nemy. The
Nareda Government ran De Boer out, ending the potential revolution.
But Perona and Spawn had always secretly been friends with De Boer. It
would have been very handy to have this unscrupulous young scoundrel
as President.

When De Boer was banished with some of his most loyal followers, he
began a career of petty banditry in the Lowland's depths. Spawn and
Perona kept in communication with him, and, by a method which was
presently made startlingly clear to Jetta and me, De Boer smuggled the
quicksilver for Perona and Spawn. It was this activity which had
finally aroused my department and caused Hanley to send me to Nareda.

This however, was a dangerous, precarious occupation. De Boer did not
seem to think so, or care. But Perona and Spawn, with their
established positions in Nareda, were always fearful of exposure. Even
without my coming, they had planned to disconnect from De Boer.

"And for more than that," as Jetta had one day heard Perona remark to
her father. "I'll tell to you that this De Boer is not very straight
with us, Spawn." De Boer would, upon occasion, fail to make proper
return for the smuggled product.

* * * * *

So now they had planned a last coup in which De Boer was to help, and
then they would be done with him: the two of them, Spawn and Perona,
would remain as honest citizens of Nareda, and De Boer had agreed to
take himself away and pursue his banditry elsewhere.

It was a simple plan; it promised to yield a high stake quickly. A
final fling at illicit activity; then virtuous reformation, with
Perona marrying the little Jetta.

* * * * *

Beneath the strong room at the mine, Perona and Spawn had secretly
built a cleverly concealed little vault. De Boer, this night just
before the midnight hour, was to attack the mine. Spawn and Perona had
bribed the police guards to submit to this attack. The guards did not
know the details: they only knew that De Boer and his men would make a
sham attack, careful to harm none of them--and then De Boer would
withdraw. The guards would report that they had been driven away by a
large force. And when the excitement was over, the ingots of
radiumized quicksilver would have vanished!

De Boer, making away into distant Lowland fastnesses, would obviously
be supposed to have taken the treasure. But Perona, hidden alone in
the strong-room, would merely carry the ingots down into the secre