been done when
the scalding stuff picked me up like brandy. But--"You're sure about
Paulette?" I gasped. "Remember, Macartney was bound to get her!"

"Well, he didn't," Collins returned composedly. "I bet he's looking for
her right now, and I'm dead sure he won't find her. Charliet wasn't born
yesterday: he'll bring her here all right."

"I'll wait ten minutes," I gave in abruptly, and because I knew I
couldn't do anything else till I had filled my empty stomach. But there
was something I wanted to know. "What did you mean, just now, about not
being sure of me--with Hutton?"

Dunn spoke up for the first time. "It was Miss Paulette; we thought it
was you we heard her talking to, two nights in the dark. So when she
drove off to Caraquet with you and the gold, after we'd heard her say
she couldn't trust you--at least, the man we thought was you--we didn't
know whether you were in with Hutton or not, or what kind of a game you
were playing."

"Me?" I swore blankly. "I suppose it never struck you that _I_ believed
the man playing the game was Collins--till you both disappeared, and I
decided it must be some one who never was employed around this mine!"

"Well, I'm hanged," said Collins, and suddenly knocked the wits out of
me by muttering that at least we'd both had sense enough to know that
Miss Valenka was square.

"Valenka? D'ye mean you knew who she was, too?" I stuttered.

"Dunn did," Collins nodded. "I only knew Hutton. But I knew more than my
prayers about him, and Dunn told me about the girl. So we sort of kept
guard for her and watched you and Hutton--till the day we had the row
with him."

"In the mine! He told me." Only half of me heard him. The rest was
listening for the sound of footsteps. But the place was still.

"In Thompson's stope," Collins corrected drily. "You see, we thought you
and Macartney-Hutton were working together, and we didn't see our way to
tackling the two of you at once. So when you went off to Caraquet with
Miss Paulette, we thought we'd get Hutton cleared out of this before you
got back again. We kind of let him see us leave work in the mine and
sneak into the old stope. When he came after us, we dropped on him with
what we knew about him; and between us we knew a deal. We gave him his
choice about leaving the neighborhood that minute, or our going
straight to Wilbraham and telling who he was and what he was there
for--which was where we slipped up! He'd the gall to tell us to our