you know that I do?"

"You would not make the extraordinary request unless that was your
fear."

"You are a strange man."

The detective laughed and answered:

"And you are a very strangely acting lady. It is indeed a strange thing
for a lady who expects robbers to visit her house to ask that they be
permitted to escape. I must do my duty, miss, I cannot grant your
request unless you ask that I let Alphonse go and arrest the others."

"No, that will not do," she exclaimed, "for the others would betray
him."

"Aha!" ejaculated the detective, "human-like you have given yourself
away. Do not again deny your real motive for making the request."

The girl recognized that indeed she had betrayed herself, and in a tone
of distress she muttered:

"Oh, what shall I do?"

"I can tell you."

"Please do."

"Make a full confidant of me."

"Will you believe me?"

"I know of no reason why I should doubt your word."

"I have already deceived you."

"Eh! you have already deceived me?"

"I have."

"In what direction?"

"I told you I had never seen or spoken to Alphonse Donetti?"

"I remember."

"My denial was false."

The detective was silent.

"I did not dare let my aunt know that I had ever seen him."

"And you have met?"

"Yes."

"Often?"

"Yes, very often. He has confided in me."

"One moment! are you his affianced wife?"

"On my honor, I am not; but knowing his real story I sympathize with him
most heartily."

"He has revealed to you more than his mother ever revealed to your
aunt?"

"Yes."

"Tell me what he revealed to you."

"I cannot."

"Oh, but you can."

"No, I am bound by an oath; I cannot break my oath."

The detective meditated and then asked:

"Do you know that Donetti is in New York?"

"I do not."

"Have you reason to suspect that he is?"

"I had no reason to so suspect until you indicated that he was possibly
the author of the warning note, then I did suspect that he was in New
York."

"Have you any grounds for believing that he is a criminal?"

"I have not."

"Then why do you fear he may be with the robbers to-night?"

"I do not know to what desperate deeds his many wrongs and privations
may have driven him. If he is in New York I will find him. If he is
being driven toward the career of a criminal I will save him. If you
arrest him I cannot save him, and yet he deserves to be saved, for he is
the victim of a great wrong."

Again the detective meditated. H