"How did he explain this friendship?"
"On the ground that Catinka was a fellow-worker with him to help the afflicted. From what I can gather the lady seems to be a kind of Socialist, who uses her profession to mask her real business, which is intriguing against Russia. She wishes, so Herne said, to free her country, and enlisted him in her society."
"Oh, she has a society, then?"
"Oh, yes; it is called, as Herne told me, 'The Society of the Rainbow Feather.'"
"What!" cried Paul, jumping up. "The Rainbow Feather?"
"You are excited," said Lester.
"Excited!" echoed Paul, walking hurriedly to and fro--"I have every reason to be so! Do you know that a rainbow feather was found by Herne on the very spot where Milly lay dead?"
"What of that?" asked Lester, whose slow brain could not follow Paul's idea.
"Can't you see--Catinka must have dropped that feather there!"
"But she is in London!"