you, Mr. Harleston," she replied. "However--"

"Oh, I'll chance it; though it's a perilous setting with one of your
adorable voice--and the other things that simply must go with it."

"And lest the other things should not go with it," she added, "I'll wear
three American Beauties on a black gown so that you may know me."

"Good! Peacock Alley at five," he replied and snapped up the receiver.

III

VISITORS

"The affair promises to be quite interesting," he confided to the
paper-knife, with which he was spearing tiny holes in the blotter of the
pad. "Peacock Alley at five--but there are a few matters that come
first."

He went straight to the safe, unlocked it, took out the photograph, the
cipher message, and the handkerchief, carried these to the table and
placed them in a large envelope, which he sealed and addressed to
himself. Then with it, and the three American Beauties, he passed
quickly into the corridor and to an adjoining apartment. There he rang
the bell vigorously and long.

He was still ringing when a dishevelled figure, in blue pajamas and a
scowl, opened the door.

"What the devil do you--" the disturbed one growled.

"S-h-h!" said Harleston, his finger on his lips. "Keep these for me
until tomorrow, Stuart."

And crowding the roses and the envelope in the astonished man's hands,
he hurried away.

The pajamaed one glared at the flowers and the envelope; then he turned
and flung them into a corner of the living-room.

"Hell!" he said in disgust. "Harleston's either crazy or in love: it's
the same thing anyway."

He slammed the door and went back to bed.

Harleston, chuckling, returned to his quarters; retrieved from the floor
a leaf and a petal and tossed them out of the window. Then, being
assured by a careful inspection of the room that there were no further
traces of the roses remaining, he went to bed.

Two minutes after his head touched the pillow, he was asleep.

Presently he awoke--listening!

Some one was on the fire-escape. The passage leading to it was just at
the end of his suite; more than that, one could climb over the railing,
and, by a little care, reach the sill of his bedroom window. This sill
was wide and offered an easy footing. If the window were up, one could
easily step inside; or, even if it were not, the catch could be slipped
in a moment.

Harleston's window, however, was up--invitingly up; also the window on
the passage; it was a warm night and any