d a narrower passage to the kitchen and
domestic offices of the flat. Clo would have to take that way because,
if she ventured into the lift and showed herself in the hall below, the
porter might take alarm. He might fear that Mrs. Sands' protegee was
trying to escape for some sly purpose of her own, and refuse to let her
go till he had telephoned upstairs.

In a quaint outside pocket of her new frock Clo had put the purse given
her by Beverley. Through her adventures she had remembered to make sure
occasionally that it had not dropped out. Now she opened the purse,
selecting two ten-dollar bills and two of five dollars.

"That ought to do for 'em all," she said, "even if the lot are at home."
And, money in hand, she ventured to the kitchen door. Only the chef and
a woman assistant were at work.

"I'm Clo Riley, the girl Mrs. Sands has been good to," she eagerly
explained. "I'm well again, and I have to go out. Mrs. Sands has a
visitor, and I don't like to disturb them. Will you let me down your
way?" So speaking she laid a ten-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill side
by side on a table. She made no reference to the money, nor any gesture
indicating it; nor did the others appear to see it.

The chef escorted her in silence to the servants' elevator. There was a
button to push, and down the girl went, rejoiced at passing another
stage of her journey. Five minutes more, and she was in a taxi, tearing
back to the Dietz Hotel.

This time she marched boldly to a lift in a long row of half a dozen.
"Fifteenth floor, please," she said, as if she owned the hotel; and was
taken up without question. "Thanks to my swell clothes!" she thought.
"Not far would I get in this place if I had on my old black!"

Armed with O'Reilly's key Clo threaded her way through several corridors
and arrived at the door of his suite. Her fingers shook so that she
could not find the lock, and as she fumbled for it, the door of an
adjoining suite opened. The nerve-tried girl started as if she had been
shot, and dropped the key on the carpet.

"Silly fool!" she scolded herself as she stooped to retrieve it, and to
hide her face. If only the people (she knew by the voices they were man
and woman) would pass before she had to look up! But they were in no
hurry to pass. They had paused in front of their own door, and were
talking in low tones--about her, Clo was sure!

In a big hotel, the chances were ten to one against their knowing
O'Reilly. Raisi