steps to take
to find him. I trust all to you--even the calling on the police, though
I think it would be best if we could get along without them. Find my
father, senores, and when we come into our own again you shall not
regret that you befriended a lonely girl in a strange city, surrounded
by intrigue and danger." There were tears in her eyes as she stood
swaying before us.

The tenseness of the appeal was broken by the sharp ringing of the
telephone bell. Kennedy quickly took down the receiver.

"Your maid wishes to speak to you," he said, handing the telephone to
her.

Her face brightened with that nervous hope that springs in the human
breast even in the blackest moments. "I told her if any message came for
me she might find me here," explained Miss Guerrero. "Yes, Juanita, what
is it--a message for me?"

My Spanish was not quite good enough to catch more than a word here and
there in the low conversation, but I could guess from the haggard look
which overspread her delicate face that the news was not encouraging.

"Oh!" she cried, "this is terrible--terrible! What shall I do? Why did I
come here? I don't believe it. I don't believe it."

"Don't believe what, Miss Guerrero?" asked Kennedy reassuringly. "Trust
me."

"That he stole the money--oh, what am I saying? You must not look for
him--you must forget that I have been here. No, I don't believe it."

"What money?" asked Kennedy, disregarding her appeal to drop the case.
"Remember, it may be better that we should know it now than the police
later. We will respect your confidence."

"The junta had been notified a few days ago, they say, that a large
sum--five hundred thousand silver dollars--had been captured from the
government and was on its way to New York to be melted up as bullion at
the sub-treasury," she answered, repeating what she had heard over the
telephone as if in a dream. "Mr. Jameson referred to the rumour when he
came in. I was interested, for I did not know the public had heard of it
yet. The junta has just announced that the money is missing. As soon
as the ship docked in Brooklyn this morning an agent appeared with the
proper credentials from my father and a guard, and they took the money
away. It has not been heard of since--and they have no word from my
father."

Her face was blanched as she realised what the situation was. Here she
was, setting people to run down her own father, if the suspicions of the
other members of the junta