y, Miss Galland," he said agreeably, quite as if there were
nothing unusual in her attitude. No word passed between them as he kept
pace with her rapid gait along the path, but out of the corner of his
eye he surveyed in measuring admiration and curiosity the straight line
of nose and forehead under its heavy crown of hair, with a few detached
and riotous tendrils.

"Bring a lantern!" she said, as they entered his sitting-room, in a way
that left no excuse for refusal.

When he had brought the lantern she took it from his hand and led the
way into the tunnel.

"Please make the connection so that I can speak to Lanny!" she
instructed him after she had pressed the button and the panel door of
the telephone recess flew open.

For an instant he hesitated; then curiosity and the unremitting
authority of her tone had their way. He dropped to his knees, ran his
fingers into an aperture between two stones and made a jointure of two
wire ends.

"All ready!" he said, and eagerly. What a delightfully spirited rage she
was in! And what the devil was she going to do, anyway?

As she took the receiver from the hook she heard an electric bell at the
other end of the line, but no "Hello!"

"The bell means that Lanny will be called if he is there. No one except
him is to talk over this telephone," Feller explained softly.

Marta waited for some time before she heard a familiar, calm voice, with
a faint echo of irritation over being interrupted in the midst of
pressing duties.

"Well, Gustave, old boy, it can't be that you are in touch with
Westerling yet?"

"It is I--Marta!" and she came abruptly to the flaming interrogation
that had brought her there. "I want to ask a question. I want a clear
answer--I want everything clear! If Feller's plan succeeds it means that
you will know where the Grays are going to attack?"

"Yes; why, yes, Marta!"

"So that you can mow them down?"

"That is one way of putting it--yes."

"If I keep your secret--if I let the telephone remain, I am an
accomplice! I shall not be that--not to any kind of murder! I shall not
let the telephone remain!"

"As you will, Marta," he replied. "But anything that leads to victory
means less slaughter in the end. For we have tested our army well enough
to know that only when it is decimated will it ever retreat from its
main line of defence."

"The old argument!" she answered bitterly.

"As you will, Marta! Only, Marta--I plead with you--please, please