. "I only made you think so."

It was part of her plan to spare him nothing of shock in her sudden
transformation. Marco felt his breath leave him for a moment.

"I made you believe I was hurt because I wanted you to come into the
house with me," she added. "I wished to find out certain things I am
sure you know."

"They were things about Samavia," said the man. "Your father knows
them, and you must know something of them at least. It is necessary
that we should hear what you can tell us. We shall not allow you to
leave the house until you have answered certain questions I shall ask
you."

Then Marco began to understand. He had heard his father speak of
political spies, men and women who were paid to trace the people that
certain governments or political parties desired to have followed and
observed. He knew it was their work to search out secrets, to disguise
themselves and live among innocent people as if they were merely
ordinary neighbors.

They must be spies who were paid to follow his father because he was a
Samavian and a patriot. He did not know that they had taken the house
two months before, and had accomplished several things during their
apparently innocent stay in it. They had discovered Loristan and had
learned to know his outgoings and incomings, and also the outgoings and
incomings of Lazarus, Marco, and The Rat. But they meant, if possible,
to learn other things. If the boy could be startled and terrified into
unconscious revelations, it might prove well worth their while to have
played this bit of melodrama before they locked the front door behind
them and hastily crossed the Channel, leaving their landlord to
discover for himself that the house had been vacated.

In Marco's mind strange things were happening. They were spies! But
that was not all. The Lovely Person had been right when she said that
he would receive a shock. His strong young chest swelled. In all his
life, he had never come face to face with black treachery before. He
could not grasp it. This gentle and friendly being with the grateful
soft voice and grateful soft eyes had betrayed--BETRAYED him! It
seemed impossible to believe it, and yet the smile on herm curved mouth
told him that it was true. When he had sprung to help her, she had
been playing a trick! When he had been sorry for her pain and had
winced at the sound of her low exclamation, she had been deliberately
laying a trap to harm him. For a few s