of fitting in a pass key--and he
would catch the culprit red-handed; he would deprive her of the spoils!

Clear as a "cut in" from some moving picture, a scene rose before
Clodagh's eyes. She saw herself at grips with O'Reilly. She saw him
wrench the envelope from her hands as she resisted. She saw herself
sobbing over her failure and Angel's lost hopes. That picture mustn't
come true! The key attached to the watch-chain, she had removed from the
safe door, and had laid watch and all on a buffet. Beside them she had
placed the door key. Now, as the chambermaid chattered in the corridor,
and O'Reilly made light of his loss, Clodagh moved faster than any
figure in a moving picture. She snatched up everything on the buffet,
pushed all into the safe, softly shut the steel door, concealed it with
the panel which slipped readily into its groove, and fled into the
adjoining bedroom.

Lights from across a court showed that the sole doors were those of a
bath and a clothes-closet. There was no way out from the bedroom.
Entrance and exit to the suite were to be had only through the sitting
room.

"I might have known," Clo reflected. Too late she recalled that through
the nearest door had appeared the couple in evening dress. She was
caught like a mouse in a trap (poor mouse, who had meant to gnaw the
encircling net!) caught unless--unless! Her heart gave a leap as she saw
the one way out.

The night was warm, and the window had been opened wide to let in the
blue dusk. Light from opposite windows giving on the court shone upon a
stone coping. It was broad, as copings go, broad enough for some white
roses dropped from a window above to lodge without falling farther. It
was this conspicuous splash of white on the dark stone which put into
Clo's mind the word "unless."

The chambermaid was rattling her pass key in the lock. If the thing were
to be done, it must be done now! Yes, that stone coping ran all the way
along under O'Reilly's window as well as those opposite. It was quite
fourteen or fifteen inches in width, Clo thought, and was placed twice
as many inches below the window sill. It would be easy to step down on
to the ledge; and only a short distance away was the window of the next
room, a room in the suite occupied by the couple she had seen. That
window was open, like O'Reilly's. Clo could be sure of this, because the
lace curtains were blowing out in the draught from some other window.
They were of thick lace cove