, but the boys and girls we associated with thought it did
and envied us the free-masonry it was supposed to cover. A ridiculous
make-believe which I rate at its full folly now, but one which cannot
fail to arouse a hundred memories in Georgian. We will scrawl it on
her door, or rather you shall, and according to the way she conducts
herself on seeing it, we shall know in one instant what you with your
patience and trust in time may not be able to arrive at in weeks."

Ransom recalled some of the tests he had himself employed, many of which
have been omitted from this history, and shrugged his shoulders mentally,
if not physically. If Hazen noted this evidence of his lack of faith, he
remained entirely unaffected by it, and in a few minutes everything had
been planned between them for the satisfactory exercise of what Hazen
evidently regarded as a crucial experiment. Ransom was about to proceed
to take the first required step, when they heard a disturbance in front,
and the coach came driving up with a great clatter and bang and from it
stepped the lean, well-groomed figure of Mr. Harper.

"Bah!" exclaimed Hazen with a violent gesture of disappointment. "There
comes your familiar. Now I suppose you will cry off."

"Not necessarily," returned Ransom. "But this much is certain. I shall
certainly consult him before hazarding this experiment. I am not so sure
of myself or--pardon me--of yourself as to take any steps in the dark
while I have at hand so responsible a guide as the man whom you choose to
call my familiar."

CHAPTER XXII

A SUSPICIOUS TEST

"Let him make his experiment. It will do no harm, and if it rids us of
him, well and good."

Such was Mr. Harper's decision after hearing all that Mr. Ransom had to
tell him of the present situation.

"His disappointment when he learns that he has nothing to hope for from
his sister's generosity calls for some consideration from us," proceeded
the lawyer. "Go and have your little talk with the landlady or take
whatever other means suggest themselves for luring this girl from her
room. I will summon Hazen and hold him very closely under my eye till the
whole affair is over. He shall get no chance for any hocus-pocus
business, not while I have charge of your interests. He shall do just
what he has laid out for himself and nothing more; you may rely on that."

Ransom expressed his satisfaction, and left the room with a lighter heart
than he had felt since Hazen