s a summer-house. To the heart of this
shrubbery led three paths, one of which Stafford discovered quite close
at hand. The sound of gravel under his feet gave him an idea, and he
began walking backward till he came to the shadow of a tree, and then,
simulating the sound of retreating footsteps, he waited.

After a while he heard a rustle, but did not move.

Somebody was coming cautiously through the bushes, and that somebody
appeared as a shadowy, indistinct figure, not twenty yards away. Only
the keenest eyesight could have detected it, and still Stafford waited.
Presently he heard the soft crunch of gravel under its feet, and at that
moment leapt towards it. The figure stood as though paralysed for a
second, and then, turning quickly, fled back to the heart of the bushes.
Before it had gone a dozen paces Stafford had reached it, and his arm
was about its neck.

"My friend," he breathed, "I don't know what I'm to do with you now I've
got you, but I certainly am going to register your face for future
reference."

"No, no," said a muffled voice from behind the mask. "No, no, don't; I
beg of you!"

But the mask was plucked away, and, fumbling in his pocket, Stafford
produced his electric lamp and flashed it on the face of his prisoner.
Then, with a cry of amazement, he stepped back--for he had looked upon
the face of Maisie White!

For a moment there was silence, neither speaking. Then Stafford found
his voice.

"Maisie!" he said in bewilderment, "Maisie! You--Jack o' Judgment?"

She did not answer.

"Phew!" whistled Stafford.

Then sitting on a trunk, he laughed.

"It is Maisie, of all people in the world. And I suspected it, too!"

The girl had covered her face with her hands and was crying softly, and
he moved towards her and put his arm about her shoulder.

"Darling, it is nothing very terrible. Please don't go on like that."

"Oh, you don't understand, you don't understand!" she wailed. "I wanted
to catch Silva. I guessed that he was coming north on one of his
blackmailing trips, and I followed him."

"Did you come up by the same train?"

He felt her nod.

"So did I," said Stafford with a little grin.

"I followed him to the bazaar," she said, "and then I watched him from a
little eating-house on the opposite side of the road. Do you know, I
wondered whether you were here too, and I looked everywhere for you, but
apparently there was nobody in sight when Pinto came out with Lady
Sybil, only a