woman. I confess to a queer sort of prejudice against
seeing women bound and gagged. In fact I feel so strongly on the subject
that it might spoil our whole conference for me." I took a step toward
the shadowy figure of Marie-Jeanne.

Blenheim did not move, but his eyes seemed to narrow and darken.

"Just leave her alone for the present. She is too fond of
shrieking--might interrupt our argument," he declared. "And see
here, Mr. Bayne," he added, warned by my manner, "I want to call your
attention to the gentleman on the stairs, my friend Schwartzmann. He's
a crack shot, none better, and he has got you covered. Hadn't you better
sit down and have a friendly chat?"

Though the stairs were dim, I could see something glittering in the hand
of the person mentioned, who was impersonating for the evening a dashing
young captain of the general staff. My fingers strayed toward my pocket
and my own revolver. Then I pried them away, temporarily, and took a
provisional seat.

"That's sensible," Franz von Blenheim approved me blandly. "Now, Miss
Falconer, you know what I'm here for, isn't that so? Just hand me those
papers and you'll be as free as air. I'll take myself off; you'll never
see me again probably. That's a fair bargain, isn't it? What do you
say?"

I was sitting close to the girl, so close that her soft furs brushed
me and I could feel the flutter of her breath against my cheek. At
Blenheim's proposition I glanced at her. She was measuring him steadily.
Then she looked at me, and her eyes seemed to hold some message that I
could not read.

"Perhaps, Miss Falconer," I interposed, "you have not quite grasped the
situation." I was sparring for time; she wanted to convey something to
me, I was sure. "It is rather complicated. This gentleman has turned
out to be a well-known agent of the kaiser. He was traveling on the _Re
d'Italia_, I gather, on a forged passport, and had helped himself to my
baggage as the most convenient way of smuggling some papers to the other
side."

He grinned assentingly.

"You owe me one for that," he owned. "You see, it was my second trip
on that line, and I thought they might have me spotted; I had a lot of
things to carry home,--reports, information, confidential letters, and I
concluded they would be safer with a nice, innocent young man like you.
It didn't work, as things went. It was just a little too clever. But if
you hadn't mixed yourself up with this young lady, and tossed packag