hed into her mind.

She would telegraph to Royal Bryant at the first stop made by the
train, ask him to meet her upon her arrival, and thus secure his
protection against any plot that Emil Correlli might lay for her.

The first stopping-place she knew was Framingham, a small town about
twenty miles from Boston.

The first time the conductor came through the car she asked him for a
Western Union slip, when she wrote the following message and addressed
it to Royal Bryant's office on Broadway:

"Shall arrive at Grand Central Station, via. B. & A. R. R.,
at nine o'clock. Do not fail to meet me. Important.

"EDITH ALLANDALE."

When the conductor came back again, she gave this to him, with the
necessary money, and asked if he would kindly forward it from
Framingham for her.

He cheerfully promised to do so. Then, feeling greatly relieved, Edith
settled herself contentedly for a nap, for she was very weary and
heavy-eyed from the long strain upon her nerves and lack of sleep.

She did not wake for more than three hours, when she found that
daylight had faded, and that the lamps had been lighted in the car.

At New Haven she obtained a light lunch from a boy who was crying his
viands through the train, and when her hunger was satisfied she
straightened her hat and drew on her gloves, knowing that another two
hours would bring her to her destination.

Then she began to speculate upon possible and impossible things, and
to grow very anxious regarding her safety upon her arrival in New
York.

Perhaps Royal Bryant had not received her message.

He might have left his office before it arrived; maybe the officials
at Framingham had even neglected to send it; or Mr. Bryant might have
been out of town.

What could she do if, upon alighting from the train, some burly
policeman should step up to her and claim her as his prisoner?

She had thus worked herself up to a very nervous and excited state by
the time the lights of the great metropolis could be seen in the
distance; her face grew flushed and feverish, her eyes were like two
points of light, her temples throbbed, her pulses leaped, and her
heart beat with great, frightened throbs.

The train had to make a short stop where one road crossed another just
before entering the city, and the poor girl actually grew faint and
dizzy with the fear that an officer might perhaps board the train at
that point.

Almost as