. His
teeth were firm set and his lips rigid. He carried the heavy parcel to
the side of the ship and dropped it into the Atlantic. It made a
little eddy in the smooth water, and sank out of sight. Fisher fancied
that he heard a wild, despairing cry, and put his hands to his ears to
shut out the sound. A gull came circling over the steamer--the cry may
have been the gull's.

Fisher felt a light touch upon his arm. He turned quickly around. Miss
Ward was standing at his side, close to the rail.

"Bless me, how white you are!" she said. "What in the world have you
been doing?"

"I have been preserving the liberties of two continents," slowly
replied Fisher, "and perhaps saving your own peace of mind."

"Indeed!" said she; "and how have you done that?"

"I have done it," was Fisher's grave answer, "by throwing overboard
the Baron Savitch."

Miss Ward burst into a ringing