and feet.

"So, Mademoiselle," she said, drawing herself erect with a grunt,
"your supper: some tea and meat!"

She pulled a dirty deal box from a corner of the cellar and put
the tray upon it. Then she rose to her feet and sat down. The
maid watched Barbara narrowly while she ate a piece of bread and
drank the tea.

"At least," thought Barbara to herself, "they don't mean to
starve me!"

The tea was hot and strong; and it did her good. It seemed to
clear her faculties, too; for her brain began to busy itself with
the problem of escaping from her extraordinary situation.

"Mademoiselle was a leetle too clevaire," said the maid with an
evil leer,--"she would rob Madame, would she? She would play the
espionne, hein? Eh bien, ma petite, you stay 'ere ontil you say
what you lave done wiz ze box of Madame!"

"Why do you say I have stolen the box?" protested Barbara, "when
I tell you I know nothing of it. It was stolen from me by the man
who killed my father. More than that I don't know. You don't
surely think I would conspire to kill" her voice trembled--"my
father, to get possession of this silver box that means nothing
to me!"

Marie laughed cynically.

"Ma foi," she cried, "when one is a spy, one will stop at
nothing! But tiens, here is Madame!"

Nur-el-Din picked her way carefully down the steps, the
yellow-faced man behind her. He had a pistol in his hand. The
dancer said something in French to her maid who picked up the
tray and departed.

"Now, Mademoiselle," said Nur-el-Din, "you see this pistol. Rass
here will use it if you make any attempt to escape. You
understand me, hein? I come to give you a las' chance to say
where you 'ave my box..."

Barbara looked at the dancer defiantly.

"I've told you already I know nothing about it. You, if any one,
should be better able to say what has become of it..."

"Quoi?" exclaimed Nur-el-Din in genuine surprise, "comment?"

"Because," said Barbara, "a long black hair--one of your
hairs--was found adhering to the straps with which I was
fastened!"

"Tiens!" said the dancer, her black eyes wide with surprise,
"tiens!"

She was silent for a minute, lost in thought. The man, Rass,
suddenly cocked his ear towards the staircase and said something
to Nur-el-Din in the same foreign tongue which Barbara had heard
them employ before.

The dancer made a gesture, bidding him to be silent.

"He was at my dressing-table that night;" she murmured in French,
as thou