replied readily. "The reason you don't turn me
over to the police is the very simple one that you don't want to
embarrass the mistress of the house yonder by causing the light of
publicity to beat upon her very charming head. You wish to save her
annoyance, and possibly something much graver. I can see that you are
impressed; but it ought to please you to know that I share your feeling
of delicacy where she is concerned. And let me add that the Count
Montani is animated by like feeling. So there we are, exactly on the
same ground!"

"You haven't answered my questions!" I blustered to hide my annoyance at
being thrust further into the dark. "You don't understand Mrs.
Bashford," I went on hurriedly. "It is inconceivable that any one should
wish to injure her or that she could have committed any act that would
cause her to be spied upon. She's tremendously imaginative; she indulges
in little fancies that are a part of her charm!"

"Little fancies!" he repeated, hiding a yawn. "It's deplorable for a
pretty woman to have an imagination; there's danger there!"

"Your philosophy bores me," I said, and left him. He had lied about the
snoring of the guards--Antoine satisfied me of that--but I gave
instructions to double the watch.

CHAPTER V

ALICE

I wanted to be alone and struck off for a wood that lay on the northern
end of the estate. This was the most picturesque spot on the property, a
wild confusion of trees and boulders. On a summit in the midst of it
Uncle Bash had built a platform round a majestic pine from which to view
the Sound. I mounted the ladder and was brushing the dead leaves from
the bench when, somewhere below me and farther on, I heard voices.

I flattened myself on the platform, listening intently. A stiff breeze
from the Sound flung the voices clearly to my hiding-place, and I became
aware that Alice and Mrs. Farnsworth were holding a colloquy in what
seemed to be the vein of their whimsical make-believe. That they should
be doing this in the depth of the woodland merely for their own
amusement did not surprise me--nothing they could have done would have
astonished me--but the tone of their talk changed abruptly.

"Try it from that boulder there, Alice," said Mrs. Farnsworth. "It's an
ideal place, created for the very purpose."

I could see them moving about and hear the swish of shrubbery and the
scraping of their feet on the rough slope.

"How will that do?" asked Alice.

"Beautifu