e? Leading to all
this bother, and to murder. What fools women are! All that money thrown
away!--for of course I shall never see a sign of them again!"

"That's a rather hopeless way of looking at it," observed Fullaway.
"You've got the cleverest police in Europe on the search for them; also
you've got our friend Allerdyke and myself on the run, and we're
neither of us exactly brainless. So hasten home in this taxi-cab, get
some lunch, have an hour's nap, and then begin putting your papers
straight and looking for those references. Search well!--you don't know
what depends on it."

He and Allerdyke strolled up Whitehall when Celia had gone--in silence at
first, both wrapped in meditation.

"There's only one thing one can say with any certainty about this affair,
Allerdyke," remarked the American at last, "and that is precisely what
the man we've been talking to said--it's a big do. The folk at the back
of it are smart and clever and daring. We'll need all our wits. Well,
come along to the Waldorf and let's lunch--then we'll talk some more.
There's little to be done till the Princess turns up tomorrow."

"There's one thing I want to do at once," said Allerdyke. "If I'm going
to stop in town I must wire to my housekeeper to send me clothes and
linen, and to the manager at my mill. Then I'm with you--and I wish to
Heaven we'd something to do! What I can't stand is this forced inaction,
this hanging about, waiting, wondering, speculating--and doing naught!"

"We may be in action before you know it's at hand," said Fullaway. "In
these cases you never know what a minute may bring forth. All we can do
is to be ready."

He led the way to the nearest telegraph office and waited while Allerdyke
sent off his messages. The performance of even this small task seemed to
restore the Yorkshireman's spirits--he came away smiling.

"I've told my housekeeper to pack a couple of trunks with what I want,
and to send my chauffeur, Gaffney, up with them, by the next express," he
said. "I feel better after doing that. He's a smart chap, Gaffney--the
sort that might be useful at a pinch. If any one wanted anything
ferreted out, now!--he's the sense of an Airedale terrier, that chap!"

"High praise," laughed Fullaway. "And original too. Well, let's fix up
and get some food, and then we'll go into my private rooms and have a
talk over the situation."

Mr. Franklin Fullaway, following a certain modern fashion, introduced
into life by twe