r over us, he has blighted all our lives.
But if I could get hold of a certain thing the power would be broken.
That is what I am after, what I am working for. And it is in connection
with my endeavour that the new idea came to me."

"Can't you give me some general idea of it?" Bell asked.

"Well, I want to make Merritt my friend. I want him to imagine that I am
as much of an adventuress as he is an adventurer. I want to let him see
that I could send him to prison--"

"So you can by telling the police of the loss of your star."

"And getting Merritt arrested and sent to gaol where I couldn't make use
of him? No, no. The thing is pretty vague in my mind at present. I have
to work it out as one would a story; as David Steel would work it out,
for instance. Ah!"

Chris clapped her hands rapturously, and a little cry of delight
escaped her.

"The very thing," she exclaimed. "If I could lay all the facts before Mr.
Steel and get him to plan out all the details! His fertile imagination
would see a way out at once. But he is far away and there is no time to
be lost. Is there no way of getting at him?"

Chris appealed almost imploringly to her companion. She made a pretty
picture with the old oak engravings behind her. Bell smiled as he helped
himself to asparagus.

"Why not adopt the same method by which you originally introduced
yourself to the distinguished novelist?" he asked. "Why not use
Littimer's telephone?"

Chris pushed her plate away impetuously.

"I am too excited to eat any more," she said. "I am filled with the new
idea. Of course, I could use the telephone to speak to Mr. Steel, and to
Enid as well. If the scheme works out as I anticipate, I shall have to
hold a long conversation with Enid, a dangerous thing so long as Reginald
Henson is about."

"I'll keep Henson out of the way. The best thing is to wait till
everybody has gone to bed to-night and call Steel up then. You will be
certain to get him after eleven, and there will be no chance of your
being cut off at that hour of the night in consequence of somebody else
wanting the line. The same remark applies to your sister."

Chris nodded radiantly.

"Thrice blessed telephone," she said. "I can get in all I want without
committing myself to paper or moving from the spot where my presence is
urgently needed. We will give Mr. Steel a pleasant surprise to-night, and
this time I shall get him into no trouble."

The luncheon was finished at length,