do you expect to hold off--the holding up?" Selwyn was staring
at me and anxiety concerning Harrie was for the time in abeyance. He
needed something to distract him. "What are you going to do?" he
asked.

"I don't know--don't have to know until to-morrow--I mean later
to-day." I motioned toward the hall and, following me into it, he
partly closed the door behind us. "We'll let those children have a
chance to say good night, and then please go home. And don't look at
me like that! I don't approve of runaway marriages any more than you
do. I'd never be a party to one, because I wouldn't marry an
angel-man before I was twenty-one. Afterward running away wouldn't
be necessary. Tom and Madeleine are not entirely to blame."

"The blame for this will be put on you. Mrs. Swink will credit you
with the instigation and carrying out of the whole affair. You
mustn't go with them, Danny. It isn't necessary."

"Maybe it isn't, but I'm going. I can't let a girl of Madeleine's
age leave the house alone at half past three in the morning, and
certainly I cannot let Tom come here for her. We will get to Claxon
at ten o'clock and by that time Mrs. Swink will have finished her
swooning and be working the wires. They'll certainly be held up at
Claxon."

"Then why go there? Why not go on to Shelby?"

I shook my head. "Claxon is the better place. I don't know how it's
going to be managed, but if one couldn't outmanoeuver mother Swink--.
It doesn't matter about my being blamed for helping them. Long usage
has accustomed me to large shares of blame." I held out my hand.
"I'll be back to-morrow night. Come Thursday. I think by then--"

"There are few things you will let me share with you, but the blame
that will come from this I am going to share whether you let me or
not. I've gotten you into it and we'll see it through together. If
you are going with them, I am going also. Good night." He dropped
the hand he was holding and turned away. "Tell Tom I'm waiting, will
you?"

CHAPTER XXIV

Telling Madeleine not to unpack her bags, I gave her one of my
kimonos and ordered her to lie down while I slipped down-stairs for a
few words with Mrs. Mundy. There was time for only a hurried talk,
but during it I told her what I wanted her to do, what she must get
Mr. Crimm to do, and also, if inquiry was made for me during the
coming day she was to say I was out and she did not know just when I
would be in. As Mrs