"Yes. And for the past few minutes, since I heard of the robbery, I've been thinking how I could get out of here upon the slightest notice." While the reckless spirit was upon me, I produced the fatal card and showed the back to her. "You will find that yours is of a different color. But I am not the Galloping Dick; it was only a hare-brained lark on my part, and I had no idea it would turn out serious like this. I was going to disappear before they unmasked. What would you advise me to do?"
She took the card, studied it, and finally returned it. There followed an interval of silence.
"I have known the imposition from the first," she said.
"What!"
She touched the signet-ring on my little finger. "I have seen that once before to-night. No," she mused, "you will not blow up the post-office to-night, nor the police-station."
She lifted the corner of her mask, and I beheld the girl I had met in Mouquin's!
"You?"
"Silence! So this is the meaning of your shuffling those cards? Oh, it is certainly droll!" She laughed.
"And are you Miss Hawthorne?"
"I am still in the mask, sir; I shall answer none of your questions."