am stupid, or worse. That would be to run you into
needless danger--for such a man as I now know Donald Graves to be
would be desperate."

"I am not afraid of him," retorted Jack quietly. "If you fear only
for me, I beg you to take me to him!"

CHAPTER XXI

DAISY HUSTON DECIDES FOR THE FLAG

"It is a somewhat lonely place, on the outskirts of the city," warned
the girl. "Mr. Graves had thought that, if no other chance offered,
he might possibly get away by leaving that house and taking to the
country roads. For he knows that, if he takes a train at any point, he
won't ride five miles before he'll find himself in the clutches of a
Secret Service man. Oh, he knows how well the trains and the
steamboats will be watched. He dreads, even, that the country roads
will be watched."

"I don't know anything about the Secret Service lines that are out,"
Jack confessed, honestly. "Yet I imagine that every possible precaution
has been taken to capture Millard--or Graves."

"You do not know my name," cried the girl, as though struck by a sudden
thought. "Mr. Benson, you have been wrapped in so much mystery, so
much deceit, so much lying and treachery that I won't even have you
guess whether I am telling you the truth. Here is my card-case. Take
out a card for yourself."

The request was so much like a command that Benson obeyed. On the card,
in Old English script, he read:

"Miss Daisy Huston."

"I thank you, Miss Huston," he acknowledged, gravely, handing back her
card-case.

"Will you signal the driver to stop?" she requested. They were now
driving through the western part of Washington.

When the driver found himself signaled he reined up, then came to the
cab door.

"You know where to go?" she said.

"Yes," nodded the man.

"Drive there, then."

The driver whipped up his horses to a better speed, the vehicle bowling
along now.

"I very much fear that I am running you into danger," declared Daisy
Huston, soberly. "Mr. Benson, if you decide to leave the cab, or to
have me take you back to the center of the city, I shall not imagine
you to be lacking in courage."

"I cannot be in any greater danger than you are, Miss Huston," Benson
ventured, with a smile.

"Oh, it is much different in my case," argued the girl. "Donald Graves
would not attack a woman, especially the woman he had professed to love."

"Miss Huston, do you feel like discussing this matter any further?"
hazarded the yo