beginnings of a wreck. It was simple. Slim would almost certainly
take his hands from the bottle then. He wouldn't risk having it broken
over him in the smash. But if it hadn't worked out right, Jim, you know
I'd never have let the others come in. You see they were with father in
the dark sleeping car ahead. Father watched from the vestibule. When I
chose my moment--you remember, I was going along the aisle close to
you--he gave the engineer and the brakeman the signals we had arranged
in New York."

The inspector's wink was brazen.

"That's a bright girl by you, Garth," he grunted. "Guess it's time I
enjoyed a cigar again. So long, children."

He drifted down the aisle.

Garth wanted to tell Nora of his gratitude, realizing how far beyond
expression that lay. With a smile she stopped his awkward attempts.

"I think I know what you would say, Jim. It was nothing--only what I had
to do."

All at once he looked away. He had caught in her smile a new,
untrammeled quality.

"Why do you look away, Jim?" she asked softly.

He turned back. He tried to meet her eyes.

"Things can't be the same," he said hoarsely. "I know I'm a beast to
speak of it. I know you expect me to take what you did in the cellar as
acting. But, Nora, lying there as I was, it made me happier than I ever
have been in my life."

He looked straight at her.

"Tell me how you managed such acting."

Her lips trembled.

"I--I think nobody could act like that."

He saw the tears in her eyes. She closed them.

"While I was doing it," she went on, "it came to me that it wasn't
acting at all."

There was no one to see the quick surrender of her hands.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAY MASK***

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