me. Louis had charge of the papers, and would let me see them if I
treated him the right way. How Cheffinsky found out about Louis and me I
never heard; perhaps from Stephen. I was given a day to think the matter
over. Then there was to be another meeting in the same place. When I
went to the rendezvous for the second time--it was in a park--I hadn't
made up my mind. But, oh, Roger, the wretch showed me a snapshot of
Stephen in a room, with a rope round his neck, standing on tiptoe. The
rope was fastened to a ring in the ceiling, where a chandelier had been.
If Stephen had dropped from fatigue he would have choked to death. 'Six
hours a day of this medicine,' Cheffinsky said, 'till you've handed us
the papers we want.'

"I promised to go to Albuquerque and get them. What the papers were I
wasn't told. Afterward I heard more about them--from Louis himself. The
day of the second meeting in the park I was given directions what to do,
but they were changed in a hurry. The Comrades got warning to 'clear
out' and go East as quick as they could. A telegram reached me only a
few hours before I was to start for Albuquerque. It said, 'Delay
journey. Writing,' and a letter came the same night to the quiet little
boarding-house where I stayed. My brother had been taken East, where I
should meet him when I handed over the papers. I was told what train to
take to Albuquerque, and what train to leave in: the Santa Fe Limited. I
was to find reservations on board for 'Miss B. White.' At Chicago I was
to get out of the train and find a man waiting for me. You know all
about that, and what happened. There was money in the letter of
instructions, enough to see me through to Chicago, otherwise I couldn't
have started. What I had was almost all gone. Oh, I can hardly bear to
think of that day, and what I went through--before I met _you_."

"Don't think of it--don't go on if you'd rather not," Roger begged.

But Beverley wished to go on.

"There was one thing the Comrades hadn't calculated upon," she said,
"and that was that the Herons would be at Albuquerque. When the plan was
made the Herons were at Los Angeles, and expecting to stay there. You
must have been with them--just after the great case was decided in John
Heron's favour--thanks to you! But Louis had been seized with one of his
heart attacks--he had angina pectoris--and had wired for his sister.
Dolores didn't wish to travel without her husband, so both decided to
go. As for J