e put it aside and brushed its dust off her fingers. She
found an English Bible after a further search. Its pages had seen the
light but seldom. It slipped from her hand and fell open. She knelt to
pick it up with a tremor of fear.

She rose, and before she closed it glanced at the page before her.
These words caught her eye:

For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me. Take the winecup of
this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send
thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad
because of the sword that I will send among them.

She showed them to Verrinder. He nodded solemnly, took the book from
her hand, closed it, and held it before her. She put the slim tips of
her young fingers near the talon of his old thumb and echoed in a
timid, silvern voice the broken phrases he spoke in a tone of bronze:

"I solemnly swear--that so long as I live--I will tell no one--what I
know--of the crimes and death--of Sir Joseph and Lady Webling--unless
called upon--in a court of law. This oath is made--with no mental
reservations--and is binding--under all circumstances whatsoever--so
help me God!"

When she had whispered the last invocation he put the book away and
gripped her hand in his.

"I must remind you that releasing you is highly illegal--and perhaps
immoral. Our action might be overruled and the whole case opened. But
I think you are safe, especially if you get to America--the sooner the
better."

"Thank you!" she said.

He laughed, somewhat pathetically.

"Good luck!"

He did not tell her that England would still be watching over her,
that her name and her history were already cabled to America, that
she would be shadowed to the steamer, observed aboard the boat,
and picked up at the dock by the first of a long series of detectives
constituting a sort of serial guardian angel.

BOOK II

IN NEW YORK

[Illustration: "This is the life for me. I've been a heroine and a
war-worker about as long as I can."]

CHAPTER I

Leaving England quickly was not easy in those days. Passenger-steamers
were few, irregular, and secret. The passport regulations were
exceedingly rigorous, and even Mr. Verrinder's influence could not
speed the matter greatly.

There was the Webling estate to settle up, also. At Verrinder's
suggestion Marie Louise put her affairs into the hands of counsel, and
he arranged her surrender of all claims on the Webling estate. But he