f
insects as they flew past.

"You'll get to the station before long, Jack," said Percival at
length. "I think the tide is beginning to turn. We get considerable
of it even here. Do you think-----"

Jack raised his hand as a sign for his friend to be quiet, and at
that moment somewhere on the bank above them they heard a querulous
voice:

"Why do you give me it if it is worth so moche, and there is alarm
about it?" they heard in a high-keyed, querulous voice, evidently
that of a woman, and Jack started involuntarily.

He had heard that voice before, but at the moment he could not tell
where, or when it was.

"What have you done with it?" asked a man in a low tone, which Jack
caught, nevertheless, all being silent in the place.

"How I know where I have lose it?" answered the woman. "I have be
in a many exciting time. If there was suspicion you should not
give it. I do not know, and maybe I show it to some friend to make
her jealous."

"Did you?" growled the man. "You should have more sense."

"But you do not tell me. Now it is lose. I do not know where. I
am glad. You should not have give me it."

Jack now recognized the voice as that of the nurse who had taken the
Van der Donk child from him the night before, but he was still at a
loss to know what she was talking about.

"I gave it to you to keep safe for me until I could dispose of it,"
the man answered. "The detectives were after me. Luckily I got
rid of it in good time, but now that they have nothing against me I
can dispose of it to advantage. And you have lost it?"

"I have tell you that I have," the woman answered in her high voice,
with a strong foreign accent, Jack now remembering that she had
seemed to be French or Italian, although he had met her but a few
moments. "I have lose it, and I am glad. Why shall I get into
prison for you? You shall keep your gold and diamond watches for
yourself, and not give them to me."

"Sh! not so loud!" cautioned the man. "Somebody may hear you."

It was the watch he had found in his pocket that the woman was
talking about, and Jack had some trouble in restraining his surprise.

"But how did you lose it?" the man continued. "Did you carry it
with you? You don't go to throwing such things about, do you?"

"I don't know. There is much excitement at the house, there is the
big fire, there is the boy of the Academy coming to put it out, there
is the man from Riverton, and there is the baby,