of Marthe and our luggage in the touring
car."

"Excellent. Now presuming Dupont to be well informed, we may safely
bank on his attempting nothing before nightfall. Road traps can be too
easily perceived at a distance by daylight. Toward evening then, we
will let the touring car catch up. You will express a desire to
continue in it, because--because of any excuse that comes into your
head. At all events, we will exchange cars with Marthe and Leon,
leaving the latter to bring on the limousine while Jules drives for us.
Whatever happens then, we may feel sure the touring car will get off
lightly; for whether they're involved with Dupont or not, Leon and
Marthe are small fry, not the fish he's angling for."

"But will not Leon and Marthe suspect and refuse to follow?"

"Perhaps they may suspect, but they will follow out of curiosity, to
see how we fare, if for nothing else. You may lose a limousine, but you
can afford to risk that as long as you are not in it--eh, little
long-lost sister?"

"My dear brother!" Liane cried, deeply moved. She leaned forward and
caressed Lanyard's hand with sisterly warmth, in her admiration and
gratification loosing upon him the full candle-power of the violet eyes
in their most disastrous smile. "What a head to have in the family!"

"Take care!" Lanyard admonished. "I admit it's not half bad at times,
but if this battered old headpiece of mine is to be of any further
service to us, Liane, you must be careful not to turn it!"

XIX

SIX BOTTLES OF CHAMPAGNE

Once decided upon a course of action, Liane Delorme demonstrated that
she could move with energy and decision uncommon in her kind. Under her
masterly supervision, preparations accomplished themselves, as it were,
by magic.

It was, for example, nearer three than four o'clock when the expedition
for Cherbourg left the door of her town-house and Paris by way of the
Porte de Neuilly; the limousine leading with that polished pattern of a
chauffeur, Jules, at its wheel, as spick and span, firm of jaw and
imperturbable of eye as when Lanyard had first noticed him in Nant; the
touring car trailing, with the footman Leon as driver, and not at all
happy to find himself drafted in that capacity, if one might judge by a
sullen sort of uneasiness in his look.

Nothing was to be expected in the streets or suburbs, neither speed nor
any indication of the intentions (if any) of Dupont. Lanyard spared
himself the thankless trouble of