new, when they hired a big motor car
and engaged a crook to drive it, that they were worth following. I saw
the trial of the flying machine, and when they started off with young
Franklin, I followed on a motor bicycle. I fished him out of the tarn
where they left him for dead, brought him on to London, and made my own
terms with him."

"What about the body which was found in the Longthorp Tarn?" she asked.

"I had that telegram sent myself," Peter Ruff answered.

She looked at him severely.

"You went out of your way to make a fool of John Dory!" she said,
frowning at him.

"That I admit," he answered.

"It seems to me," she continued, "that that, after all, has been the
chief object of the whole affair. I do not see that we--that is the
firm--profit in the least."

Peter Ruff chuckled.

"We've got a fourth share in the Franklin Flying Machine," he answered,
"and I'm hanged if I'd sell it for a hundred thousand pounds."

"You've taken advantage of that young man's gratitude," she declared.

Peter Ruff shook his head.

"I earned the money," he answered.

CHAPTER IV. THE INDISCRETION OF LETTY SHAW

Amidst a storm of whispered criticisms, the general opinion was that
Letty Shaw was a silly little fool who ought to have known better. When
she had entered the restaurant a few minutes before midnight, followed
by Austen Abbott, every one looked to see a third person following them.
No third person, however, appeared. Gustav himself conducted them to a
small table laid for two, covered with pink roses, and handed his fair
client the menu of a specially ordered supper. There was no gainsaying
the fact that Letty and her escort proposed supping alone!

The Cafe at the Milan was, without doubt, the fashionable rendezvous of
the moment for those ladies connected with the stage who, after
their performance, had not the time or the inclination to make the
conventional toilet demanded by the larger restaurants. Letty Shaw,
being one of the principal ornaments of the musical comedy stage, was
well known to every one in the room. There was scarcely a person
there who within the last fortnight had not found an opportunity of
congratulating her upon her engagement to Captain the Honourable Brian
Sotherst. Sotherst was rich, and one of the most popular young men about
town. Letty Shaw, although she had had one or two harmless flirtations,
was well known as a self-respecting and hard-working young actress who
loved