ite insensible to the
ethical enormity of their crime. But they were keen enough to see that
it might be used as a lever with which to force more money from me.
For when I demanded that they take the box away with them and dispose
of it, they only laughed at me. They said that they had had enough of
that box. They had delivered the goods--that was the phrase they
used--and they wanted more money. And they said they would not leave
until they got it. They threatened, unless I gave them the money at
once, to leave the place and get word to the police of the presence of
the box in my apartment.

"I was in no mental condition to combat and get the better of them. I
felt myself to be entirely in their power. I saw only the weakness of
my own position. I could not, at the moment, see the weak spots in
theirs. Elmer might have advised me--but he was not there. The
miserable episode ended with my giving them a thousand dollars each,
and they left.

"Alone with that box, my panic increased. When Elmer returned with
Teddy, I told him what had happened. He wished to open the box, having
a vague idea that perhaps after all it did not really contain what they
had said was in it. But I could not bear the thought of its being
opened. I refused to allow Elmer to look into it.

"I determined that I would ship the box at once to some fictitious
personage, and then take the next ship back to England.

"I hastily wrote a card, which I tacked on the box, consigning it to
Miss Genevieve Pringle, Newark, N. J. The name was the first invention
that came into my head. Newark I had heard of. I knew vaguely that it
was west of New York, but whether it was twenty miles west or two
thousand miles, I did not stop to think. I am ignorant of American
geography.

"But no sooner had the box been taken away than I began to be uneasy.
I was more frightened with it gone than I had been with it present. I
imagined it being dropped and broken, and revealing everything. And
then it occurred to me that even if I should get out of the country,
the secret was bound to be discovered some time. I do not know why I
had not thought of that before--but I was distracted. Having got rid
of the box, I was already wild to get it into my possession again.

"I confided my fears to Elmer, and was surprised to learn from him that
Newark is very near New York. We took a taxicab at once, and were
waiting at the freight depot in Newark when the thing