o-night; if the young lady
is worse, you will communicate the fact to me. You will find _me_ in
Number 3."

He had turned back to make this reply, and was looking straight at her
as the number dropped from his lips. It did not disturb her set smile,
but in some inscrutable way all meaning seemed to leave that smile, and
she forgot to drop her hand which had been stretched out in an attempted
gesture.

"Number 3," he repeated. "Don't forget, madam."

The injunction seemed superfluous. She had not dropped her hand when he
wheeled around once more in taking the turn at the foot of the
staircase.

Jake and a very sleepy maid were on the floor above when he reached it.
He paid no attention to Jake, but he eyed the girl somewhat curiously.
She was comparatively a new domestic in the tavern, having been an
inmate there for only three weeks. He had held a few minutes'
conversation with her during the half-hour of secret inquiry in which he
had previously indulged and he remembered some of her careful answers,
also the air of fascination with which she had watched him all the time
they were together. He had made nothing of her then, but the impression
had remained that she was the one hopeful source of knowledge in the
house. Now she looked dull and moved about in Jake's wake like an
automaton. Yet Hammersmith made up his mind to speak to her as soon as
the least opportunity offered.

"Where is 32?" he asked as he moved away from them in the opposite
direction from the course they were taking.

"I thought you were to have room Number 3," blurted out Jake.

"I am. But where is 32?"

"Round there," said she. "A lady's in there now. The one----"

"Come on," urged Jake. "Huldah, you may go now. I'll show the gentleman
his room."

Huldah dropped her head, and began to move off, but not before
Hammersmith had caught her eye.

"Thirty-two," he formed with his lips, showing her a scrap of paper
which he held in his hand.

He thought she nodded, but he could not be sure. Nevertheless, he
ventured to lay the scrap down on a small table he was passing, and when
he again looked back, saw that it was gone and Huldah with it. But
whither, he could not be quite sure. There was always a risk in these
attempts, and he only half trusted the girl. She might carry it to 32,
and she might carry it to Quimby. In the first case, Miss Demarest would
know that she had an active and watchful friend in the house; in the
other, the dubious