looked the hat--a chance, indeed, in a thousand? The first
move he might make toward the room under the laboratory, would arouse
Hartmann's suspicions, a search would be made and the hat and its
precious contents discovered.

Certainly he was tied hand and foot. He dared not leave the place,
without taking the snuff box with him; he dared not attempt to recover
it for fear its hiding place would thereby be disclosed. He was, he
suddenly realized, as much a prisoner as though he were locked in a
cell. And Grace?

The thought of her caused him to glance about nervously, and in a moment
he saw her coming toward him from the direction of the house. She
appeared to be looking for him, yet when she saw him, she seemed in
doubt as to what to do. Duvall went up to her. "Good-morning, Miss
Ellicott," he said, in a voice clearly audible within the house, were
any of the windows open. He fancied he detected Hartmann's dark face
peering at him from the waiting-room.

"Good-morning, Mr. Brooks," she said, affecting great surprise at seeing
him. "You are here still?"

"Oh, yes." His tone was careless, but as he spoke he moved in a
direction away from the house, and toward a small bench that stood
beside the driveway. "Dr. Hartmann concluded that I needed
treatment--I'm afflicted with loss of memory, it seems. Beautiful day,
isn't it?"

She murmured some response, waiting for him to speak again. Presently he
judged the distance from the house sufficiently great. No one was near
enough to possibly overhear them.

"The snuff box is hidden--sewn inside of the false crown of my opera
hat," he said, in a low voice. "It is in the room under the doctor's
laboratory. He does not know it is there, and I don't dare try to get
it, for fear he will find out. If you have a chance--" He paused.

"I understand."

"But be careful--very careful."

"I will." They sat down upon the bench toward which they had been
headed. "I had thought of seeing Mr. Phelps to-day, and asking him to
have you released."

"It would be useless," he said. "I cannot go without the snuff box."

"Shall I send word to our friends in Brussels?" she asked.

"How can you do that?"

She explained the method, by means of the boy who drove the delivery
wagon. He considered the matter carefully. "Let them know that I am
here, and why I cannot escape. Tell them that the snuff box is safe--so
far. Do not let them know where it is--I trust no one with that--except
you,