strong? Bab's face was white with anxiety and suspense. Her lips
twitched nervously. Then in a flash her whole expression changed. The
color came back to her cheeks, the light to her eyes. At the eleventh
hour the way had been made clear.

Ruth had no such look when she returned to Barbara. She flung herself
despondently into a chair. "It's no use," she declared despairingly.
"Harriet must go her own way. We can do nothing with her!"

"Yes, we can!" Bab whispered. She leaned over and murmured something in
Ruth's ear.

Ruth sprang to her feet. "Barbara Thurston, you are perfectly wonderful!"
she cried. "Yes, I do know where it is. Go to my desk and take that blank
paper. It is just the right size. Fold it up in three parts. There, it
will do, now; give it to me. Now go and command Grace and Mollie, if they
love us, to call Harriet out of her room for a minute. We can explain to
them afterwards."

Mollie and Grace feared Barbara had gone suddenly mad when she rushed in
upon them with her demand. But Mollie did manage to persuade Harriet to
go into the next room. As Harriet slipped out of her bedroom, her cousin,
Ruth Stuart, stole into it, hiding something she held in her hand. She
was alone in Harriet's room for not more than two minutes.

At a quarter to four o'clock, Harriet Hamlin left her father's house
with a large envelope concealed inside her shopping bag. Opposition
had merely strengthened Harriet's original resolution. She was no
longer frightened. Ruth and Bab were absurd to have been so tragic over
a silly joke.

At a little after four o'clock, in a quiet, out-of-the-way street in
Washington, Harriet turned over to Peter Dillon this envelope, which, as
she supposed, contained the much-coveted papers which she had extracted
from the private collection of the Assistant Secretary of State.

Whatever the papers were, Peter Dillon took them carelessly with his
usual charming smile. But inwardly he was chanting a song of victory. He
and Mrs. Wilson would be many-thousands of dollars richer by this time
to-morrow. He glanced into the envelope with his near-sighted eyes. The
papers were folded up inside and all was well! Peter did not dare, before
Harriet, to be too interested in what the envelope contained.

It would not have made him happier to have looked closer; the song of
victory would have died away on his lips. For, instead of certain secret
documents sent to the office of the Secretary of State, from