the innocence of young Henfrey, because
of the mysterious, sinister influence being brought to bear against him.
He had interested himself in aiding the young fellow to evade arrest,
because he had no desire that there should be a trial in which he and
his associates might be implicated.

The Sparrow hated trials of any sort. With him silence was golden, and
very wisely he would pay any sum rather than court publicity.

Half an hour went past, but the girl he expected did not put in an
appearance.

Monsieur Gautier--the man with the gloved hand--was believed by his
old housekeeper to be a rich and somewhat eccentric bachelor, who
was interested in old clocks and antique silver, and who travelled
extensively in order to purchase fine specimens. Indeed it was by that
description he was registered in the archives of the Surete, with the
observation that notwithstanding his foreign name he was an Englishman
of highest standing.

It was never dreamed that the bristly-haired alert little man, who was
so often seen in the salerooms of Paris when antique silver was being
sold, was the notorious Sparrow.

Lisette's failure to arrive considerably disturbed him. He hoped that
nothing had happened to her. Time after time, he walked to the window
and looked out eagerly for her to cross the courtyard. In those rooms
he sometimes lived for weeks in safe obscurity, his neighbours regarding
him as a man of the greatest integrity, though a trifle eccentric in his
habits.

At last, just before eleven, he saw Lisette's smart figure in a heavy
travelling coat crossing the courtyard, and a few moments later she was
shown into his room.

"You're late!" the old man said, as soon as the door was closed. "I
feared that something had gone wrong! Why did you leave Madrid? What has
happened?" he asked eagerly.

"Happened!" she echoed in French. "Why, very nearly a disaster! Someone
has given us away--at least, Monsieur Henfrey was given away to the
police!"

"Not arrested?" he asked breathlessly.

"No. We all three managed to get away--but only just in time! I had a
wire to-night from Monsieur Tresham, telling me guardedly that within
an hour or so after we left Madrid the police called at my hotel--and at
Henfrey's."

"Who can have done that?" asked The Sparrow, his eyes narrowing in
anger, his gloved hand clenched.

"Your enemy--and mine!" was the girl's reply. "Franklyn is in
Switzerland. Monsieur Henfrey is in Marseilles--at th