tray only the steel knife and
fork which lay beside the plate. Having pushed the cot bed away from the
wall, she sat down on the floor, Turk fashion. Choosing a spot which
would be invisible with the bed in place, she waited till Churn was
inclined to walk. Then she began delicately to dig at the plaster with
her extemporized tools. Whenever Churn stopped, she stopped also, lest
the rat-like noise should reach alert ears in the next room. For a long
time she toiled, cautiously, slowly, gathering up bits of paper and
plaster that fell, and collecting them in her lap. It was a tedious
task, but not difficult. In less than an hour she had made--practically
without noise--a hole the size of a silver dollar. It went through to
the lathes; beyond that barrier her tools were of no avail. She needed a
thin, sharp instrument like a hat-pin, to push between the slats of
wood. A tiny hole would suffice. But she had no hat-pin in the
close-fitting toque lent by Beverley. Her own was now a souvenir in
O'Reilly's possession.

She tried hair-pins, but they bent, one after another. Then she searched
for a nail, and found one at last, stuck in the wall, supporting a small
mirror. Carefully she deposited this upon the bed (it wouldn't do to
break a looking glass!) and set to work once more. At the end of twenty
minutes' scratching, she felt resistance cease before the nail-point.
Hastily she withdrew it, lest it should pierce too far; and stretched on
the floor she listened with her ear to the aperture on her side of the
wall.

XXXI

THE NINE DAYS

"I wish Chuff would come, and get it over!" she heard Churn sigh aloud,
in his sweet, foreign-sounding voice.

"I wonder why he went out?" said Kit. "He ought to have been home all
evening. He was expecting Pete on business, you know."

"Can he have got onto de reason dat fellah Pete didn't come?"

"No, no," Kit answered. "I've told you a dozen times no! He wouldn't
have gone to the Westmorland. Pete had to call on him. But there must
have been something important to take Chuff out."

"Vat vas de plan?"

"Oh, what does it matter? To-night's changed everything for me, and you,
too. You are goin' to stand by me, aren't you, Churn, through thick and
thin?"

"You bettcha life! For de whole of vot I'm vorth!"

Kit's tone changed. She chuckled. "You may be worth a lot. You've
married a rich heiress. See?"

"Sh, girl! If Chuff comes spyin' on us we don't vant him to hear dat