on that latter
score to-night there was no argument with herself. She found herself
accepting the fact that she would act, and act promptly, as the only
natural corollary to the fact that she was in a position to do so.
Perhaps it was that way to-night, not only because she had on a previous
occasion already fought this principle of duty out with herself, but
because to-night, unlike that other night, the way and the means seemed
to present no insurmountable difficulties, and because she was now far
better prepared, and free from all the perplexing, though enormously
vital, little details that had on the former occasion reared themselves
up in mountainous aspect before her. The purchase of a heavy veil, for
instance, the day after the Hayden-Bond affair, would enable her now to
move about the city in the clothes of the White Moll practically at will
and without fear of detection. And, further, the facilities for making
that change, the change from Gypsy Nan to the White Moll, were now
already at hand--in the little old shed down the lane.

And as far as any actual danger that she might incur to-night was
concerned, it was not great. She was not interested in the fifty
thousand dollars in an intrinsic sense; she was interested only in
seeing that old Nicky Viner, unappealing, yes, and almost repulsive both
in personality and habits as the man was, was not blackmailed out of
it; that Danglar, yes, and hereafter, Perlmer too, should not prey
like vultures on the man, and rob him of what was rightfully his.
If, therefore, she secured those papers from Perlmer's desk, it
automatically put an end to Danglar's scheme to-night; and if, later,
she saw to it that those papers came into Viner's possession, that, too,
automatically ended Perlmer's persecutions. Indeed, there seemed little
likelihood of any danger or risk at all. It could not be quite ten o
clock yet; and it was not likely that whoever was delegated by Danglar
to rob Perlmer's office would go there much before eleven anyway, since
they would naturally allow for the possibility that Perlmer might stay
later in his office than usual, a contingency that doubtless accounted
for midnight being set as the hour at which they proposed to lay old
Nicky Viner by the heels. Therefore, it seemed almost a certainty
that she would reach there, not only first, but with ample time at her
disposal to secure the papers and get away again without interruption.
She might even, perhaps