onogram, to put into Roger's
pocket, when he took the original?"

"He could only have it if O'Reilly could have given it to him. Could he
have done that?"

Suddenly Beverley began to see. A vivid idea sprang into her head, and
was imaged in her eyes.

"You've thought of something!" Clo exclaimed. "You see how O'Reilly
might have got the seal with the monogram, and the gold wax, and an
envelope like the one you had?"

"Oh, yes. I do see!" Beverley groaned. "He could have brought the things
from--from.... But never mind. That part's nothing to you."

"I want only to know the part you want me to know," said Clo.

"It isn't a question of what I want. It's a question of my sacred oath,"
Beverley answered. "There was a house where I had been, to get the
envelope. O'Reilly was there, too. Someone ... no matter who! ... could
have given him all the things, so he could change envelopes if he got
the chance. Oh, child, I keep stumbling on to a path where I dare not
step."

"We'll go back to the train," said Clo. "If O'Reilly had the gold wax
and the seal, and the right kind of envelope, he could have made his
plan, and sent his telegram, and had everything ready for the right
minute ... in the Chicago station."

"Ye--es, he could. But it's almost impossible!"

"It's more possible than Mr. Sands' changing the envelopes, isn't it?"

"That is the one impossible thing. The worst remains. I have lost the
papers! Whether O'Reilly has them or someone else, I can't get them
back. Without them, I'm ruined!"

"You shan't be!" Clo cried, twining her thin arms round her idol's
waist. "You must be saved somehow. We've got till ten o'clock to think."

"If I were the only one, it wouldn't matter so much," Beverley said.
"But there's somebody who can be tortured as well as killed, if I have
no bribe to offer. Those papers gave me all the power I had."

"Wouldn't money...." Clo began, but Beverley cut her short.

"No money I could get would be of any use," she said. "A million might
be!"

"See O'Reilly and make him give up the papers!" cried Clo. "Oh, but is
he in New York?"

"He doesn't live in New York, but he's here now. I know, because that
man you saw, Peterson, told me. It was part of a threat he held over my
head that O'Reilly and some people connected with him should be in town
just now. I know the hotel he's staying in, the Dietz. But even if
O'Reilly would come, how could I see him without Roger knowing? It
wouldn't