at the sight of his pale and harassed face
she recoiled in evident and unsimulated surprise.

"Why, what is the matter?" she cried. "You have aged a thousand years!"

"Matter enough!" he exclaimed. "The photographs and maps of The Veiled
Mariposa are all, all gone. They have been taken." He shot the words at
her as from a rapid-fire gun, watching keenly from narrowed and scornful
eyes the effect upon her.

Her very lips grew white. "Impossible!" she gasped. "Impossible!" Her
surprise was as genuine as the slow, sickly pallor which had over-spread
her face. He could not doubt her. Supremely clever woman as she was, she
was incapable of this kind of acting. He gave a quick sob, almost a sob
of relief. If not against him she would be for him and her assistance
would be invaluable, especially since their interests were pooled.

"Then you," he stammered involuntarily, "you know nothing about it?"

"I!" Her eyes glittered in quick anger. "Of what are you thinking? Oh, I
see." She was laughing now. "Oh, no, no, no! Dear me, no! That would not
suit my game at all. If you knew the circumstances and, if I may venture
to suggest it, myself better you would never have dreamed of such a
thing. But," frowning now, "when and how were they taken? Begin at the
beginning and tell me all about it."

"There is nothing much to tell," he said. "I sent for the photographs
while still at the dinner-table intending to tell my guests the story of
the mine, but--but--" He stammered a little. "I changed my mind. When we
left the table I carried them with me, and placed them on the small table
between the drawing-room windows."

"And left them there?" she asked quickly.

"Yes, after laying them on the table I dismissed them from my mind, had
no further remembrance of them until this morning. Then I went to get
them and found them gone. My first idea was that having the appointment
with you for this afternoon so on my mind I had probably gotten up in the
night and hidden the package somewhere, either when asleep or in a state
of half-wakefulness; but Tatsu and I made a most thorough search of the
entire apartment, over-looking no possible receptacle where I might have
hidden them, and there is absolutely no trace of them."

"The servants," she said rapidly.

"I was coming to them. They were all taken on for the dinner, with the
exception of Tatsu, who has been with me for years, and whom, I think, I
would trust further than I would myself.