es
overboard for her under the noses of the stewards, and got yourself
suspected and your baggage searched, I should have turned the trick!"

His share in the tangled episode on board the steamer was unfolding. I
understood now why he had sprung to my rescue in the salon when I was
accused. Naturally he had not wanted my traps searched, considering what
was in them.

"As you say, you were a little too clever," I agreed.

His eyes glinted viciously.

"Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk," he retorted; "and besides,
the papers you are going to hand me to-night will even up the score. It
was a piece of luck, my running across Miss Falconer on the liner. Of
course the minute I heard her name I knew what she was crossing for."
The dickens he did! "All I had to do was to follow her, and by the time
we reached Bleau I had guessed enough to come ahead of her. But I'll
admit, Mr. Bayne, now it's all over, it made me nervous to have you
popping up at every turn! I began to think that you suspected me--that
you were trailing me. If you had, you know, I shouldn't have stood a
chance on earth. You could have said a word to the first gendarme you
met and had me laid by the heels and ended it. That was why I kept
warning you off. But I needn't have worried. You drank in everything I
told you as innocent as a babe!"

If he wanted revenge for my last remark, he had it. I looked at the
girl beside me, so watchfully composed and fearless, then at the
fixed, terrified glare of the motionless Marie-Jeanne. With a little
rudimentary intelligence on my part this situation would have been
spared us.

"Yes," I acknowledged bitterly; "I did."

"Except for that," he grinned, "it went like clockwork. There wasn't
even enough danger in the thing to give it spice. Do you know, there
isn't a capital in Europe where I can't get disguises, money, passports
within twelve hours if I want them. Oh, you have a bit to learn about
us, you people on the other side! I've crossed the ocean four
times since the war started; I've been in London, Rome, Paris,
Petrograd--pretty much everywhere. I'm getting homesick, though. The
_laissez-passer_ I've picked up, or forged, no matter which, takes
me straight through to the Front; and I've got friends even in the
trenches. Before the Frenchies know it I'll be across no-man's-land and
inside the German lines!"

For a moment, as I listened, I was dangerously near admiring him. He was
certainly exaggeratin