de was a
signal, wasn't it? Hastings was in the car? Or was it Blair or Johnson?"

Mr. Grimm did not say.

"Didn't you anticipate any personal danger when you entered?" he queried
instead. "Weren't you afraid I might shoot?"

"No."

There was a long silence. Mr. Grimm still sat with his elbows on his
knees, staring, staring at the vague white splotch which was Miss
Thorne's face and bare neck. One of her white arms hung at her side like
a pallid serpent, and her hand was at rest on the seat of the couch.

"It seems, Miss Thorne," he said at length, casually, quite casually,
"that our paths of duty are inextricably tangled. Twice previously we
have met under circumstances that were more than strange, and now--this!
Whatever injustice I may have done you in the past by my suspicions has,
I hope, been forgiven; and in each instance we were able to work side by
side toward a conclusion. I am wondering now if this singular affair
will take a similar course."

He paused. Miss Thorne started to speak, but he silenced her with a
slight gesture of his hand.

"It is only fair to you to say that we--that is, the Secret
Service--have learned many things about you," he resumed in the same
casual tone. "We have, through our foreign agents, traced you step by
step from Rome to Washington. We know that you are, in a way, a
representative of a sovereign of Europe; we know that you were on a
secret mission to the Spanish court, perhaps for this sovereign, and
remained in Madrid for a month; we know that from there you went to
Paris, also on a secret mission--perhaps the same--and remained there
for three weeks; we know that you met diplomatic agents of those
governments later in London. We know all this; we know the manner of
your coming to this country; of your coming to Washington. But we don't
know _why_ you are here."

Again she started to speak, and again he stopped her.

"We don't know your name, but that is of no consequence. We _do_ know
that in Spain you were Senora Cassavant, in Paris Mademoiselle
d'Aubinon, in London Miss Jane Kellog, and here Miss Isabel Thorne. We
realize that exigencies arise in your calling, and mine, which make
changes of name desirable, necessary even, and there is no criticism of
that. Now as the representative of your government--rather _a_
government--you have a right to be here, although unaccredited; you have
a right to remain here as long as your acts are consistent with our
laws; you h