at you were born
here?"

"Jane," he persisted, with an impatient gesture, "we will not discuss
that now. I love you. You must trust me in spite of everything. I know
you will. You must. I can answer no questions. I can make no
explanations. I can only say I love you. That must suffice."

"No, no," she protested, almost sobbing.

"I came here to-day," he went on calmly, "to ask a favor of you."

"A favor," she cried.

Calming herself she forced herself to look into his face. There was
something so monstrously unbelievable about his audacity that she could
hardly believe her ears. What sort of a credulous stupid creature was
he, she angrily asked herself, that in one breath he could all but
confess to her that he was a spy and in the next beseech her to do him a
favor. Yet there came to her now a remembrance of her duty to her
country. She felt that she must mask her feelings toward him, that if
she was to be of service she must endeavor bravely to lead him on. She
must try to induce him to confide in her. Hard as her task might be,
what was it compared to the work her brother and those other brave
American boys had undertaken facing the fire of death-dealing guns,
facing the terrible gas attacks, living for days and weeks in those
terrible trenches? Reinforced by a sense of duty, she made a pitiable
effort at cordiality as she asked:

"What is it you wish of me?"

From one of his pockets he had brought forth a small packet which he
held out to her. In spite of her agitation she forced herself to study
it observingly, making note that it was tied with strong cord and sealed
in several places with red wax. Curiously, too, she noted that on it was
written her own name.

"Jane," said Hoff, "to-night I am going away. I may be absent for only a
day or two if all goes well, but it is possible I may never come
back,--may never be able to see you again."

She caught her breath sharply. There was the solemnity of finality in
his tones. Where was he going? What might happen to him? She realized
that the journey he was about to make was in connection with the plot
that she and Chief Fleck were seeking to uncover. Evidently he
anticipated peril in what he was about to undertake. Suppose he should
be trapped in the commission of some act inimical to America's welfare?
What would happen to him? He would be arrested, of course. More than
likely he would be sent to prison. He might even be shot as a spy. What
if she were the