hills. “There is the missing link, Madame,” said Conyers. “Vreeland and your maid have jointly robbed you. This vulgar janitor is only their tool and paid go-between. Doctor Alberg and Vreeland were shut up together for some hours yesterday, and you will find that the janitor has probably robbed your private letters in their interest. I’ll wire now to Officer Dan Daly, and have him watched day and night. He is only a beer-sodden fool. But we will just let them go on, and drop one by one, into the trap. You will later find Garston lurking behind it all. I think I begin to see his little game. Somehow, I distrust that man,” and he murmured, semi-unconsciously, as he gazed at the agitated woman beside him:
“Your lonely life has made you an easy prey heretofore to both schemer and fortune-hunter. You will have now Romaine to guard, and you need help. You can not go on and brave society’s natural curiosity.
“And, no half explanations will do. When we have recovered your missing document, you must abandon forever all your operations in the Street, and go away to some safe European land, either Sweden, Switzerland or Germany, and, moreover, under a good guard.
“If you stay here, you need a resolute man at your side, one who knows all your enemies, and one who can protect you. It is the revenge of Nature’s laws. You can not be father and mother both to your beautiful Cinderella—God bless her!”
“And do you think that my friends are in any danger over the loss of the stolen document?” tremblingly said Elaine, fixing her eyes fondly upon his earnest face.
“No,” said the journalist. “There has been time already to have struck at them. The paper is only held to coerce you—either to gain over your hand in marriage, or else, money will be the price of your safety.
“If it’s Vreeland, it will be merely money. If it’s Garston, and far the more dangerous of the two—a man not foolish enough for criminal blackmailing threats—then he wants to control both you and Romaine.
“Of course, he has no claim whatever on Romaine. He would only use her as the pivot to turn your heart toward him.”
Elaine Willoughby’s eyes were filled with sudden tears. “If I only dared to tell you all!” she murmured.
But as their hands met, Hugh Conyers brokenly said: “I am yours to the death; I can wait for your words, Elaine. Romaine is safe under a watchful guardian. Roper was an old Wells-Fargo shotgun messenger; a trusted Pinkerton man later, and as Romaine is Sara’s roommate, and as Roper never leaves them by day, you and I can wait here without fear till the demand is made on you.