kissed her slender hand.

"Then you shall have my answer," she faltered, but her eyes shone like
stars as she lightly fled away.

Captain Anson Anstruther had reckoned without his host when he rejoiced
over Alan Hawke's departure. As the aide-de-camp sped down the darkened
river, he still saw Alixe Delavigne's eyes gleaming down on him in every
tender twinkling star, but the wily agent whom he had dispatched to the
Continent four days before, was near him yet, and comfortably dining in
a little snug public in the Tower Hamlets, on this very night. He was
looking for tools suited to a dark game which busied his reckless heart.

Major Alan Hawke (temporary rank) had passed two days at Geneva in a
serious conference with the sorrowing sisters Delande. His meeting with
the softhearted Justine had brought the color back to the poor woman's
face, and she shyly held up the diamond bracelet to his view, murmuring,
"I have thought of you and kissed it every night and morning, for your
sake, Alan!"

With a glance of veiled tenderness, the acute schemer took his fair dupe
out upon the lake, while Euphrosyne directed the slow grinding of the
mills of the gods. "I must lose no time," Hawke pleaded, "as I have to
report for duty in London." And so, he gleaned the story of the hegira
and the situation at the Banker's Folly. He heard all, and yet felt that
there was a gap in the story. Justine was true to her plighted word.

He instinctively felt that Justine was holding back something of moment,
and yet in his heart he felt that the price of that disclosure would
be his formal betrothal to the loving Justine. But he dared not vow to
marry, and the Swiss woman was loyally true to her oath. He remained
"their loving brother" as yet, and when two days later, Alan Hawke
departed for London direct, he mused vainly over the tangled problem
until he reported to Captain Anson Anstruther. "If this greenhorn girl
has any designs of her own she has not told them yet to Justine. I must
get a man to help me to work my scheme, or go over to Jersey myself,"
he at last decided. He was secretly happy at Captain Anstruther's prompt
injunctions to make ready for a tour of two months upon the Continent.
"I shall have all your detailed instructions prepared tomorrow, Major
Hawke," said the young aide-de-camp. "Meet me, therefore, at the Junior
United Service at ten o'clock; you can take a couple of days to look
over London, and then proceed at once