d handed it to him.

"Haven't you any good news, yet?" she asked, somewhat pathetically.

"Not yet--at least nothing very definite. I know the woman who is
annoying your daughter by sight, however, and I think I can safely
assure you that she will be under arrest before very long. Matters of
this sort take time, Mrs. Morton. Remember that I have had charge of the
case but three days, and these people we are looking for are shrewd,
leaving few clues. But I feel that I shall have something definite to
report very soon now."

"I hope so, I'm sure. Good day."

"Good day." Duvall left the room, and taking a taxi, drove down to see
Grace.

He found her sitting at the writing desk, in the reception room of their
suite, apparently busy over a letter. She pushed the sheet of paper
aside, when her husband entered, and threw her arms about his neck.

"Richard!" she exclaimed, "I'm so glad to see you. It has been ages.
What's the matter with you? You look dreadfully blue."

Duvall threw himself into a chair.

"I'm a bit disgusted with myself," he said.

"What about? I may ask you now, may I not? Is it about that wretched
Morton case? I must talk to you about that. May I? You see, you rather
got me into it, last night, and I got myself into it, too, by coming up
to your hotel to see you, and now you've got to tell me how things
turned out, after you left the theater, or I shall not know just what to
do."

"About what?"

"I'll tell you that, after I hear about last night."

Duvall laughed, although a trifle grimly.

"I'm not particularly proud of last night," he said.

"Wasn't the woman who fainted the one you were after?" asked Grace.

"Yes. I'm sure she was. But unfortunately, she got away from me." He
outlined to Grace the circumstances which led up to the woman's escape
from the cab.

"You say she was a small, slight woman, with light hair?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Then I may know something about her."

"What?"

"I'll tell you. You remember that, when I came up to see you at the
hotel yesterday afternoon, you were greatly put out, because you were
afraid that I might have been followed, thus disclosing the name of your
hotel to these people you are trying to avoid?"

"Yes. I was afraid of it. And the people in question did find out in
some way where I had taken Miss Morton and her mother, as I discovered
last night."

"They did not discover it through me."

"How do you know?"

"It came about in a curious w