ently sitting quietly, oblivious to the progress of the cause--the
only cause now which can restore us our estate.

"The other day we lost an entire shipment of arms--the Secret Service
captured them on the way from the warehouse on South Street to the
steamer which was to take them to New Orleans. Only once before had it
happened, when my father did not understand all the things to conceal.
Then he was frantic for a week. But this time he seems not to care. Ah,
senores," she said, dropping her voice, "I fear there was some treachery
there."

"Treachery?" I asked. "And have you any suspicions who might have played
informer?"

She hesitated. "I may as well tell you just what I suspect. I fear that
the hold of Senora Mendez is somehow or other concerned with it all. I
even have suspected that somehow she may be working in the pay of the
government that she is a vampire, living on the secrets of the group who
so trust her. I suspect anything, everybody--that she is poisoning
his mind, perhaps even whispering into his ear some siren proposal of
amnesty and his estate again, if he will but do what she asks. My poor
father--I must save him from himself if it is necessary. Argument has
no effect with him. He merely answers that the senora is a talented
and accomplished woman, and laughs a vacant laugh when I hint to him to
beware. I hate her."

The fiery animosity of her dark eyes boded ill, I felt, for the senora.
But it flashed over me that perhaps, after all, the senora was not a
traitress, but had simply been scheming to win the heart and hence the
hacienda of the great land-owner, when he came into possession of his
estate if the revolution proved successful.

"And finally," she concluded, keeping back the tears by an heroic
effort, "last night he left our apartment, promising to return early in
the evening. It is now twenty-four hours, and I have heard not a
word from him. It is the first time in my life that we have ever been
separated so long."

"And you have no idea where he could have gone?" asked Craig.

"Only what I have learned from Senor Torreon, another member of the
junta. Senor Torreon said this morning that he left the home of Senora
Mendez last night about ten o'clock in company with my father. He says
they parted at the subway, as they lived on different branches of the
road. Professor Kennedy," she added, springing up and clasping her hands
tightly in an appeal that was irresistible, "you know what