two
girls were unconcealed now, and when she spoke Hetty closed her hand.

"Think, Flo. There must be no uncertainty." Miss Schuyler slipped out of
the room and when she came back she brought an envelope, splashed with red
wax, on a blotting-pad.

"There's the key. All is fair--in war!" she said.

A pink tinge crept into Hetty's cheeks, and a sparkle into her eyes as she
looked at her companion.

"Don't make me angry with you, Flo," she said. "We can't read it."

"No?" said Miss Schuyler quietly, holding up the pad. "Now I think we can.
This is another manifestation of the superiority of the masculine mind.
Give me your hand-glass, Hetty."

"Of course," said Hetty, with a little gasp. "Still--it's horribly mean."

There was a slightly contemptuous hardness in Flora Schuyler's eyes. "If
you let the man who rides by the bluff on Wednesdays fall into Clavering's
hands, it would be meaner still."

The next moment Hetty was out of the room, and Miss Schuyler sat down with
a face that had grown suddenly weary. But it betrayed nothing when Hetty
came back with the glass, and when she held up the blotter in hands that
were perfectly steady, they read:

"I have fixed it with the Sheriff. Clavering's boys had, as you guessed,
been watching for Larry on the wrong day; but now we have found out it is
Wednesday we'll make sure of him. If you care to come around to the bluff
about six that night, you will probably see us seize him; but if you would
sooner stand out in this case, it wouldn't count. We don't expect any
difficulty."

Hetty flushed crimson. "Flo," she said, "it was the letter arranging his
own arrest he brought me back."

"That is not the point," said Miss Schuyler sharply. "What are you going
to do?"

Hetty laughed mockingly. "You and I are going to drive over to the
Newcombes and stay the night. You get nervous when my father is away. But
we are not going there quite straight; and you had better put your warmest
things on."

An hour later two of the best horses in Torrance's stable drew the
lightest sleigh up to the door, and Miss Schuyler turned with a smile to
the remonstrating housekeeper.

"Nothing would induce me to stay here another night when Mr. Torrance was
away," she said. "You can tell him that, if he is vexed with Hetty, and
you needn't worry. We will be safe at Mrs. Newcombe's before an hour is
over."

The housekeeper shook her head. "I guess not. It's a league round by the
bridge, and