e no reply.

"The charge against you is that you've been in communication with the
police. Is that true?"

"If you mean that I've been in communication with Mr. Stafford King,
that's true," she said. "You told me to get into touch with him. Haven't
I been for weeks----"

"That's a pretty good excuse," interrupted the colonel, "but it won't
work, Lollie. You don't touch with a man like Stafford King and meet him
secretly in St. James's Street. And you don't touch by seeing him for
half an hour at a time, and I haven't heard of you ever getting off
with a fellow to the extent of his paying for your passage to America."

She started.

"You know the way it is done. You did it before, Lollie," the colonel
went on. "Now, you've got to be a good girl and tell us how far you've
gone."

She hesitated.

"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I'm sick of this life, colonel. I
want to go straight. I want to get away out of it all and--and--he's
going to help me."

"A social reformer, eh?" said the colonel. "I didn't know the police
went in for that sort of stunt. And when did he take this sudden liking
for you, Lollie?"

"It wasn't a sudden liking at all," she said, "but I think it was
because--well, because I stopped Pinto in the nursing home--and Miss
White told him--I think that's all."

The colonel looked down on his pad.

"There's something in that," he said. "It sounds feasible. Didn't he
question you?" he said, raising his eyes.

"About you?" she said.

"About us," corrected the colonel.

"He asked me nothing about you, nothing about your habits or your
methods or about any of our funny business. I'll swear it," she said.

"You're not going to believe that, are you, colonel?" demanded Pinto.
"You can see that she is lying and that she's double-crossing you?"

"She's neither lying nor double-crossing us." It was Crewe who spoke. "I
don't know what you think about it, colonel, but I am convinced that
Lollie is speaking the truth."

"You!" Pinto laughed loudly. "I think you're in a state of mind when
you'd believe anything Lollie said. And anyway you're probably in with
her."

"You're a liar," said Crewe, so quietly that none suspected the
surprising thing that would follow, for of a sudden his fist shot out
and caught Pinto under the jaw, sending him sprawling to the floor.

The colonel was instantly on his feet, his hand outspread.

"That's enough, Crewe," he said harshly. "I'll have none of that!"