mobility had again replaced all tokens of
anger, and immobility which only yielded now and then to a slight
contortion more expressive of physical pain than of mental agitation.
Yet in Georgian's eyes he had lost none of his formidable qualities, for
the dismay with which she followed his words grew as she listened, and
reached its height as he added in final explanation:

"The bag I did draw out of the pool, but only because I had taken it down
there in my blouse front. Did you think a man could see that or anything
else indeed in that maddening swirl of water?"

"But it was Mrs. Ransom's bag," came from Harper in ill-disguised
amazement. Even his sang-froid was leaving him before these evidences
of a plot so deep as to awaken awe. "Where did you get it? Not from Mrs.
Ransom herself? Her own surprise is warranty for that."

"No, I got it from the river, another reason why I credited her drowning.
It was fished up from the sand, a little way from the Fall. My man found
it; I had sent him there in a vain hope that he might find evidence of
the tragedy which others had overlooked. He did, but he told no one but
me. You flung the thing too far," he remarked to Georgian. "You should
have dropped it nearer the bank. Only such a prodder as my man Ives would
ever have discovered it."

Georgian shook her head, impatient at such banalities, in the face of the
important matters they had to discuss. "To the point," she cried, "tell
these men what will clear me of everything but a wild attempt at
freedom."

"I have said what I had to say," returned her brother.

Georgian's head fell. For a moment her courage seemed to fail her.

Mr. Harper rose and locked the door.

"We must have no intruders here," said he, pausing with a certain sense
of shock, as he noticed the faint smile, full of some sinister meaning,
which for an instant twisted Hazen's lips at these words.

But the delay was but momentary. With an odd sense of haste he rushed at
once to the attack.

Stepping in front of Hazen, he observed with force and unmistakable
resolution:

"Your devotion to the legatee Auchincloss cannot possibly be explained by
any ordinary feeling of obligation. Your sister has mentioned a Cause.
Can he by any possibility be the treasurer of that Cause?"

But Hazen was as impervious to direct attack as he had been to a covert
one.

"Georgian will tell you," said he. "When a woman looks as she looks now,
and is so given over to her ow