its present depreciation--in order to secure
a slopchest coat and shoes and transportation by railway to New York;
when a taxicab chauffeur refuses a sovereign for his fare from the
Pennsylvania Station to this hotel, and one is constrained to borrow
from the management--why, I should say the trail was fairly broad and
well blazed, mes amis."

"Be that as it may," said Phinuit--"here in a manner of speaking we all
are, at least, the happy family reunited and ready to talk business."

"And no hard feelings, Monsieur Phinuit?"

"There will be none"--Monk's eyebrows were at once sardonic and
self-satisfied; which speaks volumes for their versatility--"at least,
none on our side--when we are finished."

"That makes me more happy still. And you, Liane?"

The woman gave a negligent movement of pretty shoulders.

"One begins to see how very right you are, Michael," she said
wearily--"and always were, for that matter. If one wishes to do wrong,
one should do it all alone... and escape being bored to death by the...
Oh! the unpardonable stupidity of associates.

"But no, messieurs!" she insisted with temper as Monk and Phinuit
simultaneously flew signals of resentment. "I mean what I say. I wish I
had never seen any of you, I am sick of you all! What did I tell you
when you insisted on coming here to see Monsieur Lanyard? That you
would gain nothing and perhaps lose much. But you would not listen to
me, you found it impossible to believe there could be in all the world
a man who keeps his word, not only to others but to himself. You are so
lost in admiration of your own cleverness in backing that poor little
ship off the rocks and letting her fill and sink, so that there could
be no evidence of wrong-doing against you, that you must try to prove
your wits once more where they have always failed"--she illustrated
with a dramatic gesture--"against his! You say to yourselves: Since we
are wrong, he must be wrong; and since that is now clearly proved, that
he is as wrong in every way as we, then it follows naturally that he
will heed our threats and surrender to us those jewels...Those jewels!"
she declared bitterly, "which we would have been fortunate never to
have heard of!"

She threw herself back in her chair and showed them a scornful
shoulder, compressing indignant lips to a straight, unlovely line, and
beating out the devil's tattoo with her slipper.

Lanyard watched her with a puzzled smile. How much of this was a