by taking her hand and wringing it. She was still
looking down at the packet as he withdrew, and the door closed behind him.

She listened for a moment, and then turned the key in the lock. Durkin,
stepping from his place of concealment, confronted her. They stood
gazing at each other in blank astonishment.

Frank's first impulse was to tear open the envelope. But on second
thoughts she flew to her alcohol tea-lamp and lighted the flame. It was
only a minute or two before a jet of steam came from the tiny kettle
spout. Over this she shifted and held the gummed envelope-flap, until
the mucilage softened and dissolved. Then, holding her breath, she
peeled back the flap, and from the envelope drew three soiled but
carefully folded copies of the London _Daily Chronicle_. The envelope
held nothing more.

A little cry of disappointment escaped Durkin, while Frank turned the
papers over in her fingers, in speechless amazement. The very audacity
of the man swept her off her feet.

It was both a warning and a challenge, grim with its suggestiveness,
eloquent with careless defiance. That was her first thought.

"The fool--he's making fun of you!" said Durkin, with a second passionate
oath.

Frank was slowly refolding the papers, and replacing them in the envelope.

"I don't believe that's it," she said, meditatively. "I believe he is
trying me--making this a test!"

She carefully moistened the gum and resealed the envelope, so that it
bore no trace of having revealed its contents. She stood gazing at her
husband with studious and unseeing eyes.

"If he comes back I'll know that I am right," she cried, with sudden
conviction. "If he finds that I am still here, and that his packet is
still intact and safe, he'll do what he wants to do. And that is, he'll
trust me with the whole of his securities!"

She quenched the alcohol flame and replaced the lamp in its case.

"If he comes back," mocked Durkin. "Do you know what you and I ought to
be doing, at this moment? We ought to be following that man every step
he takes."

"But where?" She shook her head, slowly, in dissent.

"That's for us to find out. But can't you feel that he's left us in the
lurch, that we're shut up here, while he's giving us the laugh and
getting away?"

"Jim, listen to me. During this past week I've seen more of Keenan than
you have."

"Yes, a vast sight more!" he interjected, heatedly.

"And I feel sure," she went on evenly