THE LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND
 
 Katherine .... in the big chair .... listening was certain 
 that neither Belknap nor Roberta suspected her nearness.
 
 Author of 
 
 "Alias the Night Wind" "The Two-Faced Man," 
 "The Girl by the Roadside," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE MACAULAY COMPANY 
 
 1919
 
 Copyright, 1918, by The Frank A. Munsey Co. 
 
 Copyright. 1919, by 
 THE MACAULAY COMPANY
 
 TO ONE STEADFAST FRIEND 
 
 WHOSE ADVICE AND SUGGESTION I OFTEN SEEK 
 INSPECTOR JOSEPH A. FAUROT 
 
 OF THE NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT 
 
 THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 2138641
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. BETWEEN THE PORTIERES 9 
 
 II. THE INSOLENCE OF BELKNAP 17 
 
 III. A VOICE ON THE WIRE 22 
 
 IV. THE THREAT . . . 29 
 
 V. LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 38 
 
 VI. GANESVOORT 54320 ......... 45 
 
 VII. BEWARE OF THE STRANGER 52 
 
 VIII. THE BEAUTIFUL PIANISTE ...... 57 
 
 IX. LADY KATE GETS WISE 66 
 
 X. THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE ...... 76 
 
 XI. MIDNIGHT AND AFTER 85 
 
 XII. HARVARD'S STRATEGY 94 
 
 XIII. NIGHT-TIME COMPLICATIONS 102 
 
 XIV. A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS .... 108 
 XV. A KEY TO THE MYSTERY 118 
 
 XVI. AN APPALLING SITUATION 125 
 
 XVII. IN THE SENORITA'S ROOM 132 
 
 XVIII. ONE QUALITY OF FEAR 142 
 
 XIX. A MAN IN THE OPEN 147 
 
 XX. THE FACE IN THE FLAME 155 
 
 XXI. FLINT AND STEEL 164 
 
 XXII. THE FORBIDDEN NAME 171 
 
 XXIII. THE GENTLEMAN FROM KENTUCKY ... 181 
 
 V
 
 VI 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXIV. BLACK JULIUS RIDES 188 
 
 XXV. THE MAN FROM WASHINGTON 194 
 
 XXVI. THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 200 
 
 XXVII. THE SIGNAL . 210 
 
 XXVIII. A NIGHT OF MANY DANGERS 219 
 
 XXIX. THE HOUSE OF ALADDIN 224 
 
 XXX. BLACK JULIUS SPEAKS 232 
 
 XXXI. BRAINARD, OF THE SECRET SERVICE . . . 239 
 
 XXXII. BELKNAP'S DILEMMA 249 
 
 XXXIII. WHAT ROBERTA HAD TO TELL . . . . 257 
 
 XXXIV. THE DEVOTION OF JULIUS ...... 265 
 
 XXXV. BELKNAP SHOWS His HAND 275 
 
 XXXVI. THE JINEE ON GUARD 282 
 
 XXXVII. THE WISDOM OF LADY KATB 291 
 
 XXXVIII. RODERICK AND JULIUS 297 
 
 XXXIX. FULFILLING THE COMPACT 303 
 
 XL. BELKNAP'S PREPARED GETAWAY ... 310
 
 THE LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BETWEEN THE PORTIERES 
 
 KATHERINE HARVARD parted the curtains ever so 
 little and peeped the word is used advisedly into 
 the smaller room, and the thing that she discovered 
 was so amazing, so astounding, so paralyzing in its 
 effect upon her that for an interval she stood perfectly 
 still, without moving, barely breathing; indeed, it 
 seemed to her as if her heart had stopped beating. 
 
 Her impulse in approaching the curtains and part- 
 ing them thus silently had been one of playful mis- 
 chief only. The thought that she might see something 
 forbidden, something not meant for her or anybody 
 to see, had not remotely occurred to her. 
 
 She knew that five of her guests were playing cards 
 in that little room off of her husband's den bridge, 
 she had assumed and had decided that it was high 
 time for them to forego their game and join with the 
 others on the veranda and the lawn; and so she had 
 sought them. 
 
 There had been no sound of her approach, although 
 she had not intended it to be silent or stealthy. She 
 had ascended the stairs swiftly, passed through the 
 open doorway into the den, crossed it to the curtains, 
 parted them and had come upon that stupefying 
 knowledge that hideously unthinkable monstrosity 
 
 9
 
 10 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 a cheat. A cheat at a gentleman's game of cards. A 
 cheat a swindler! for the man could be nothing else 
 and he was one of her accepted guests. 
 
 She was herself not seen ; her nearness was not sus- 
 pected; each man of the five was, at the moment, bus- 
 ily intent upon his cards. Even the three who, by a 
 mere lifting of their eyes would have discovered her, 
 looked only upon their respective holdings. The backs 
 of the remaining two were toward her; one of them 
 obliquely; the other one directly. She stood at the 
 parting of the curtains, immediately behind him, where 
 she could look down over his shoulder upon the hand 
 he held where she could plainly see what he did and 
 what he was doing. 
 
 Very gently indeed she permitted the curtains to 
 fall together. She moved backward, away from them, 
 exerting the utmost care to avoid the slightest sound 
 that might betray her presence. She retreated to the 
 doorway and halted at the threshold. From there, 
 after a moment, she called aloud, using the given name 
 of one of the players her intimate friend, and Bing- 
 ham's. 
 
 "Tom! Oh, Tom!" she said. "Are you men still 
 playing cards spoiling the afternoon for the others 
 by your selfishness?" 
 
 Then, while at least three of the five responded, she 
 crossed to the curtains and drew them wide open. 
 
 Tom Clancy was already on his feet. 
 
 "All through, Lady Kate," he announced, with the 
 easy formality of an old and intimate friend. "Lucky 
 
 thing, too. I'd have been a bankrupt in " He 
 
 stopped shame-facedly, and grinned. 
 
 Katherine shook a finger at him, half playfully, yet 
 reprovingly, pretending not to notice the perfectly ap- 
 parent evidences of high play that were all about her,
 
 BETWEEN THE PORTIERES 11 
 
 in the expressions of the faces of the five men, and 
 upon the table. 
 
 "You have been breaking my rule, Tom, haven't 
 you?" she asked; and plainly did not expect an an- 
 swer. Then she turned to the man whose back had 
 been directly toward her when she parted the cur- 
 tains the first time, and said smilingly even ingenu- 
 ously : 
 
 "You are almost a stranger, Mr. Belknap, so, of 
 course, you could not have known that I strongly ob- 
 ject to gambling, particularly among my guests at 
 Myquest. But the others, all of them, did know 
 so, I will suggest" she turned a smiling face toward 
 the others, permitting her glance to rest upon each 
 one of them for an instant at a time "that the win- 
 ner, or winners, make restitution to the losers. Of 
 course you will all agree to that, to please me? How- 
 ever, I did not come here to chide you. I want you 
 to come down to the veranda at once; really; as soon 
 as the winners have made good to the losers. And, 
 please, no more gambling." 
 
 She left them then still smiling, leaving behind her 
 the impression that she had no idea that they might 
 not obey her suggestion, which had, in fact, amounted 
 to a mandate. 
 
 Four of the erstwhile players made no comment 
 whatever after Katherine had gone. The fifth Mr. 
 Conrad Belknap, so called smiled coldly, a slow, half- 
 sneering smile that was not pleasant to see, and which 
 raight have been ingratiating, submissive to circum- 
 stance, or insulting, according as one wished to take it. 
 
 "Of course," he said, shrugging his shoulders sig- 
 nificantly, "if you gentlemen wish to take advantage 
 of Mrs. Harvard's dictum and er receive back what 
 you have lost, I will obey her, and return "
 
 12 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Don't be an ass, Belknap," Clancy interrupted 
 sharply. "Come on, all of you. We're wanted be- 
 low and out on the lawn. We will write our checks 
 for you a little later, Belknap; and if, in the mean- 
 time, Mrs. H. should ask questions, which she is not 
 likely to do, it can truthfully be said that not a dollar 
 in money has changed hands. Get me? Now, let's 
 join the others downstairs." 
 
 The five descended the stairs together, and sepa- 
 rated as they came out upon the veranda. Belknap 
 dropped upon a vacant chair beside Betty Clancy, 
 Tom's wife, who was chatting with the small group 
 of ladies around her and painstakingly manipulating 
 silk floss, needle, bodkin, and embroidery-frame with 
 abundant skill at the same time. Archer, Sears, and 
 Demming wandered with apparent aimlessness toward 
 the tennis courts while they began to talk earnestly 
 together; and Tom, after hesitating at the top of the 
 steps to light a fresh cigar, felt a soft arm slipped be- 
 neath his own, and heard Katherine's voice remark, so 
 that the others might hear her: 
 
 "Walk around to the kennels with me, Tom. I want 
 to show you " 
 
 When they had turned a bend in the path, and were 
 lost to view from the veranda, Katherine asked 
 abruptly : 
 
 "Tom, just who is Mr. Conrad Belknap?" 
 
 "Search me !" Clancy replied. "You ought to know 
 better than I. Doesn't Bing know him? Where is 
 Bing, anyhow?" 
 
 "He was detained in town and will be out later ; about 
 five or six o'clock, he said, over the telephone. . . No ; 
 Bing doesn't know Mr. Belknap. Neither of us ever 
 saw him or heard his name before yesterday. The 
 Archers brought him with them yesterday afternoon.
 
 BETWEEN THE PORTIERES 13 
 
 He is staying at their house quite unexpectedly, 
 Belle told me, when she telephoned to ask if she could 
 bring him along. I thought, perhaps, you might have 
 met him in town that you might know something 
 about him." 
 
 "He certainly is some poker player if anybody 
 should ask you," Clancy remarked with a wry smile. 
 
 "Poker! when you know that I disapprove! Really, 
 Tom, I am surprised at you," Katherine returned with 
 a half-mock show of indignation. 
 
 "Oh, well, I'm sorry. It shall not occur again; that 
 I promise you." 
 
 "No," she said, as if that were a foregone conclusion. 
 
 "We were playing bridge Demming, Archer, Sears, 
 and I when Belknap joined us. We had just fin- 
 ished a game. Five can't play at bridge, you know. 
 Somebody suggested a small game of poker just a 
 few hands, and " 
 
 "Who suggested it, Tom?" 
 
 "Blest if I remember; probably I did; I'm always 
 doing the assinine thing, you know." 
 
 "It was not really what you would call a small 
 game, was it?" 
 
 "Hardly." 
 
 "But" Katherine stopped and stood facing him in 
 the pathway, and there was an unmistakable twinkle 
 in her eyes when she continued "it is all right now, 
 isn't it? Of course you all did as I suggested about 
 the winnings and losses?" 
 
 Tom Clancy laughed aloud; then he chuckled; then 
 he grinned, broadly. 
 
 "If I weren't entirely respectful to my hostess I 
 might reply as I did to Belknap when he suggested it 
 after you had ' 
 
 "Did he suggest it, Tom?"
 
 14 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Yes with a nice, new, superdreadnaught anchor- 
 chain welded onto it. You're much too good a sport, 
 Katherine, to expect that we could accept of course 
 we couldn't welch on our losses. You know that." 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "I understand," she said. "Was Mr. Belknap the 
 only winner, Tom?" 
 
 "Practically. Harry Archer was a few dollars 
 
 ahead, I believe, but Clancy stopped speaking. 
 
 Then, quite seriously, he asked: "What are you try- 
 ing to get at, Lady Kate? The game was perfectly 
 fair, if that is what you're driving at. Belknap 
 played in phenomenal luck, that's all, and so far as 
 its having been a stiff game is concerned, that part of 
 it was really my own fault." 
 
 "How was that? Please tell me." 
 
 "Oh, I happened to catch a pretty good hand 
 cold. See? I made the remark that if it were only 
 'table-stakes' and so forth; you know the rest. 
 Everybody was willing, and I won the pot. After that 
 well, the sky was the limit. We just drifted into 
 it." 
 
 "I see; I understand," Katherine replied absently. 
 "Shall we go back? There isn't a thing at the kennels 
 to show you ; you know the dogs as well as I do. Sup- 
 pose we try a foursome. You take Belle Archer, and 
 I'll ask Harry to play ; they both love it." 
 
 "Look here, Katherine, if you expect that I'm going 
 to quiz Belle about her gues ' 
 
 "My, my, my! I had forgotten all about him. He 
 really is unusually good-looking, don't you think?" 
 
 "Who? Belknap? Uhuh. I suppose so." 
 
 Later, when the tennis had been played, and Kath- 
 erine and Harry Archer had seated themselves for a 
 moment to rest beneath the spreading shade of a box-
 
 BETWEEN THE PORTIERES 15 
 
 elder, she remarked, casually, and apropos of nothing 
 in particular: 
 
 "Is Mr. Belknap quite an old acquaintance of yours, 
 Harry? He is a handsome man, and such an inter- 
 esting talker. Have you known him a very long time ?" 
 
 "Never saw him in my life until day before yester- 
 day Thursday, you know," was the indifferent re- 
 sponse of the always blunt and outspoken Archer, 
 whose inheritance had been a comfortably large for- 
 tune, a great and never-varying good nature, and only 
 a nominal supply of wit and brains. "He blew in to 
 see me at the office, you know; brought a letter of in- 
 troduction from Beekman Storrs Beeky 'n* I were 
 chums at Old Eli, y' know so I asked him down to 
 Ledgewood. Belle gave me the devil for it, too; said 
 I'd no call to do it when I knew we were comin' here 
 for the week-end, 'n' I told her to fetch him along. 
 She phoned to you, didn't she?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, and it was perfectly all right. It always 
 is, Harry, to bring your guests with you, if you have 
 any. They are calling us. Shall we go in?" 
 
 Katherine was no longer in a dilemma. 
 
 Until she had satisfied herself that Conrad Belknap 
 was really nothing more than a passing acquaintance 
 of the Archers, she had not known what course to take 
 after her discovery of the true character of the un- 
 bidden guest; but, after the short conversation with 
 Harry, her duty seemed extraordinarily clear. 
 
 She went about it, too, with her customary direct- 
 ness, having determined that she would indulge in no 
 confidences whatsoever, concerning what she had seen ; 
 she decided that she would not even confide in her hus- 
 band until after their guests had departed, Sunday 
 evening, and Monday morning. 
 
 Harvard arrived in time to dress for dinner. After
 
 16 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 it they all went again to the wide veranda, for the 
 month was June, and the evening an unusually warm 
 one, even for that time of year. 
 
 Presently, when another half-hour had passed, Kath- 
 erine left her chair, paused at the top of the steps, 
 and said to Belknap, who was seated there: 
 
 "Will you take a walk in the grounds with me, Mr. 
 Belknap? Myquest is beautiful in the moonlight, 
 viewed from a short distance." 
 
 He was beside her instantly, and with ill-concealed 
 eagerness ; and he talked much and well, while Kather- 
 ine directed their steps toward a summer-house a few 
 hundred feet away. 
 
 She was silent meanwhile, replying to him only in 
 monosyllables until she stopped and turned, con- 
 fronting him in the moonlight, directly in front of it. 
 
 "Mr. Belknap," she began, without preface, "I had 
 a distinct purpose in asking you to walk with me just 
 now. I have a most unpleasant duty to perform ; but it 
 is a duty, and it must be done. Please not not interrupt 
 me; there will be no need for you to speak at all. It 
 is my duty to tell you that I was at the curtains and 
 looked between them this afternoon while you were 
 dealing the cards for that last hand at poker. What 
 I saw then you know, without the need of telling. I 
 have brought you out here to suggest that if you can 
 find it convenient to receive a message, by telephone 
 or telegraph, that will necessitate your return to the 
 city to-night at once no other person than ourselves 
 will need to know the true reason for your sudden de- 
 parture. But you must go, to-night." 
 
 If Katherine had anticipated the infliction of a 
 shock upon the swindler, she was disappointed. He 
 only stared at her ; and then 
 
 He laughed aloud.
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 THE INSOLENCE OF BELKNAP 
 
 "BRAVE talk, Mrs. Harvard; but" Belknap 
 shrugged his shoulders and grimaced a smile that was 
 plainly intended for insolence as well as amused toler- 
 ance "just talk. Nothing more. You order me 
 from your home to leave Myquest?" He shrugged 
 again and smiled the more. "Very well, madam, I 
 shall not go." 
 
 For a brief moment Katherine stared at the man, 
 too astounded, and vastly too indignant to reply. His 
 attitude was as amazing as it was intolerable; and the 
 fact that he offered no attempt to deny the imputation 
 she had made against him was inexplicable save only 
 that he doubtless comprehended the uselessness of de- 
 nial. 
 
 Argument with him was out of the question. She 
 had taken him to the summer-house beyond the lawn 
 to tell him quietly of what she had seen, believing that 
 he would slink away afterward, crestfallen and beaten. 
 Instead, he faced her; he laughed at her threat; he 
 sneered at and ignored the charge she had made; he 
 received her ultimatum with contempt; by inference, 
 he defied her. He ! the cheat ! the card-sharp ! the 
 swindler whom she had detected in the act ! He, whose 
 attitude and manner were confessions twofold, even if 
 she had not seen his act with her own eyes. 
 
 Katherine swung upon her heel. She started swiftly 
 
 17
 
 18 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 away, took two steps, and halted. Over her shoulder 
 she threw back at him: 
 
 "There is a train for the city at ten-forty. One 
 of our cars will take you to the station. If you do 
 not make use of it, I will denounce you in the presence 
 of the four men you swindled, and my husband. There 
 will be no question about your going then." 
 
 She started on again, her head held high, the light 
 of righteous anger in her eyes. 
 
 Belknap made no attempt to stop her, but he 
 laughed chuckingly, and with so much of self-assur- 
 ance and contemptuous indifference to her threat, that 
 she swung half round to face him again. 
 
 The man was regarding her coolly, quizzically, un- 
 perturbed. 
 
 Whatever Katherine's impulse might have been 
 when she made the half turn to face the man a second 
 time, she controlled it and herself. 
 
 There was something about Belknap's demeanor 
 that infused a sudden, although indefinable, sense of 
 fear into her consciousness. He appeared so utterly 
 indifferent concerning the ethics of his position; so 
 contemptuous of what she might or might not do in 
 the premises; so cocksure of himself and of some 
 power over her that he was holding in reserve, to use 
 whenever the need to use it or the will to do so 
 should arise. 
 
 Yes, that was it, she determined swiftly, even though 
 she was barely conscious of such a foregone conclu- 
 sion. He believed that he had some unsuspected hold 
 upon her. She would not have had such a thought 
 had she been conscious of it; she would not, could not, 
 have admitted even to herself that there did exist a 
 circumstance of the past that was the father of that 
 unadmitted, but still existent fear.
 
 THE INSOLENCE OF BELKNAP 19 
 
 The thing or rather the succession of incidents 
 that made up the whole was so far in the past that 
 it had long been buried. 
 
 It was not forgotten such experiences never are 
 quite that but it might have been said to be unre- 
 membered. 
 
 Even while she was remotely conscious of the sud- 
 den misgiving within her as she faced Belknap in that 
 brief interval, the skeleton in the closet of her memory 
 did not rattle its bones with enough emphasis to cause 
 her a second thought about it. The memory was merely 
 there, in the back of her mind, like an indistinct shape 
 that one can just discern through a fog, but which does 
 not assume enough of outline to be recognizable. 
 
 She had parted her lips to speak, but she closed them 
 and stood facing the man whose coldly cynical smile 
 was an epitome of all insolence. 
 
 Everything about him suggested the self-assurance 
 of conscious power over her ; and yet and yet 
 
 Never had the sound of Bingham Harvard's voice 
 been more welcome than it was at that moment when 
 she heard him calling her name from the concreted 
 pathway, close at hand; he came upon them the next 
 instant. 
 
 "I was sent to take you back," Harvard told her. 
 "They are planning something for to-morrow, I be- 
 lieve, and your approval is needed, it seems, although 
 I assured them to the contrary." 
 
 If Katherine had been for a moment obsessed by 
 the vaguest of fantoms of the past, the ghost was 
 instantly laid with the appearance of her husband on 
 the scene. She replied quite coolly, and with a direct- 
 ness which was meant to leave no room for doubt in 
 Belknap's mind that her ultimatum had been spoken. 
 She said:
 
 20 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "We were on the point of returning, Bingham. Mr. 
 Belknap has just told me that he is compelled to go 
 back to the city to-night by the ten-forty within a 
 little more than an hour. Will you tell Julius to take 
 him to the train?" 
 
 She had slipped one of her arms within Bingham's, 
 and already they were retracing their steps toward 
 the house, Belknap having fallen in beside them so that 
 Katherine was placed between the two men. 
 
 "I am sorry to hear that, Mr. Belknap," Harvard 
 commented heartily. "It is too bad, really. We have- 
 n't had an opportunity to get acquainted barely. 
 Somewhat sudden, isn't it?" 
 
 "Quite so," Belknap drawled slowly, with a sugges- 
 tiveness in his manner of speech that only Katherine 
 could detect. "So sudden, in fact, that I am strongly 
 inclined to resent it, and ignore it." 
 
 "Good!" Harvard rejoined earnestly. He was the 
 most hospitable of hosts. "By all means ignore it, 
 if you can. If the call isn't really imperative, you 
 know if you can substitute the telephone for your 
 personal appearance in town, why, do so, and stay 
 on." 
 
 "Thank you. I think, now, that I will d so," was 
 the cold reply. 
 
 A flame of hot anger surged from Katherine's heart 
 to her brain. 
 
 The man was insufferable ; his effrontery was beyond 
 belief. 
 
 "Does he suppose," she thought swiftly, "that I will 
 hesitate to expose him, as I threatened to do?" 
 
 She stopped in her tracks, bringing the others to 
 a halt beside her, and her impulse was to make the 
 disclosure of Belknap's infamy to her husband then 
 and there.
 
 THE INSOLENCE OF BELKNAP 21 
 
 "Bingham," she began hotly and stopped. She con- 
 trolled the impulse, and, before there was an appre- 
 ciable hesitation in her speech, continued not because 
 of any delicacy of feeling toward Belknap, but because 
 she feared a flaring-out of Bing Harvard's hot temper 
 upon the instant that he should learn the truth. 
 
 "Bingham" she moved forward again, and her 
 repetition of the name was much softer, and this time 
 held a pleading note "I don't think you ought to 
 urge Mr. Belknap to stay over. I have been made to 
 understand that his reason for going is imperative; 
 that it is of the gravest importance; that, in short, 
 it is a matter in which his honor is at stake, if I un- 
 derstood correctly ; so, dear, don't you see you must 
 not put an obstacle in the way of his going? We ought 
 not ever to permit him to remain at Myquest under 
 such circumstances." 
 
 That time Belknap did not offer to reply, and while 
 Harvard murmured something entirely conventional, 
 Katherine shot a covert glance from the corner of her 
 eyes at her unwelcome guest. 
 
 He was smiling with a complacency that was utterly 
 amazing to her, and she understood in that instant 
 that he was as decided as ever that he would not go. 
 
 More than ever she was as determined that he should.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A VOICE ON THE WIRE 
 
 IT so happened that Harry Archer and his wife were 
 standing together at the top of the veranda steps, and 
 that Julius Katherine's black servant and trusted 
 chauffeur, who had been with her since her childhood 
 appeared at that moment in the doorway, so she seized 
 upon the double opportunity. 
 
 "Julius," she called calmly, and when the black came 
 nearer, added: "Mr. Belknap will want you to take 
 him to the ten-forty train." Then, with barely a 
 pause in her speech, and this time addressing the 
 Archers : "Such unpleasant news, Belle. Mr. Belknap 
 has just told me that he must leave us to-night. Isn't 
 it too bad?" 
 
 There were expressions of surprise from every di- 
 rection, for the entire company had heard the an- 
 nouncement. Those who were seated bent forward in 
 their chairs as if to utter a word or two of protest. 
 Tom Clancy and Danford Demming, who were stand- 
 ing, moved nearer to the group on the steps ; and Bel- 
 knap, at the bottom of them, smiling, unperturbed, 
 shrugged his shoulders and drawled with deliberate 
 distinctiveness : 
 
 "Really, I had no idea that I was so popular. You 
 know, I felt rather like an outsider being such a 
 stranger among you and probably I put too much 
 emphasis upon the summons that I received, to go to 
 
 22
 
 A VOICE ON THE WIRE 23 
 
 the city to-night. But er now that both Mr. and 
 Mrs. Harvard have urged me to stay, and well, I 
 have changed my mind. I won't go. I couldn't think 
 of it under the circumstances. Julius, I won't need 
 you after all; you need not bring the car around. 
 Harvard, if I may, I will use your telephone." 
 
 He nodded genially, and without awaiting permis- 
 sion, ascended the steps and went into the house. 
 
 While the others were variously expressing their 
 approvals of Belknap's change of mind, Katherine 
 turned her back to them, pinching her under lip be- 
 tween her teeth and tapping one foot impatiently upon 
 the concrete walk; then, with a quickly spoken word 
 of excuse she turned away and passed from, sight 
 around one corner of the house. 
 
 She was suddenly convinced that it might be im- 
 portant to know to whom Conrad Belknap desired to 
 talk by telephone if, indeed, he intended to make use 
 of the wire at all; for, of course, she knew that there 
 was no necessity for him to do so in order to stay on 
 at Myquest. Still, if there was somebody who was 
 available to him by telephone in such an emergency, 
 it was up to her to know who the person might be 
 and because the man was a card-sharper, a swindler, 
 and she had no doubt at all a crook, any method 
 that she might employ in contesting his effrontery and 
 insolence would be fair. 
 
 Katherine's former experiences as a police-headquar- 
 ters' detective stood for her just then ; she had not been 
 called "Lady Kate of the Police" in the days of "Alias 
 the' Night Wind" for nothing. 
 
 She judged from Belknap's manner' that he really 
 did intend to telephone to New York to somebody ; and 
 for her to know who that "somebody" might be, would 
 supply one item, at least, in discovering his identity
 
 24 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 for she was thoroughly convinced that he was not 
 what he had made himself appear to be, at Myquest. 
 
 There were several telephones in the house, and 
 Katherine assumed that Belknap would seek the one 
 in her husband's den, because of its seclusion. She 
 certainly hoped that he would do so, because that 
 instrument happened to be on the same wire that 
 communicated with her own private sitting-room. 
 
 When at Myquest, Katherine was in the habit of 
 making as much use of Bing's den, and the little room 
 off from it where the card-playing had been indulged 
 in, as of her own boudoir, and for the sake of con- 
 venience the two telephones had been connected as one, 
 the instrument in the den being the extension. 
 
 The instant she turned the corner of the house she 
 quickened her pace, ran up the steps at a side entrance, 
 ascended the servants' stairway to the second floor, 
 and entered her own suite, where she closed and locked 
 the door after her. 
 
 Very gently, so that there might be no warning click 
 upon the wire, she lifted the receiver from the hook 
 and pressed it against her ear. Then she smiled, 
 breathlessly, for she had hurried greatly, and she was 
 there in time to hear a voice say ". . . three-two-0." 
 She listened-in at just the moment when the operator 
 was repeating the last of the number asked for. (Har- 
 vard entertained so many guests at Myquest who 
 quite frequently made such constant use of the tele- 
 phones that connected through the two-trunk switch- 
 board in the butler's-room that, for his own conven- 
 ience, he had long ago put in an extra direct wire 
 from the exchange for his own and Katherine's uses.) 
 
 She heard the unmistakable voice of Conrad Bel- 
 knap reply: "Right!" 
 
 There was a short wait after that. Then the voice
 
 A VOICE ON THE WIRE 25 
 
 of a woman a voice, too, of unusual melody and 
 sweetness called: "Yes? Who is it, please?" 
 
 "C. B. is talking," Belknap replied, speaking in a 
 low tone. "No names, please. Do you get me?" 
 
 "Yes," came the monosyllabic response and it was 
 remarkable how the voice of the woman had altered 
 in that brief interval, to one that was coldly formal, 
 and which somehow suggested hardness and defiance, as 
 well as dislike and repugnance. 
 
 "Very good. Pay attention now. I am not at 
 Ledgewood. My present address is at Myquest, as 
 I told you it would be ; you know the rest of it ; also 
 the telephone call if the necessity should arise to 
 make use of either one." 
 
 "Very well, I understand. Is that all?" 
 
 "No. I shall be here all through the coming week* 
 at least. You must be prepared at any moment to 
 carry out the plan I made for you. To-morrow I 
 will write; you will get my letter Monday morning. 
 It will contain full instructions. That is all. 
 Good-by." 
 
 "But " the voice of the woman began in an ex- 
 postulating tone; but the click of the instrument in 
 Belknap's hands as he hung up cut her off. 
 
 Instantly Katherine acted upon one of those im- 
 pulses which works before one has opportunity to 
 take a second thought. She spoke through the trans- 
 mitter before she realized what she did. 
 
 "Please!" she said. "Hold the wire! Wait a mo- 
 ment." 
 
 Something that sounded like a gasp came to her 
 ears through the telephone, and dead silence followed 
 it. But there was no warning click of disconnection. 
 Katherine knew that the woman of the melodious voice,
 
 26 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 and who either disliked or feared Conrad Belknap, was 
 still at the telephone listening. 
 
 But Katherine did not know what to say, now that 
 she had secured the woman's attention. Why had she 
 done it? Why, with her experience, had she permitted 
 herself to do such a manifestly fool-thing as that? 
 undoubtedly the woman was a creature of Belknap's 
 a tool or a confederate; certainly she was more or 
 less in the card-sharper's confidence. His manner of 
 speaking over the wire had assured Katherine of that 
 much. 
 
 While she hesitated the unknown woman became 
 either impatient or curious. She spoke again, in the 
 same hard, metallic colorless voice in which she had 
 replied to Belknap, and at once Katherine's ingenuity 
 came to her aid; she determined upon a subterfuge. 
 
 "What do you want? And who are you?" the 
 woman asked; and then, before a reply was possible, 
 she asked a third question. It was: "Are you with 
 with him? WithC. B.?" 
 
 "No, no, no!" Katherine replied quickly. "There 
 is nobody with me. Please listen to me ; please, 
 madam ! I am in terrible trouble. I I I " and she 
 ended by uttering a perfect imitation of a gasping 
 sob. 
 
 But even so, before the woman at the opposite end 
 of the wire could speak, Katherine continued rapidly, 
 and brokenly, as if she were in great mental distress : 
 
 "Please tell me how I can call you on the telephone ; 
 please, please, please do ! I cannot talk now. I dare 
 not. I am likely to be interrupted at any moment. 
 But oh, I do so need a friend a woman friend. Won't 
 you help me? Oh, something tells me that you will. 
 It was your voice, I think." 
 
 "But, my dear young lady " the voice began.
 
 A VOICE ON THE WIRE 27 
 
 "Oh, you mustn't ask questions, now. You can't 
 imagine what might happen if I should be caught, 
 and then I would never have another chance to use 
 the phone. Please be kind and help me. I am in 
 terrible trouble and distress. Let me call you up some 
 time, won't you, please?" 
 
 There was a hesitating silence at the other end of the 
 wire. Then : 
 
 "Very well. Ganesvoort five-four-three-two-0 ; but 
 never before midnight, and not later than a half-hour 
 after it. And you must understand " 
 
 "Oh, somebody is coming!" Katherine interrupted. 
 
 "Thank you. Oh, you can't know how much good 
 
 She hung up. 
 
 Then, with a deep sigh, which was also accompanied 
 by a smile of satisfied approval of her own act, she 
 leaned back in the chair and wrinkled her brows in 
 thought. 
 
 It had been imperatively essential that she should 
 not say too much nor too little just then; but the 
 point, the great point at which she had sought to 
 arrive, was achieved. 
 
 She had succeeded in arresting the woman's atten- 
 tion and in securing her sympathy, without arousing 
 her suspicion the woman who, all too evidently, was 
 an accomplice of Conrad Belknap in whatever fe- 
 lonious designs he might have upon the house of 
 Harvard. 
 
 Katherine had made it appear that she was in great 
 distress, that she was deeply in need of a woman's 
 aid and sympathy; and, knowing, because of the short 
 conversation she had overheard, that the strange wo- 
 man would be suspiciously alert by reason of her pres- 
 ence on the wire, she had succeeded in conveying the 
 impression that she had heard nothing.
 
 28 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Also, the woman could have no idea whence Kath- 
 erine had spoken. She would get the impression of 
 crossed wires, so-called. She might, at the next op- 
 portunity, question Belknap about the circumstance 
 covertly; but he, having already hung up the receiver 
 and gone, would have nothing to impart. 
 
 Altogether, Katherine felt that she was to be con- 
 gratulated upon the achievement of a point in the 
 battle of wits between herself and Belknap, for already 
 she was convinced that the contest between them had 
 reached that point. Had he not coolly informed the 
 woman accomplice of his intention to remain at My- 
 quest "through the coming week, at the least"? 
 
 Oh, yes, Katherine was determined that she would 
 talk with the voice again; but not too soon; no, not 
 too soon. There must be time to think and plan in 
 the meanwhile. She would have to be wary, well poised, 
 and provided with a plausible story to unfold. 
 
 All of the time while Katherine sat there turning 
 the incident over in her mind, she was convinced of 
 two pleasing and helpful, although minor, consider- 
 ations: One, that the woman accomplice both dis- 
 liked and feared Conrad Belknap; the other", that the 
 possessor of such a throaty, richly melodious, sym- 
 pathetic voice must be good and kind at heart, no 
 matter what might be the condition and circumstance 
 that bound her to such a knave as Belknap had already 
 proven himself to be. She went out of the room present- 
 ly, strangely exhilarated either because she was con- 
 scious of the eve of battle between her wit and her 
 unbidden guest's; or, because of an intuition that the 
 unknown woman with the sweet voice would some day 
 develop into a friend in need, to serve as a foil against 
 Belknap. At the top of the stairway, she met him 
 face to face.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE THEEAT 
 
 "WELL met, Mrs. Harvard," was Belknap's greet- 
 ing. 
 
 His teeth gleamed at her beneath the close-cropped 
 black mustache, and his oddly brilliant eyes glistened 
 with a suggested menace as he smiled upon her coolly, 
 for all the world as if he knew himself to be thor- 
 oughly master of the situation. 
 
 It was with difficulty that Katherine repressed a 
 visible shudder. 
 
 The man had become utterly hateful to her, and 
 strangely menacing. It was as if he held a physical 
 threat over her head. She controlled herself with 
 difficulty, and compelled her voice to calmness while 
 she replied, with entire remoteness, with the air and 
 attitude of addressing an entire stranger: 
 
 "That is as you elect to regard it, Mr. Belknap 
 if that is your name. I am going, now, to ask my hus- 
 band, and the four gentlemen with whom you played 
 poker, to go with me to the library. It is my purpose 
 to tell them, plainly and unequivocally, everything that 
 I saw when I looked between the portieres, and to 
 describe your conduct since then also unless you 
 choose to change your mind again and leave Myquist 
 now, at once." 
 
 He made no attempt to interrupt her. He per- 
 mitted her to finish what she had to say without chang- 
 
 29
 
 30 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 ing his attitude or altering his demeanor; nor did the 
 wolfish smile leave his face. If anything, the glitter 
 in his eyes became more mocking and insolent and 
 threatening. 
 
 "Brave words, Mrs. Harvard," he responded coldly, 
 retaining the inscrutable smile as he quoted the words 
 he had spoken to her a half-hour earlier at the summer- 
 house on the edge of the lawn. Then, with a barely 
 perceptible pause, he added, with menacing meaning: 
 "I shall not change my mind about going away; I 
 shall not go. You will change your mind about what 
 you have just threatened to do, for you will think 
 better of it." 
 
 He had been standing thus far between her and the 
 stairway, but with the close of his statement he 
 stepped aside, leaving her ample room to pass him 
 if she wished. 
 
 "Go ahead," he said calmly, "if you have the cour- 
 age to take the bit in your teeth, and run; but let 
 me beg that you will not forget that I hold the reins, 
 that a curb is generally regarded as an instrument 
 of torture and that I am a merciless driver when I 
 encounter fractiousness. Go ahead, if you like. Call 
 your husband and the others to the library. Speak 
 your little piece." He shrugged his shoulders and 
 permitted himself a low chuckle before he added : "But 
 unless you are fully prepared to face the consequences 
 of such a proceeding, I strongly advise you not to do 
 so." 
 
 Katherine should have taken him at his word, and 
 gone; but she did not. She should have carried out 
 her threat to the end; but she hesitated. She would 
 have passed him by without another word; but she 
 temporized. Even she, who was not given to tem- 
 porizing.
 
 THE THREAT SI 
 
 She still faced him unflinchingly, it is true; but 
 she stayed. There was about her not one outward 
 sign of fear or misgiving; but Belknap knew that both 
 were present in her heart and brain, else she would 
 have left him. 
 
 Could she have suspected, even remotely, how great- 
 ly the game he was playing depended upon her not 
 taking him at his word how much it depended upon 
 his success in instilling in her that nameless dread of 
 something intangible, but threatening could she have 
 guessed that three-fourths of his insolent effrontery 
 was pure bluff that he had feared she might not "fall 
 for," she would have passed him then, with head held 
 high, would have summoned her husband and her 
 friends, and denounced Conrad Belknap for what he 
 was. Instead 
 
 "What do you mean?" she demanded. "Am I to 
 understand that you dare to threaten me?" 
 
 "Precisely that, Mrs. Harvard. You have threat- 
 ened me ; I give you back threat for threat. I am 
 threatening you with the consequences of what you 
 might still very foolishly do.'' 
 
 "You threaten me with what?" 
 
 He shrugged again, took out his cigarette-case, se- 
 lected one from it, and answered: 
 
 "I have just told you; with the consequences of 
 an extremely foolish whim that you still entertain, 
 although not so strongly now." 
 
 "You are" she hesitated "insufferable!" she 
 ended. 
 
 "I am I," he retorted, showing his teeth in another 
 wolfish smile. 
 
 It seemed then, for the briefest instant, as if she 
 would indeed leave him. Her lithe body swayed slight- 
 ly forward in the beginning of the act to do so, but
 
 32 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 neither of her daintily shod feet moved under her. She 
 stood quite still. 
 
 Belknap chuckled again. He restored the cigarette- 
 case to his pocket, brought out a gold match-safe, 
 and coolly lighted up. 
 
 She knew that he did it all purposely to test her; 
 to defy her ; to dare her to carry out her threat. She 
 knew that she ought to do so, and bandy no more 
 words with him. But she could not do it. 
 
 She knew that he was conquering her spirit by the 
 mere power of his will, and that for some miserably 
 unknown reason which she could not define at all, she 
 dare not defy him. 
 
 She knew that she was frightened, but she did not 
 know what it was that she feared ; and in that moment 
 she hated herself for temporizing with the man whom 
 she honestly believed to be a real denizen of the under- 
 world a crook. 
 
 Having lighted his cigarette, properly inhaled the 
 smoke, and expelled it, he said, with cool and careful 
 selection of each word he uttered: 
 
 "We all have pasts, Mrs. Harvard; some of them 
 are made by ourselves; some of us have them manu- 
 factured for us by others. But they are none the 
 less our pasts, whether they happen to be self-made, 
 or otherwise. Sometimes we try to outlive them and 
 forget them, and we deceive ourselves into the belief 
 that we have succeeded; but they live and they rise 
 up to confront us when we least expect it. I have my 
 past, and it is not all pleasant, although it was self- 
 made. You have your past, and, although you did 
 not make it yourself, and are not responsible for it, it is 
 none the less ugly. If you should go now and carry 
 out what you threatened to do, I could see over your 
 shoulders while you were thus engaged, the white, set
 
 THE THREAT 33 
 
 features of a person we both knew, gazing yearningly 
 upon us upon you particularly from between the 
 iron bars of a narrow prison window. Can you guess, 
 Mrs. Harvard, to whom I refer?" 
 
 It seemed to Katherine as if fingers of ice clutched 
 at her heart-strings then. 
 
 In that instant she understood the reason for that 
 vague dread and fear that she had sensed since the 
 moment when she had faced this man in the moonlight 
 at the summer-house steps. She comprehended the 
 undefined terror with which he had imbued her, by 
 reason of his wolfish, crafty smile, which had informed 
 her, if she had only believed it at the time, that he 
 held something in reserve, some knowledge of the past, 
 which emboldened him to defy her and her threats 
 to expose him to her husband and her guests for the 
 cheat and swindler that he was; and the last part of 
 his statement, as if in letters of fire that burned and 
 seared into her brain, recurred to her. 
 
 ". . . the white, set features of a person we both 
 know, gazing yearningly upon us upon you par- 
 ticularly from between the iron bars of a narrow 
 prison window. Can you guess, Mrs. Harvard, to 
 whom I refer?" 
 
 Thus was a ghost of the past resurrected! 
 
 Thus was Katherine Harvard brought face to face 
 with a condition which she dare not, could not, must 
 not) avoid. 
 
 She knew, while Belknap slowly and incisively voiced 
 the threat, that she must surrender, or, at least, must 
 appear to do so. She knew that she must temporize; 
 that she must seem, for the time being, to condone 
 the perfidy of the man who faced her so coolly, and 
 who dared her to do her worst against him.
 
 34 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 She realized that she was compelled to surrender; 
 that was the terrible thing. 
 
 Not because she sought to spare herself any conse- 
 quences of the revelation that Belknap threatened; 
 let us not deceive ourselves by any thought that Kath- 
 erine harbored one grain of cowardice, one faintest 
 streak of yellow, in her heart or soul. Let it not be 
 supposed that it was any consideration for herself that 
 compelled her to wave a flag of truce to the scoundrel 
 in front of her. 
 
 Her courage was never so great as in that moment 
 when she understood and acted upon the necessity that 
 confronted her. 
 
 As one will think quickly in moments of extremity, 
 so it occurred to her in one wild impulse, to defy Bel- 
 knap even then, and to seek her husband and confide 
 everything to him; but a second thought, as quickly 
 uppermost as the first one, made her realize that she 
 did not dare to do that made her understand that 
 she was mortally afraid to tell Bing Harvard about 
 this man who faced her, and his threats. 
 
 Again we must not misunderstand. 
 
 It was not that she feared to inform her husband 
 fully about the secret of the past which Belknap 
 threatened to expose. Not that. No, no ; not that. 
 
 The condition that frightened her was Bingham 
 Harvard himself, and what she perfectly well knew 
 that he would do to Conrad Belknap upon the instant 
 that he was made to understand thoroughly the situ- 
 ation. It was Bingham Harvard's temper that she 
 feared the tremendous, the superhuman, the awful 
 strength, and the uncontrollable temper when once 
 roused, of the man who had once borne the alias, The 
 Night Wind. 
 
 She knew, just as well as she knew that it was a
 
 THE THREAT 35 
 
 despicable scoundrel who threatened her at the mo- 
 ment, that Harvard, the instant he was made to un- 
 derstand the situation, would become transformed into 
 a silent and implacable fury ; that he would seek Bel- 
 knap in a rage which nothing could stay or hinder, 
 and that with his great strength like unto that of 
 Samson of old, he would seize the man with his hands 
 and rend him limb from limb. 
 
 In a word, Katherine knew that if she should tell her 
 husband that this man had dared to threaten her, his 
 wife, Bing would kill him kill him with his hands 
 crush the life out of him. 
 
 We ask you and I why not? 
 
 Such a killing would be justifiable under the cir- 
 cumstances ; the world would be well rid of such a 
 contemptible person; justice, when the facts were 
 known, would deal gently with him who did the killing. 
 Ah ! Therein was the rub to say nothing of the 
 shuddering horror that Katherine felt when she con- 
 sidered such a possibility the killing of this man by 
 the hand of her husband. 
 
 But, the facts behind such an extremity could not 
 be made known; not even to that intangible, that in- 
 choate thing called justice. Then, too, she realized, 
 with still another inward shuddering, that even then 
 even with Belknap silenced forever (if such a dread 
 possibility were to be considered), the fact might not 
 stay the consequences of the exposure that he had 
 threatened to make; the white, set features of a per- 
 son she knew, might still be made to stare between 
 the bars of a narrow prison window. 
 
 Furthermore, with the approach of evening of the 
 succeeding day, former U. S. Senator Maxwilton, with 
 Mrs. Maxwilton Katherine's father and mother 
 would arrive at Myquest, from their home in Ken-
 
 36 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 tucky. That was the hardest rub of all, for this ex- 
 posure that Conrad Belknap threatened to make would 
 stab both of them to the heart, would bow with wither- 
 ing shame the tall and stately form of that proud 
 old man, and would crush, even into the grave, the 
 stately, yet delicately sweet mother whom Katherine 
 adored with a devotion and love that was beyond 
 words. 
 
 For the white, set features that would be made to 
 stare between the bars of a prison window belonged to 
 Katherine Harvard's brother; her brother Roder- 
 ick the first-born of her parents their son whom 
 they had once so profoundly loved, who had begun 
 so bravely and so proudly, and who had ended so mis- 
 erably their only son, whom both believed to be dead, 
 and whose mistakes and failures had been forgotten in 
 the memories of his childhood and promise. 
 
 The mere suggestion that either of them should ever 
 be made to know that their son Roderick Maxwilton 
 was still among the living, and that he might be, or 
 would be, called upon at any moment to pass into 
 another death a living one behind prison bars, was 
 not to be considered, no matter what sacrifice should 
 be fixed as the price of avoidance of such a calamity. 
 
 Katherine had believed that she alone knew that her 
 brother was alive. She had, up to the very instant 
 of Belknap's uttered threat, had no thought that 
 another person in all the world harbored any doubt 
 of Roderick Maxwilton's death. There was a grave 
 within the family inclosure on the Kentucky estate 
 wherein he was supposed to be at rest, and above it 
 there was a stone that bore his name and the 
 date of ... 
 
 Katherine knew as well as if Belknap had spoken 
 the name, that he had referred to her brother Roderick.
 
 THE THREAT 37 
 
 Those flash-light thoughts continued to dart in and 
 out of her understanding during the brief space of 
 her silence while she faced the card-sharper; those, 
 and others, coming and going with the swiftness of 
 thought itself, yet consuming no appreciable time; 
 and among them were the natural questions "Who, 
 then, is this man who confronts me?" and "When and 
 how could he have known Roderick?" questions for 
 which, alas, she had no answer. 
 
 So swiftly did her mind work that there was no 
 appreciable interval between Belknap's last utterance 
 and Katherine's response to it. 
 
 She could not reply in words ; she had none to use, 
 just then. But 
 
 With a haughty uplift of her shapely head, with a 
 gesture of utter repugnance for the man, she went 
 past him down the stairs. 
 
 Belknap, with that inscrutable smile of defiance, de- 
 rision, and conscious power over her, still upon his 
 lips and in his eyes, stepped deferentially aside. He 
 bowed, mockingly. He seemed to know, without her 
 admitting it in words, that he had won out in that 
 first actual passage at arms. He made no attempt 
 to detain her. 
 
 Thus was Katherine Harvard's wit matched against 
 the wit of Conrad Belknap. 
 
 Thus was the battle of wits begun. 
 
 Thus the match which might well have been named : 
 The Crook versus Lady Kate of the police.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ULDY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 KATHERINE slept but little that night. 
 
 She was torn by a conflict of emotions, and chiefest 
 among them all was the passionate longing to confide 
 everything to her husband, which she knew to be im- 
 possible even while she considered it; impossible be- 
 cause she knew what he would do. She could not tell 
 Bingham about her brother, now, at this late date, 
 without disclosing her reason for the telling without 
 denouncing Belknap; and if she did that, the tempest 
 would be let loose, the long-stilled Night Wind would 
 be unleashed. 
 
 That was the consequence that she dreaded greatly, 
 although almost as terrible in its effect would be dis- 
 covery by her father and mother that Roderick's body 
 did not rest in the grave that was marked by his name, 
 at their Kentucky home. Years had come and gone 
 since that grave was made; and now, to exhume the 
 living from it Such a circumstance was not to 
 be thought of. 
 
 During the day that followed it was Sunday 
 she avoided Belknap as much as possible without the 
 appearance of it. She did so manage that she was 
 never alone with him for an instant. With twilight 
 her father and mother came, and Bingham went with 
 her to the station to meet them, 
 
 It happened just before bedtime that Katherine, 
 longing for a moment of solitude, stepped through 
 
 38
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 39 
 
 an open window to the veranda and glided noiselessly 
 and swiftly down the side steps and along a secluded 
 pathway toward a rustic bench that was half hidden 
 beneath a bower of climbing crimson-rambler. 
 
 She passed inside of it before she discovered that 
 the place was already occupied; that Belknap, whom 
 she supposed had gone to his room, was there, exactly 
 as if he were awaiting her. Yet, she knew differently, 
 because he could not have known that the rose bower 
 was a favorite retreat of hers. 
 
 He stood up and bowed, coolly polite; insolently 
 sure of himself. 
 
 "I was waiting for you," he said. 
 
 "But " she began, and stopped. 
 
 "Oh, I did not know that you would come here, 
 of course." He smiled provokingly. "It did not occur 
 to me that you would seek me, Mrs. Harvard." He 
 was mocking her, she knew. "I did think that you 
 might wish for a moment of solitude, so I came here. 
 You see, I could watch you through the window from 
 this point of vantage and I have been calling you; 
 mentally, of course. Will you be seated?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 He produced his cigarettes and lighted one leisurely. 
 
 "I did not know that Senator and Mrs. Maxwilton 
 were expected," he said when he had extinguished the 
 match. 
 
 Katherine made no reply. He continued as if 
 casually : 
 
 "Their coming rather strengthens my position, 
 doesn't it." It was a statement, with a period, not 
 an interrogation. Again she was silent. 
 
 "They do not suspect that a certain grave in Ken- 
 tucky contains the bones of an unknown, and not 
 the remains of him whose name is on the headstone,"
 
 40 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 he went on. "It would be a shock to them such 
 knowledge would it not, Lady Kate?" 
 
 She started backward a step, white to the lips. 
 
 "You dare " she began, and stopped because of 
 sheer inability to speak on, so greatly was she out- 
 raged by his insolent familiarity. Then, controlling 
 herself, compelling herself to speak calmly, she con- 
 tinued: "Let me advise you to beware lest you drive 
 me too far, Mr. Belknap. It is true that it would 
 be a shock to to them to know the truth, now, so 
 late, but do not deceive yourself into the notion that 
 I have refrained from exposing you solely for that 
 reason. There is another one even a more impor- 
 tant one. You do not know it; you may not believe 
 it when you are told. It is this : if I should tell Bing- 
 ham Harvard of the things that you have said and 
 done to me, he would pluck you from your hold upon 
 life like that" she reached out and pulled a cluster 
 of roses from their stems "he would rend you and tear 
 you apart like that" she crushed the roses in her 
 fingers and tore them into a pulpy mass "and when 
 he loosed his grip upon you, as I loose mine now upon 
 these rose leaves, you would be as they are, crushed, 
 lifeless, dead! I have kept silent thus far, not so 
 much to spare my father and mother the knowledge 
 that you threaten to disclose, as to spare your worth- 
 less, contemptible life." 
 
 Belknap tossed the cigarette from him into the path- 
 way. He bent nearer to her, smilingly unmoved. Not 
 a tone of his voice was changed when he spoke. 
 
 "To spare my life?" he questioned. "Oh, HO. Say, 
 rather, to keep two persons instead of one, outside of 
 a prison house. To save me? What folly to suggest 
 that ! But to save Bing Harvard from the commission
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 41 
 
 of a crime. Oh, yes. Quite so. And you will continue 
 to do that very thing, believe me! That, my dear 
 lady, is why I hold the whip hand and it is why 
 I will keep on holding it to the end; because you are 
 afraid, if you speak, that your husband will go to the 
 electric chair as a murderer. Did you expect to 
 frighten me, Lady Kate? Yes, I will call you that if I 
 choose. Nonsense ; utter nonsense ! I was never afraid 
 in my life, so do not think that you can scare me. You 
 can't." 
 
 "You are right," she returned as coolly as he had 
 spoken. "I have kept silent only to spare my hus- 
 band the commission of a crime. I could look upon 
 your features, crushed, and dead, with unmixed pleas- 
 ure; and if you, by word or deed, by innuendo or 
 gesture, betray what you know to either of my parents, 
 I will loose the Night Wind upon you, no matter what 
 the consequences may be." 
 
 She turned to leave him. She stepped into the 
 moonlight on the path. There she halted, and turned, 
 and faced him again. He was in the shadow beneath 
 the rose-bower; she stood in the light outside of it 
 and at that instant Bingham Harvard from the ver- 
 anda, where he had gone to seek her, saw her; saw her 
 and thought nothing of it, then. 
 
 "Why do you insist upon remaining here?" she de- 
 manded of Belknap. "What do you want at My- 
 quest? Or of me? Is it blackmail? If so, name 
 your " 
 
 He laughed aloud, gleefully, interrupting her. 
 
 "My price, sweet lady," he said mockingly, "cannot 
 be paid with money. I seek for something better 
 something far dearer to you than that something, 
 too, that I will compel you to pay."
 
 42 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Week-end gatherings like that one at Myquest some- 
 times develops into established house-parties. 
 
 That Sunday evening just past had ended by a 
 somewhat general understanding that several of the 
 guests were to stay on for the week, and the week- 
 end to close it. Betty Clancy decided that she would 
 fill out the week with Katherine, and so Belle Archer 
 whose home at Ledgewood was not ten miles away 
 elected to remain also. Her husband, Harry, who 
 never had known more strenuous duties than clipping 
 coupons, was just as willing to loaf and do nothing 
 at Myquest as at his home, so he stayed after he 
 had "persuaded" their own guest, Belknap, to do like- 
 wise. His decision, however, was not known until Mon- 
 day morning, when Julius brought the big car to the 
 door preparatory to driving Harvard and Clancy into 
 the city. 
 
 Danforth Demming and Horton Sears pretended 
 to a consuming desire to return to town, and Dem- 
 ming went so far as to order out his roadster (the two 
 had gone down to Myquest together in it), but as 
 neither one was in business, and could be as contented 
 in one place as another, both were easily persuaded 
 to stay. As a matter of fact, Katherine very greatly 
 preferred that they should remain, because well, 
 there might still be occasion for her to denounce Bel- 
 knap to all four of the men whom he had cheated 
 at cards. 
 
 There were several others "just girls," Tom 
 Clancy would have called them who were induced 
 to stay on, for there were tennis, and golf, and motor- 
 ing, and horseback riding to be indulged, and bridge 
 to be played and the possibility of harmless and 
 pleasing flirtatious interludes with Sears and Dem- 
 ming, and "that handsome and fascinating Mr. Conrad
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 43 
 
 Belknap," whose covert references to mines and 
 ranches in Arizona, and whose frank, but evidently 
 insincere declarations that he was a confirmed bach- 
 elor, were not the least of his attractions. 
 
 And Katherine permitted him to stay. She did not 
 denounce him. For the time being, at least, he had 
 conquered. 
 
 She had not forgotten what she had heard over the 
 telephone, nor the short conversation that followed 
 it between her and the woman accomplice. Katherine 
 intended, that very night that Monday at midnight 
 to take advantage of the permission that had been 
 given her, to call up Ganesvoort 54320. 
 
 Also, she had watched for that letter that Belknap 
 had promised to write and post to the woman; she 
 had even searched the mail-bag for it late Sunday 
 night, intending, if she found it, to she did not know 
 quite what she would have done in that case. 
 
 But she did not find it, and so was spared a temp- 
 tation to commit an act which, according to police- 
 headquarters ethics, would have been entirely justi- 
 fiable. 
 
 However, she had no doubt that Belknap had written 
 it, and sent it by one of the grooms, possibly, or 
 he had carried it himself across the golf-links to the 
 post-office when he had walked away alone late Sunday 
 afternoon. 
 
 Throughout the day, Monday, Katherine devoted 
 herself to her father and mother; and Belknap, oblig- 
 ingly or with intention, kept himself aloof from her. 
 
 She knew that he, with the three other men who had 
 stayed on for the week Demming, Sears, and Arch- 
 er played bridge together all of Monday after- 
 noon in the billiard-room, but she consoled herself with 
 the thought that if they were mere lambs to be sheared
 
 44 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 by the first card-sharper who appeared, they not only 
 deserved the operation, but each one could well afford 
 his losses. 
 
 Harvard and Clancy returned shortly after five, and 
 the evening that followed was entirely uneventful, al- 
 though Katherine could not overcome the feeling of 
 impending disaster. To her the very atmosphere 
 seemed to be charged with calamity; every hour was 
 full of menacing portentousness. 
 
 During the evening Belknap devoted himself first 
 to one and then another of the married and unmarried 
 women of the party; at something after eleven o'clock 
 all of the guests retired to their respective rooms, and 
 at a quarter to twelve she and Harvard sought their 
 own double suite in the easterly wing of their home. 
 
 Katherine stood with her husband for a moment in 
 his dressing-room, with her hands resting gently upon 
 his arms. She was looking into his eyes, longing to 
 uncover, to his great and indulgent devotion to her, 
 everything that troubled her. 
 
 She passionately wanted to throw her arms around 
 his neck, to force him down upon a chair, to sit on 
 his knee, and to confide all her perplexities to him; 
 but she was afraid. She dared not do it. 
 
 Gazing down upon her, he saw the vague shad- 
 ows or sensed them; and he folded her into his em- 
 brace, and held her so for a long minute. 
 
 "What is it, sweetheart?" he asked softly. "What 
 is troubling you?" 
 
 Instantly she was alert again, and pulled herself 
 slowly out of his embrace, smiled into his eyes, kissed 
 his lips gently, and replied: 
 
 "I am tired, I suppose; that is all, dear. I will go 
 to my room, and to bed." 
 
 So they said good night and parted.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 GANESVOORT 54320 
 
 IN her own room, with the door closed, she at once 
 dismissed the maid who awaited her, glanced at the 
 little clock, and saw that it was five minutes to mid- 
 night ; and composed herself to wait five minutes more 
 before she would ask the telephone operator to con- 
 nect her with Ganesvoort 54320. 
 
 But she seated herself beside the instrument, and 
 before one of the five minutes had elapsed she lifted 
 the receiver from the hook, very, very softly not 
 because she had any idea that the extension to Bing- 
 ham's den might be in use, but solely for the reason 
 that she was conscious of doing something stealthily. 
 
 Instantly she was all alertness, for at once she heard 
 the voice of Conrad Belknap. 
 
 The fact told her much upon the instant, even while 
 she listened intently to what was being said: it told 
 her that Belknap had made the discovery that a direct 
 wire from the telephone exchange, not connected with 
 the switchboard in the butler's quarters, led into Har- 
 vard's private library, or den, and that the man had 
 gone to it from his own room after he supposed that 
 all others in the house had retired, to make use of it 
 and what she heard presently confirmed that assump- 
 tion; as also the fact that Belknap had no suspicion 
 that her own telephone was likewise on that direct wire. 
 
 She was aware, too, that she was to hear all that 
 Belknap was to say to the unknown, as well as the 
 
 45
 
 46 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 woman's replies, for the first words that came to 
 her in Belknap's voice were: 
 
 "... been here for the last fifteen minutes, but I 
 waited, to be sure that you were there to answer me." 
 
 "Well?" the voice of the woman answered, and there 
 was that same quality of repulsion, dislike, and fear 
 in it that Katherine had detected Saturday evening. 
 "What do you want to say?" 
 
 "You received my letter?" 
 
 "Yes. Wait a moment. Do you think you are wise 
 to use that telephone? When you did so, Saturday, 
 there was a crossed wire from another house near 
 there, and well, I could hear a woman's voice upon it 
 after you hung up." 
 
 "Crossed wires happen sometimes, but not as a 
 rule. It is late now; everybody here is in bed. This 
 'phone is not connected with the switchboard down- 
 stairs ; it is a direct wire from the exchange. Any- 
 how, there is nothing much to be said nothing that 
 anybody but ourselves could understand. Have you 
 made your arrangements to carry out the directions 
 in my letter?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "There is nothing more to be said about it, is there, 
 save that you may look for me at the appointed time? 
 I will not disappoint you." 
 
 Katherine supposed that that would be all, and was 
 on the point of returning the receiver to its switch, 
 when the woman spoke again after Belknap had agreed 
 with her that nothing more need be said. 
 
 "Wait a moment," she asked him. "Are you quite 
 positive about that direct wire?" 
 
 "Yes ; but all the same we need not discuss things 
 too plainly," he replied.
 
 47 
 
 "I know. It isn't that; it's this: I want you to 
 come into the city to see me before I go there. You 
 know why. There are some questions that I wish to 
 ask. I want to know certain things that I cannot 
 ask you over a telephone-wire." 
 
 He replied to her angrily: "What nonsense is 
 
 She interrupted him. 
 
 "It isn't nonsense, C. B.," she said coldly, and with 
 an added ring of hardness in her voice that rendered 
 it almost unrecognizable. "You may as well under- 
 stand that I am not going to thrust my head into a 
 lion's jaws, as you want me to do, until I am well 
 assured that they won't close up on me, and that 
 you won't be the one to press the spring that does 
 the closing. Don't interrupt me! You're quite cap- 
 able of doing that very thing, provided that you are 
 reasonably sure of not getting bitten yourself. So 
 you see and you thoroughly understand, too that 
 I won't make a move or do a thing about what you 
 want done, until I am convinced on that point, and 
 you have got to see me first, to convince me." 
 
 "Look here, Berta " 
 
 "None of that, C. B. I know you, going and com- 
 ing, across from both sides, and down the middle. 
 You are just a little bit afraid of me, C. B., although, 
 I reckon that I'm about the only thing in the world 
 that you do fear. You'd like nothing better than to 
 be jolly well rid of me, and you know it; so come 
 across." 
 
 "What do you mean by that 'come across'?" 
 
 "I mean that you'd better blow into town between 
 now and Saturday, and look me up, if you want me 
 to do my part. That's all, Good-by." 
 
 "Wait Look here, Berta, can't you wait till you 
 get here? I will "
 
 48 LADi r OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Good-by, C. B. I don't think you'd best do any 
 more telephoning from that house to me. Goo 
 
 "Wait, I tell you!" 
 
 "I won't wait. I have said my say. I'm through. 
 Good-by and if you don't show up in town between 
 now and Saturday, good NIGHT." 
 
 The woman hung up ; and after a moment, evidently 
 of indecision on Belknap's part about asking for a re- 
 newal of the connection, Katherine knew he had re- 
 turned the receiver to its hook. 
 
 She replaced her own, then stole to the door, opened 
 it softly, and only a very little, and waited, for she 
 knew that Belknap, in returning to his room, must 
 pass a point at the end of the corridor where she would 
 be able to catch a glimpse of him. 
 
 Presently she saw him, and she closed her door with 
 a sigh of relief, and locked it. Then she went softly 
 into her dressing-room, and listened at the door to 
 Bingham's suite to assure herself that he had gone 
 to bed. Being satisfied, she went back to the tele- 
 phone, hesitated for a time to determine exactly her 
 course of procedure, and asked for the Ganesvoort 
 connection. 
 
 The response came quickly. 
 
 "Yes?" the sweetly melodious voice that had so 
 charmed her the first time she heard it, answered, and, 
 without pause, added: "Is it my young friend of 
 Saturday evening the young woman who seemed to 
 be in trouble?" 
 
 "Of course it is," Katherine replied in the most girl- 
 ish manner she could assume. "I have been on pins 
 and needles waiting for midnight, to call you up. 
 And I can't tell you how kind you are to let me do it." 
 
 "Have you, indeed? It is long past midnight now; 
 half an hour, at least."
 
 GANESVOORT 54320 49 
 
 "Really? I wonder if my clock is slow." 
 
 "Very likely if you have been watching it impa- 
 tiently." 
 
 "You can't think, madam, how kind it is of you to 
 let me talk to you ; and do you know that your voice 
 is just beautiful? It makes me simply crazy to know 
 you. Won't you please tell me your name, and where 
 you live, and let me go to see you the next time I am 
 permitted to go to the city?" 
 
 A low ripple of laughter sounded through the tele- 
 phone. 
 
 "Dear me, what a lot of questions," the woman said. 
 "Have you quite forgotten why I gave you permission 
 to telephone to me? It was not to ask questions, 
 surely." 
 
 "No, no," Katherine replied hastily. "Please for- 
 give me." 
 
 "You said that you were distressed, and in trouble, 
 
 and that I could help you; but, my dear You 
 
 are quite young, are you not? I have assumed that 
 much about you." 
 
 "Y-yes," was the faltering response; purposely fal- 
 tering. Then: "Perhaps you are young, too. Your 
 voice makes me think that you are, although I don't 
 know whether you are seventeen or seventy." 
 
 "I suspect that you are the one who is seventeen, 
 my dear. But I? I am very, very old. I am ages 
 epochs cycles old. I have attained the great age 
 of twenty-seven. It is wonderful, isn't it? Just to 
 think of it! To have lived a thousand years in twen- 
 ty-seven." The ring of utter bitterness in the un- 
 known woman's voice when she said that, was unmis- 
 takable. But she went on quickly: "Tell me about 
 your troubles, and how I can help you."
 
 50 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Katherine had prepared herself for that question, 
 and was ready with her reply. 
 
 "You see," she said slowly, "I was probably more 
 frightened than anything else. When I spoke to you 
 Saturday evening, I was locked in my room, and badly 
 frightened, though the word 'rattled' expresses it bet- 
 ter. I wanted to ask somebody to help me, only I 
 did not know whom to ask. Why, I even thought of 
 the police which was silly, of course. Then, when I 
 took up the receiver, I heard your voice you were 
 saying 'Good-by* to some one, and it attracted me. 
 You know the rest." 
 
 "Am I to understand that your troubles are past, 
 and that you no longer have need of me?" the woman's 
 voice asked, with another touch of bitterness perhaps 
 of regret in it. 
 
 "Oh, it was all about a man who insists upon impos- 
 ing himself on me and and I really don't suppose 
 it amounted to half as much as I feared it did. But, 
 please, won't you tell me your name? Just so that I 
 may feel as if I knew you, really?" 
 
 "My name? Will Roberta suffice? It is my first 
 name. What is yours, my dear?" 
 
 "My father and mother and brother, and my girl 
 and boy friends used to call me Kitten. Do you like 
 that?" 
 
 "It doubtless fits you perfectly. Mine used to call 
 me Bobby." 
 
 "Won't you tell me your last name, and where you 
 live, and let me write to you?" Katherine insisted. 
 
 "No -not now I will think about it. Perhaps 
 
 some day " She stopped speaking, and Katherine 
 
 said: 
 
 "Perhaps you will consent to write to me first. I 
 wish you would. Send it to Greendale, Long Island
 
 GANESVOORT 54320 51 
 
 the last name is Maxwell. I will get it from the 
 post-office myself, and I will look for a letter from you 
 every day until I get one and you must tell me how 
 to answer, won't you? And " 
 
 "There, there, Miss Kitten. I must go. Good- 
 night." 
 
 Click went the instrument. 
 
 Katherine kept the receiver at her ear, listening. 
 After an interval she began to move the switch slowly 
 down and up ; and then : 
 
 "Central," she said, when the response came, "this 
 is Mrs. Harvard, of Myquest, speaking. Please ask 
 the other exchange for the street address of the tele- 
 phone with which I was just now connected. I neglected 
 to take it down. Yes ; it was Ganesvoort 54320." 
 
 Thus presently Katherine was in possession of the 
 address of the woman accomplice of Conrad Belknap 
 as she believed. 
 
 It had not occurred to her that "the voice" might 
 not live at that address.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 BEWARE OF THE STRANGE* 
 
 Two items stood out prominently visualized in 
 Katherine's thoughts while she prepared for bed: One 
 was that Belknap intended to stay on at Myquest in- 
 definitely, unless a means could be found to drive him 
 away; the other was that the woman accomplice she 
 of the sweetly melodious voice whose given name was 
 Roberta was to appear at Myquest presently under 
 some guise which would enable her to be properly re- 
 ceived, and which, it would appear, had already been 
 arranged. What form that guise, impersonation, 
 character, or pretense might take could not be fore- 
 seen. 
 
 Meanwhile Bingham Harvard once alias the Night 
 Wind had not gone to sleep immediately after Kath- 
 erine's departure to her own room. 
 
 He went to bed at once, to be sure, but he was wake- 
 ful without being restless and somewhat concerned 
 and irritated without being in the least troubled 
 because of an annoying incident of the preceding day. 
 
 He had received an anonymous communication of 
 nine typewritten words : "Beware of the stranger that 
 is within thy gates." It had been mailed at the gen- 
 eral post-office in Eighth Avenue at noon that Mon- 
 day. The envelope and single sheet of paper had 
 borne the imprint of one of the leading hotels of the 
 city, and any person wandering through its corridors 
 might have used the hotel stationery; but he had to 
 
 52
 
 BEWARE OF THE STRANGER 53 
 
 acknowledge to himself at once that the typewriter 
 that had been used for conveying the message had 
 quite evidently been sought for elsewhere. 
 
 He had been in bed a short time when he arose for 
 a drink of water. In returning he paused for an in- 
 stant at Katherine's door and he knew at once that 
 she was using the telephone, although he caught no 
 word of what was said, and did not think of attempt- 
 ing to hear. 
 
 However, when he returned to his bed he found 
 more than ever to his intense annoyance that he was 
 wilfully reminded of several incidents that had occurred 
 since there had been a stranger within his gates, so to 
 speak. 
 
 There was the incident of the summer-house, when 
 there had been talk of Belknap's immediate departure 
 Saturday night and Belknap's attitude and remarks 
 on the subject and Katherine's somewhat remarkable 
 insistence upon the importance of his going. Never- 
 theless he had remained. 
 
 There was Katherine's avoidance of Belknap 
 throughout the day, Sunday although Bingham in- 
 sisted to himself that that was entirely his own imag- 
 ining ; yet the fact remained that he had "imagined" it. 
 
 There was Tom Clancy's covert though constant at- 
 titude of watching Belknap as if he were studying the 
 man and again Bing attributed the thought of it to 
 his own imagination. 
 
 There was the double episode of the rosebower: the 
 still burning cigarette that he had seen tossed from it 
 Katherine's appearance, coming from it a moment or 
 two later her strained and somewhat tense attitude 
 when she did it, and her manner of turning about when 
 in the pathway, to add to something that she had been 
 saying. Harvard knew Katherine's every gesture and
 
 54 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 mannerism as intimately as one knows the way to one's 
 own mouth with a fork or spoon; and he had seen de- 
 fiance, dislike, and impotent rebellion in her manner 
 then and he knew mighty well that his imagination 
 had played no part in that opinion. 
 
 There was the shadow that he had felt, rather than 
 seen, hovering over her while she was bidding him good 
 night, and the intuitive belief that had been in his mind 
 at the time, that she was on the point of confiding 
 something to him, and had decided not to. 
 
 Then, after she had gone to her room with the ex- 
 pressed determination of retiring at once, there was 
 the fact that more than half an hour later she was at 
 the telephone in conversation with somebody. 
 
 The following morning, while he and Tom Clancy 
 were riding into town together, Harvard inquired of 
 his friend, as if casually: 
 
 "How do you like Belknap? I don't seem to have 
 had a chance to get acquainted with him yet." 
 
 "Do you want the answer straight from the shoulder, 
 Bing, without even so much as an honest fool-reason 
 to back it up?" Tom asked bluntly; and added, before 
 Harvard could reply to the question : "I don't like him 
 a little bit. I think he's a rotter, from Rottersville ; 
 and that, if he stays on at Myquest oh, it's just a 
 case of 'I do not like you, Dr. Fell, the reason why I 
 cannot tell.' " 
 
 "You must have some reason for such an emphatic 
 opinion, Tom." 
 
 "Huh ! I don't like the shape of his nose, the color 
 of his hair, the cut of his coat, the size shoe he wears, 
 and the way he walks. In other words, I don't like the 
 soil he stands on, and I'd like to pick a fight with him 
 and have it out." 
 
 Harvard laughed aloud, and changed the subject.
 
 BEWARE OF THE STRANGER 55 
 
 There was never any accounting for Tom Clancy's 
 likes and dislikes, and they were as often prejudiced as 
 otherwise, so far as the reason for them was con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Immediately after luncheon that day Katherine in- 
 vited Betty to a ride with her in her own roadster, 
 which she always drove herself, and, telling her other 
 guests that she would leave them to their own devices 
 for an hour or two while she and Mrs. Clancy tore a 
 hole in the atmosphere, she drove her car directly to 
 the city. 
 
 Betty always had shopping to do. Tom's ample 
 bank account did not prevent her from being an invet- 
 erate bargain-hunter, and Katherine very easily found 
 the means to leave her friend long enough to drive past 
 the address that the telephone operator had given her 
 the preceding night. 
 
 She sought merely to locate it, because it happened 
 to be in a street with which she was unfamiliar a 
 street in the Greenwich Village section. 
 
 She knew the fringes of that neighborhood well 
 enough, for she had, in the police days, lived in West 
 Eleventh Street for a time; but the mazes of Green- 
 wich Village and to a stranger the locality is some- 
 thing of a labyrinth were unknown to her. 
 
 She found the address readily enough, and drove on 
 past it without stopping, for she was intensely disap- 
 pointed, and not a little disgusted. It was plain enough 
 that "Roberta" did not live there although it was 
 not so plain how the woman could make use of a tele- 
 phone from that address at midnight and after. 
 
 The place was a combination stationery, toy, and 
 cigar store and news-stand, and, moreover, it was only 
 one story high, being a makeshift little building thrust 
 in between two taller ones.
 
 56 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Katherine stopped her car at the next corner, got 
 down, and walked slowly back to the address. 
 
 She occupied a moment or two in peering in at the 
 window to select something to purchase, and then went 
 inside. She saw at once that the building was as shal- 
 low as it was low, that there was only a very small room 
 at the rear into which the doorway was wide open, and 
 that the frowsy-headed woman with the cracked and 
 beery voice, who waited upon her, quite evidently cooked 
 and ate and slept in the tiny quarters. But there was 
 a telephone of the drop-in-a-nickel type im the store, 
 and its number was the one she had sought. 
 
 Katherine, having returned to her car, summed up 
 the incident thus : 
 
 "Roberta lives in the neighborhood. She fees that 
 old woman liberally for the use of the telephone, and 
 she either carries a key to the store or rouses the woman 
 to admit her whenever it pleases her to go there. The 
 only way to trace her by that means would be to 
 watch and wait just before midnight which isn't worth 
 while, since Roberta is due to arrive at Myquest short- 
 ly; only, if I were back at headquarters, I think that 
 I would do it just the same. I wonder," she mused 
 silently just before she came to a stop in front of the 
 store where she had left Betty, "if it would not be a 
 good idea to send for Rodney Rushton and ask him 
 to help me. He could trace that woman for me; he 
 could find out all about Conrad Belknap, and he 
 
 Betty appeared on the scene and interrupted her 
 train of thought.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL PIANISTE 
 
 CARDS? Oh, yes, every day and sometimes the 
 greater part of one with the billiard-room for scen- 
 ery, bridge for the vehicle, and Archer, Sears, and 
 Demming for the goats. 
 
 Katherine chose to ignore the fact of the gambling 
 which she perfectly well knew took place and left the 
 players severely alone. She noticed that always the 
 games were brought to a conclusion before the hour 
 of Harvard's and Clancy's arrival from business in the 
 city. 
 
 The four concerned in it never spoke of their play, 
 save on the rare occasions when Belknap had lost 
 (presumably only a small percentage of what he had 
 theretofore gained), when, as a rule, they twitted him 
 more or less, with some small indications of tempo- 
 rary exultation. It was plain to Katherine, however, 
 that the man was a loser only when he deemed it to be 
 politic. 
 
 Throughout the days and evenings that followed 
 upon the (to Katherine) memorable Sunday and Mon- 
 day, Belknap was consistently considerate of every- 
 body, gracious to all, and he played the gentleman 
 as thoroughly well as he played cards, which is high 
 praise. 
 
 It was Wednesday evening when an incident hap- 
 pened which, although carefully planned by its insti- 
 gators, had every earmark of casuality. A Mme. Sav- 
 
 57
 
 58 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 age arrived at Myquest. She possessed the several 
 qualifications for a welcome at Harvard's home, of 
 being a large stockholder in his bank, a lifelong friend 
 of the former president of it, Chester, who was the 
 only father that Bing had ever known, and she was 
 one of those rare and lovable old ladies whose thought 
 remains as young as ever it was, at eighty. 
 
 She came, she saw, and was seen, and before the eve- 
 ning was finished she conquered in the fact that she 
 succeeded in persuading Katherine to engage for the 
 approaching week-end, to play for them, the services of 
 one whom she described as being the most wonderful 
 pianiste she had ever heard perform. Katherine was 
 not given to employing hired talent for the entertain- 
 ment of her guests, but when there was a chorus of 
 approval of the idea from one group of which Bel- 
 knap, by the way, was the center and when Bingham 
 suggested, "Why not have her down, Katherine?" she 
 assented. 
 
 "My goodness, no," Mme. Savage said in reply to a 
 question, "I have never met her personally. I have 
 heard her play three or four times maybe not so 
 many but I never saw her nearer than across a crowd- 
 ed room ; and my eyesight isn't as good as it was once. 
 Just the same I have been told that she is very beautiful 
 the Spanish type, you know and er all that sort 
 of thing. She does play magnificently, believe me ! Do 
 have her down, Katherine, for a change, if you want 
 entertainment; she isn't expensive, so I've been in- 
 formed. You see, she probably has been told that I 
 have heard her play, for she wrote to me let me see, 
 last week it was and asked me if I would recommend 
 her to my friends as an entertainer; and I told my 
 secretary to send her word that of course I would 
 so well you see" the old lady turned toward Har-
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL PIANISTE 59 
 
 vard "you can charge it to me, Bing Harvard, if you 
 don't like her. Of course I've got her address; I made 
 a note of it on my tablets before I started. Here it is 
 now Senorita Cervantez, care of the Bannister En- 
 tertainment Bureau, Metropolitan Building. There 
 you are, folks." 
 
 Katherine sent off a letter that night, requesting the 
 services of the senorita from Friday until Monday, un- 
 less she was otherwise engy-ged. 
 
 Friday, at two in the afternoon, she arrived two 
 hours before she was expected. 
 
 The consequence of that fact was that nobody met 
 her at the Greendale station, and, whether she made in- 
 quiries and was directed how to find Myquest, or did 
 not, the fact remained that she walked the distance 
 of a little more than a mile across the golf-links, and 
 so arrived unheralded and unannounced. 
 
 She approached the house by way of the tennis- 
 courts, where some of the ladies were playing a four- 
 some, and where Katherine was seated beside Betty, 
 looking on. 
 
 It was Katherine who saw her first, and at once 
 guessed her identity. Indeed, there could have been no 
 mistaking the Spanish type of beauty that was hers, 
 and to which Mme. Savage had referred. 
 
 She walked moderately fast, with a graceful, swing- 
 ing gait (daintily, like a gazelle, Tom Clancy said 
 afterward), like one who had spent much time in the 
 open and among the wilds, who had scaled mountains, 
 perhaps. 
 
 Katherine left her chair and hurried to meet the 
 senorita, with both hands outstretched in greeting, 
 and she exclaimed, while they were yet some distance 
 apart: 
 
 "It is Senorita Cervantez, isn't it? I am so sorry
 
 60 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 that nobody was at the station to meet you, but really, 
 I understand that you were to arrive at four, and you 
 must have come on the one-twenty." 
 
 Katherine saw an expression of utter amazement 
 flashed into the eyes of Senorita Cervantez ; and it was 
 only a flash, being gone again with the instant of its 
 appearance, like the distant lightning of a summer 
 night. Katherine was not even sure that it had ex- 
 pressed amazement ; it might have been anything. 
 
 And then Katherine met with a surprise; an aston- 
 ishing one. 
 
 Senorita Cervantez did not reply. 
 
 She smiled and it was a beautiful smile that lighted 
 up her countenance wonderfully thus indicating that 
 she had perfectly understood all that Katherine had 
 said. A quick and emphatic nod of her perfectly poised 
 head accompanied the smile. The fingers of her left 
 hand, exquisitely gloved, were lifted to her lips, and 
 touched them, while she shook her head slowly, still 
 smiling ; and then, for a brief instant, she accepted both 
 of Katherine's extended hands. 
 
 But she dropped them at once, and bent forward 
 over the small black satchel she had been carrying, 
 which she had put down as Katherine approached her. 
 
 She opened it, she thrust a hand inside, into a pocket 
 of it, and brought forth a fountain pen and a small 
 pad of paper; and then, to Katherine's utter amaze- 
 ment even to her consternation and dismay the 
 senorita began to write upon it. 
 
 The tennis game was momentarily discontinued. The 
 players were grouped together, close to the net. Betty 
 left her chair and moved slowly toward Katherine and 
 the new arrival and the senorita, with never a word 
 or a lifting of her great, dark eyes, continued to write 
 while Katherine awaited the denouement, whatever it
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL PIANISTE 61 
 
 was to be, with many emotions. When the topmost 
 sheet of the pad had been half filled with written words, 
 the senorita lifted a pair of smiling eyes and passed 
 it to her bewildered hostess. 
 It read as follows: 
 
 I regret that I cannot speak these words to acknowledge your 
 gracious welcome. Once I thought I was to be a great singer, 
 but on the eve of success my voice was taken from me utterly. 
 Sometimes not always it is possible for me to converse in a 
 faint whisper, although it is an effort to do so. I hear perfectly. 
 Forgive me, and please be patient. My fingers shall talk to you, 
 in this manner, and still better upon the keys of a piano. 
 
 "Oh, I am so sorry !" Katherine exclaimed, and with 
 an impulse she did not seek to control she put her 
 hands upon the stranger's shoulders and kissed her on 
 the cheek and it was a glowing, olive-and-rose-tinted 
 cheek that anybody might have been glad to kiss. 
 
 Katherine, by a gesture, summoned the others around 
 her. She presented the senorita. She explained the 
 situation, almost with tears in her eyes, for she felt in- 
 stantly and mysteriously drawn to the woman who was 
 so strangely bereft of the power of speech. The senor- 
 ita was undoubtedly beautiful, with face and features 
 and glowing eyes as young as Katherine Harvard's or 
 Betty Clancy's, and yet whose hair, once of midnight 
 hue, was thickly interwoven with gray. She was tall 
 as tall as Katherine and straight, and willowy, and 
 as graceful in every motion she made as a fawn. 
 
 Katherine took the little bag, to which the pen and 
 pad had been returned, and led the pianiste toward the 
 house. 
 
 Bridge, in the billiard-room, had been discontinued 
 somewhat earlier than usual that day, and thus it hap- 
 pened that Conrad Belknap sauntered through the 
 wide doorway at the moment when Katherine and the 
 senorita arrived at the top of the veranda steps.
 
 62 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 He came to a sudden stop at the threshold when he 
 discovered them. 
 
 It seemed to Katherine vaguely then, although she 
 recalled the circumstance later as if he had the im- 
 pulse to turn about and escape. Instead, he moved 
 forward, and with the expression in his eyes of one who 
 expects to be introduced. 
 
 Katherine presented him to the senorita in a few cool 
 and well-chosen words, to which she added, as briefly as 
 possible, an explanation of the senorita's infirmity. 
 
 A look of wonderment or was it genuine amaze- 
 ment? appeared upon the features of the gentlemanly 
 card-sharp. For a brief moment it appeared as if he 
 likewise was speechless. Then, as if he had suddenly re- 
 called the last words of Katherine's explanation to the 
 effect that Senorita Cervantez could hear perfectly 
 well, he uttered a few well-selected words about the 
 pleasure of making her acquaintance, bowed low over 
 her extended hand (another indication of her Spanish 
 type, by the way), and went past them down the steps. 
 
 But he turned around and stood staring at the door- 
 way after they had passed into the house and disap- 
 peared. 
 
 There was an unmistakable grin of amused annoy- 
 ance upon his face. He bore the attitude of one who 
 is asking himself many unanswerable questions, although 
 he uttered no word, and his lips did not move. Present- 
 ly he shrugged, and threw out his hands with the palms 
 upward, like a pawnbroker who is remarking, "Veil, 
 how much did you expect, anyhow?" and continued on 
 his way to the tennis-courts. 
 
 To Betty, by whose side he seated himself, he ap- 
 peared strangely preoccupied ; so much so, indeed, that 
 she spoke about it. 
 
 "I was thinking," he explained smilingly, "what a
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL PIANISTE 63 
 
 pity it is that one so exquisitely lovely as that piano- 
 player should be speechless. By every rule of fair play, 
 you know, she ought to possess a beautiful voice ; one 
 expects it of her. I er I experienced something very 
 much like a shock, Mrs. Clancy, when I was told that 
 she is dumb.** 
 
 "You met them, and Katherine presented you ? Isn't 
 it too bad?" 
 
 "Too bad ! Why, if you knew what a voice she 
 I am getting twisted. If one stops to realize what a 
 
 voice she ought to have, to match such a face " He 
 
 stopped again, and a grimace which might have ex- 
 pressed regret, disappointment, admiration, or resent- 
 ment, and which, in fact suggested all four, found ex- 
 pression in his features. 
 
 "To think of her being a dummy!" he added, sotto 
 voce, but with emphasis. 
 
 "That is distinctly an unkind expression, Mr. Bel- 
 knap," Betty exclaimed indignantly : "She is not dum- 
 my. She lost her voice while she was taking singing- 
 lessons strained it studying for the opera. She was 
 to be a very great star, but her voice left her. Her 
 hearing is perfectly good; sometimes she can speak, 
 in a very slow whisper, although it is very great effort 
 for her to do it, and nobody ought to ask it of her. 
 Always she can talk with her fingers on the piano- 
 keys. She " 
 
 "You surprise me, Mrs. Clancy. I am not aware 
 that you knew the lady. I had been led to believe that 
 she was a stranger to all of us," Belknap said quietly. 
 "Have you er met her before somewhere or heard 
 her play?" 
 
 "No. I don't know her at all, although I feel as 
 though I should. She is " Betty stopped.
 
 64 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "She is what?" Belknap asked with repressed eager- 
 ness to hear the answer. 
 
 Betty tossed her head and laughed aloud as she 
 started from her chair to her feet. 
 
 "I started to say that twice," she remarked, with 
 mischief in her eyes, "but just because you seem so 
 anxious to know the rest of it, I won't finish it. I am 
 afraid, Mr. Belknap, that you are considering the 
 practicability of a serious flirtation with a speechless 
 woman, so I shall keep half an eye on you." 
 
 "Are you leaving me so quickly?" he asked, with a 
 show of regret in his eyes. 
 
 "Yes, M. Pathetique for you are pathetic in your 
 pathos over the beautiful pianiste I am going in, to 
 the telephone, to speak to my husband. Tom is so im- 
 pressionable that I really think he should be warned 
 beforehand of the presence of one so surpassingly beau- 
 tiful as Senorita Cervantez. Alle-ka-zam, Mr. Bel- 
 knap," she finished mockingly, and ran away, laughing. 
 
 Without in the least realizing it, she left the man 
 writhing. 
 
 Betty had done nothing more than banter him, with- 
 out forethought or objective; but in both her words 
 and her manner he read it was pure fancy, of course 
 a threat. She had conveyed the idea, without inten- 
 tion to do so, that she had seen, or heard, or known 
 Senorita Cervantez before that day, and that for some 
 undisclosed reason she preferred to keep others in 
 ignorance of that fact. 
 
 If Betty had sought with studied deliberation to 
 stick a poisoned pin into the only vulnerable part of 
 Belknap's anatomy, she could not have accomplished 
 it so well as by those carelessly and mischievously 
 chosen words. 
 
 He stared after her, wondering what could be be-
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL PIANISTE 65 
 
 hind what she had said, for he was strangely puzzled, 
 oddly disturbed, and actually worried by the develop- 
 ments that had followed upon the arrival of Senorita 
 Cervantez; and he was asking himself over and over 
 again : 
 
 "What the devil does she mean by playing dumb? 
 What's her game in being speechless? Has this con- 
 founded Betty Clancy ever seen her, or heard her play, 
 or heard her speak? And if so, does she know that 
 the dummy act is a lie? Has Betty Clancy seen me 
 before, too? Has she seen Berta and me together 
 somewhere? She is from the South; it might be so. 
 And what the devil is she telephoning to New York 
 about, right off the bat after this happens?" 
 
 Those were the questions that flew into Belknap's 
 mind when Betty left him, but the most puzzling one of 
 the lot was the first one: "What in the world does 
 Berta mean what is her game what does she hope 
 to accomplish by playing dumb?"
 
 LADY KATE GETS WISE 
 
 BETTY, having Tom on the telephone, announced the 
 arrival of the senorita, described her beautj and her 
 infirmity, expressed t^.e hope that he would be out 
 early, asked a lot of immaterial questions, and finally 
 came to the real purpose of calling him up. 
 
 "I want you, please, to stop at the house on your 
 way out to-night, and bring to me that old morocco 
 case with the strap around it, that used to belong to my 
 grandmother. You remember it, don't you? It's in 
 the safe where the silver is kept. Uhuh. Yes, dear. 
 There are some old daguerreotypes in it, you remem- 
 ber? They were made about a thousand years 
 ago, but all the same, Tom, this Senorita Espa- 
 fiola is a dead ringer for one of those old daguerreo- 
 types, unless I am very greatly mistaken. When she 
 first appeared I couldn't for the life of me think where 
 it was that I had seen her before, and then I remem- 
 bered that old portrait in grandmother's morocco 
 portfolio-case. Of course, dear. It may be just a fool- 
 notion of mine, but I'd like to see for myself, so you 
 needn't look at it; you wouldn't know, anyhow, be- 
 cause you haven't seen her. A beauty? Oh, my dear! 
 I should say so ! Mr. Belknap has lost his heart to her 
 already. Anyhow, I would just like to show her that 
 old picture, if it does look like her. Uhuh. Yes, dear, 
 of course. Now, listen." 
 
 66
 
 LADY KATE GETS WISE 67 
 
 She finished by making a sound in imitation of a 
 noisy kiss, and hung up. 
 
 Katherine, having attended to the wants of her beau- 
 tiful entertainer, and asked her to join the guests on 
 the veranda as soon as she was inclined to do so, and 
 having directed that the senorita's small trunk be 
 brought from the station, went out of the house by the 
 side door, and, without previous intention, but because 
 she found it pleasant to be alone for a moment, dropped 
 upon the sheltered rustic seat beneath the rose-bower 
 which had been the scene of one of her verbal contests 
 with Belknap. 
 
 One could see out from its secluded recess much bet- 
 ter than into it from without, and from where she sat, 
 through the interstices between climbing rose-stems 
 and interlaced boughs of foliage, she caught glimpses 
 of the figures around the tennis-courts, and of those 
 upon the veranda. 
 
 She saw Betty leave the side of Belknap and go into 
 the house, laughing; she saw Belknap, presently, rise 
 and stroll about the grounds with apparent aimlessness, 
 although and she found that she was watching him 
 intently, without having realized it each turn that 
 he made carried him nearer to that same side entrance 
 from which she had just come. 
 
 She saw, too, that when he had passed behind the 
 partial screen of the nearer gardens, he glanced, fur- 
 tively, this way and that, as if to discover if notice 
 was being taken of his movements. 
 
 Then, of a sudden, he started into quicker motions, 
 approached the steps to the side entrance, sprang up 
 them, and darted inside. 
 
 It was then that Katherine's police training in 
 other words, the habit of suspicion proved its value.
 
 68 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 As palpably as if the words of it had been spoken 
 into her ears, the truth about Senorita Cervantez was 
 betrayed to her. 
 
 Senorita Cervantez was not Senorita Cervantez at all 
 or, if she were that if Cervantez happened to be 
 really her true name, then her other one, her first one, 
 the given name that belonged to her and that had not 
 been mentioned, was Roberta. 
 
 She was the woman with the voice ! 
 
 She was the female accomplice of Conrad Belknap, 
 whose arrival at Myquest she had been anticipating. 
 
 Katherine was dazed by the shock of the intelligence, 
 and she sat very still, indeed, in her rose bower. 
 
 She had not dreamed of such a possibility although 
 she realized that she might well have done so, for was 
 not the time at hand when the accomplice was to be 
 expected to arrive at Myquest ? Such a thought would 
 not have occurred to her in wildest imaginings if she 
 had not seen and watched Belknap's actions just then ; 
 but was not the time at hand for the fulfillment of the 
 "arrangements," for the appearance at Myquest of 
 the accomplice, as revealed by the voices in the tele- 
 phone ? 
 
 "Assuredly," she told herself inaudibly, "there can 
 be no mistake." 
 
 She recalled also the meeting between the two on 
 the veranda, when she was taking the senorita into the 
 house Belknap's apparent amazement because of the 
 pianiste's infirmity, which had been natural enough at 
 the time, but which took on an entirely new aspect in 
 the list of the later revelation. 
 
 He had not anticipated that ; he had not expected it ; 
 it had amazed him out of his studied reserve and calm 
 because he had not been told to expect it. 
 
 "But why, why, why was he not told?" Katherine
 
 LADY KATE GETS WISE 69 
 
 demanded of herself voicelessly; and immediately a 
 great light fell upon her. 
 
 "Why, indeed?'* Katherine did not give voice to 
 her thoughts, but they were perfectly worded for all 
 of that; and she replied to the self-asked query: 
 
 "Because she did not know it herself until, upon 
 that instant when she heard my voice speaking to her 
 in welcome, and recognized it, she knew that she would 
 betray herself to me on the spot, if she uttered a word. 
 That's why. And, oh, what wit ! What splendid pres- 
 ence of mind! What superlative mental preparedness 
 for emergencies ! And she never once batted an eye." 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the precise effect up- 
 on Katherine Harvard of that suddenly acquired knowl- 
 edge for, be it said with all emphasis, it was knowl- 
 edge absolute, even though it had not been so much 
 as suggested to her mind until that moment of com- 
 plete conviction of its truth. 
 
 It stunned her for the moment. 
 
 The face, the manner, the personality of the seno- 
 rita, had impressed Katherine as favorably as had the 
 woman's voice when she had first heard it upon the tele- 
 phone wire. She had been drawn to the entertainer, 
 strangely, oddly, psychologically, intuitively inex- 
 plicably is perhaps a better word than any of them 
 and the fact remained, the puzzling fact, too, that it 
 had been a rare event, indeed, in Katherine's experi- 
 ences, when her intuitions had been at fault. 
 
 Yet, present in her own home, was the beautiful wo- 
 man who was a declared enemy ; a woman who must, 
 perforce, also have knowledge of Katherine's secret, 
 and who had come there to act as an accomplice and 
 an assistant to Belknap in the threat to divulge it, 
 unless unless what? That was the puzzle. What
 
 70 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 what could it be that Belknap and this beautiful wo- 
 man were after at Myquest? 
 
 And in her was no mean adversary. 
 
 In her was a foeman worthy of all of Katherine's 
 skill ; as subtle, as resourceful, as ready of wit, and as 
 courageous as Katherine herself. 
 
 Like the war-horse that scents the distant battle, 
 like the cavalry steed that hears the bugle's peal to 
 "boots and saddles," Katherine lifted her head, and 
 with partly distended nostrils, started to her feet be- 
 neath the rose-bower, with the light of battle shining 
 in her eyes, with defiance in her heart and brain, and 
 with the glory of successful conquest for her accepted 
 goal. 
 
 "So be it," she murmured, and stepped from the 
 bower into the pathway, moving swiftly along it toward 
 the side entrance through which Belknap had disap- 
 peared. 
 
 She believed that he had gone in to seek an inter- 
 view with the senorita, and she hoped that she might 
 find them and surprise them in the act of conversing to- 
 gether, thus exposing the senoritd's subterfuge. 
 
 Such was Katherine's intention when she started for- 
 ward, for she was filled with resentment at the decep- 
 tion that had been so deftly practised upon her; but 
 by the time she passed the doorway a second thought 
 convinced her of the impracticability of such an act. 
 
 "Better, much better, to make them both believe 
 that I am ignorant of the deception," she told herself, 
 "and to watch and wait and to keep on watching 
 and waiting." 
 
 She came upon them silently herself unobserved, 
 where they faced one another in the embrasure of a 
 window in the drawing-room. 
 
 Senorita Cervantez, pianiste, undoubted accomplice
 
 LADY KATE GETS WISE 71 
 
 of Conrad Belknap voiceless, and yet, if the truth were 
 known, the possessor of the most attractive speaking- 
 voice that Katherine had ever heard proved herself 
 to be far too capable and shrewd to expose herself 
 through carelessness at the very beginning of her stay 
 at Myqueet. 
 
 She was standing in the embrasure of the drawing- 
 room window, with Belknap, it is true, when Katherine 
 noiselessly approached them through the music-room; 
 but a little sheaf of ivory tablets and a tiny gold 
 pencil (not unlike the same convenience that was af- 
 fected by Mm. Savage), dropped from her fingers at 
 the moment when Katherine discovered them, and it 
 would have been apparent to anybody that she had been 
 using both, to converse with her companion. The arti- 
 cles were, seemingly , a part of her regular apparel, and 
 were attached to a fine gold chain that encircled her 
 neck, as an older woman might have carried a lorgnette. 
 
 There was not a circumstance connected with her 
 expression or demeanor to betray her to the sharpest 
 observer, and the sole satisfaction that Katherine could 
 glean by reason of her stealthy approach, was in Bel- 
 knap's attitude. 
 
 He was plainly annoyed, palpably frustrated, and 
 flustered. It was evident to Katherine that he had de- 
 manded an explanation, and that it had been denied 
 to him. If she had been aware of the last communica- 
 tion that was written on one of the ivory tablets, and 
 as speedily erased, she would have comprehended better 
 the reason for the exasperation that gripped him. 
 
 "One more such remark from you will send me back 
 to where I came from. I will take no risks. R.'s sis- 
 ter is shrewder than you think for. If you don't play 
 up to me, thoroughly, I will go away, and you will 
 have to play a lone hand; that is final," was what the
 
 72 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 senorita had written and Katherine had not arrived 
 on the scene soon enough to overhear the remark that 
 had induced it. 
 
 Having expressed herself, the senorita was ready to 
 end the interview. 
 
 Even as Katherine crossed the music-room toward 
 them and saw the ivory tablets drop from Roberta's 
 fingers, she stepped through the open window to the 
 veranda, and Belknap, perforce, followed. 
 
 So did Katherine, in effect, although she passed out 
 by way of the door. 
 
 Belknap joined the society buds at the end of the 
 veranda, who like to coquette with him, and Roberta 
 (it was thus that Katherine mentally named her, now) 
 was standing beside a chair occupied by Mme. Savage, 
 and was writing rapidly upon one of the tablets when 
 Katherine went outside. 
 
 "Dear me ! You don't say ! How sorry I am !" 
 Mme. Savage was exclaiming while she read what was 
 written for her. "And to think that I was never told 
 about it. Oh, well, I suppose I was told, and paid no 
 attention; it's just like me; I'm often told things that 
 I don't hear." 
 
 Then, with amazing suddenness, the old lady changed 
 her speech into Spanish, taking it for granted that it 
 was the native tongue of Senorita Cervantez and 
 Katherine, watching and listening, saw Roberta smile 
 and nod her head, and have recourse to her tablets 
 again, evidently responding in the language of Castile. 
 
 So she was quite prepared in that way, too, and was 
 not to be surprised off guard. 
 
 Katherine went to them, and Roberta wrote : 
 
 "Please go with me to the piano, and let me play for 
 you, first; but ask the others not to follow us. I wish 
 to play, now, to you, alone."
 
 LADY KATE GETS WISE 7S 
 
 So Katherine made the announcement and then, as 
 they went toward the doorway side by side, she felt 
 one of Roberta's arms passed softly around her, and 
 heard the faintest of whispers in her ear, saying: 
 
 "May I, please?" And, when Katherine nodded her 
 head in reply, and they had passed the portal, that 
 far-away, almost indistinct whispering continued: 
 "You are so sweet and lovely to me, Mrs. Harvard. 
 Forgive me if I seem too familiar." 
 
 Then, to Katherine's utter amazement, Roberta 
 kissed her on the cheek. 
 
 Was the strange woman a saint in the toils of Satan, 
 compelled against her will to become Belknap's ac- 
 complice in dishonor and crime? Was she, also, a 
 victim of the effrontery and threats of Belknap, be- 
 cause of some secret of hers that the man possessed? 
 Or, was she just a willing tool, an unmoral creature, a 
 beautiful vampire, and, with it all, a perfect, a superb 
 actress? 
 
 Katherine shuddered involuntarily even while she 
 returned Roberta's embrace. She was repelled and at- 
 tracted. The woman frightened her, and charmed her. 
 She wanted to strike her and hurt her because of her 
 association with Belknap, and she longed to embrace 
 her and make a friend and confidante of her, because of 
 the magnetism and the fascination that she exerted. 
 
 Roberta played. 
 
 Katherine had dropped upon a chair with her elbow 
 on the arm of it and her chin in her hand. 
 
 Never, never, had she listened to such music as she 
 heard then. 
 
 Seiiorita Cervantez had written truly upon her tablet 
 when she asserted that she could talk with her fingers. 
 
 Such fingers and hands, such messages as they sent
 
 74 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 out, such music as they produced ! It was wonderful 
 impromptu, also, Katherine believed. 
 
 It began with brilliance, as if portraying the full- 
 ness of life's contentment ; it glided into the rhythm of 
 quiet harmony, as if two, who were all the world to one 
 another, were alone together, and dwelt in happiness ; 
 it rumbled into distant storms and the threatenings 
 of gathering clouds; it crashed into violence, and up- 
 heaval, and strife, and terror; it minored into pathos 
 and sorrows, and into the shadows of regret and re- 
 morse; it rose again into a tarantella of recklessness 
 and abandon, of license and irresponsibility ; it sub- 
 sided, slowly, into the humdrum of mingled storm and 
 clearing; it died away, gradually, in major and minor 
 minglings of uncertainties and doubts, mitigated by 
 the offerings of promises and hopes and at last it 
 tinkled away into silence, at high treble, followed by a 
 single, distant note of bass, uncannily giving the im- 
 pression of a double interrogation at the end. 
 
 Truly the woman could talk with her fingers. 
 
 Katherine had the indefinable sensation of having 
 viewed, as in a dream, the pictured story of Roberta's 
 past of having seen a vague, unshaped vision of it, 
 with its hopes, and promises, its passions and emotions, 
 its mistakes and their penalties, its regrets and yearn- 
 ings; and, at the end, it had seemed like a whispered, 
 inarticulate prayer for uplift and aid to an opportun- 
 ity for atonement by good deeds. 
 
 Roberta left the piano and went to Katherine where 
 she sat in silent and motionless absorption. She bent 
 down dose to her beautiful young hostess as beautiful 
 in a different type as herself and with her lips touch- 
 ing Katherine's ear, whispered, so faintly that it was an 
 impression rather than a sound that escaped her: 
 
 "Dear Mrs. Harvard, did I say truly when I wrote
 
 LADY KATE GETS WISE 75 
 
 that I could talk with my fingers? I have tried to tell 
 you something about myself something of the past." 
 She seemed to hesitate, then, for an instant, and added 
 the whispered words being fainter than before: "I 
 want oh, how much I do want to have you try to love 
 me." 
 
 Katherine, startled by the passionate longing that 
 was conveyed, even by so faint a whisper, looked up 
 quickly, but already Roberta had pulled herself erect, 
 had turned away, and was gliding swiftly out of the 
 room. 
 
 Truly was she a woman of mystery ; aye, truly ! 
 
 Then it was that Katherine saw something more ; she 
 saw Belknap as he stepped partly into view from be- 
 hind an easel in the drawing-room; she saw him thrust 
 out an arm and hand, and seize upon one of Roberta's 
 wrists ; she saw him draw her forcibly after him as he 
 retreated again behind the easel ; and she saw a frown 
 between his eyes and the sneering snarl of his wolfish 
 smile baring his glistening teeth. Also, having studied 
 it and been trained to it, she could lip-read the words 
 he uttered, although she could not hear them but, if 
 Katherine had needed confirmation of her suspicions, 
 she received it. 
 
 "You she-devil !" were the words he used. "What do 
 you- 
 
 Then they both passed beyond her view.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE 
 
 TOM and Betty Clancy, in the privacy of their own 
 suite at Myquest, were differently employed, and yet 
 the investigations of both were tending toward the same 
 consequence if either had but known it. 
 
 It was Saturday midnight ; that is to say, the night 
 of the day following upon the arrival of Senorita Cer- 
 vantez, and Betty's absorption by her occupation was 
 due to the fact that Tom, the preceding day, had en- 
 tirely forgotten her telephonic order about the morocco 
 portfolio-case that had belonged to her grandmother. 
 He had not been neglectful a second time (after Betty 
 had expressed her opinion of his indifference to her 
 wishes), you may be sure; and so, she was studiously 
 examining the daguerreotype likenesses of a collection 
 of individuals who had lived generations before she was 
 born. 
 
 Tom, on the other hand, had taken a sealed envelope 
 from the coat he had worn into the city that day, and 
 was poring over a couple of typewritten pages that it 
 had contained. 
 
 Both had preferred to wait until they had gone to 
 their rooms for the night to perform their separate 
 tasks, for, although not a word had passed between 
 them in regard to their designs, each wished to discuss 
 with the other the facts or the suggestions -which 
 might accrue. 
 
 76
 
 THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE 77 
 
 We already know what Betty searched for. As for 
 Tom well, we need only recall to mind a conversation 
 between him and Bing when they were on their way 
 to town the preceding Tuesday, and when the latter 
 had sought Tom's opinion of Belknap, and Tom had 
 so frankly expressed it. 
 
 Neither of them had said much on the subject at the 
 time, but both had continued to "think" about it after- 
 ward and Tom had done some "acting" as well as 
 thinking. 
 
 He had no sooner attended to his mail and finished 
 his regular morning dictation, that day, than he swung 
 the bracketed telephone beside his desk into use, and 
 called up the Rodney Rushton Detective Bureau. His 
 instructions to ex-Lieutenant Rushton, formerly of the 
 police headquarters detective staff, were characteristic, 
 and are worth repeating. 
 
 "Hello, Rushton," he said. "This is Clancy. Sure. 
 I'm always well. Say! take your pencil and jot down 
 a few of the items that I'm going to mention, and that 
 you will want to remember. All ready? There's a guy 
 down at Myquest Mr. Harvard's place on Long Is- 
 land, you know by the name of Conrad Belknap. Got 
 that? I don't suppose it's his right name, but it's the 
 only one I know. He had a letter of introduction to 
 the Harry Archers, and they took him to Myquest. I 
 don't like him, Rushton. No; there is no particular 
 reason why I don't; I just do not. He plays cards 
 just as if he knew how, and he's got a grin on him 
 exactly like the cat's after it swallowed the canary. 
 Get me? I want his dossier. I want you to find out 
 where he came from, what brought him to New York, 
 what he is here for, who his acquaintances and friends 
 are, what he eats and where he sleeps when he isn't 
 leeching on somebody, and you get me, don't you?
 
 78 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 All right, Rushton. Have some sort of report ready 
 for me by noon, Saturday. No; send it to my office. 
 I'll take it down to Myquest with me, and look it over, 
 and Monday morning I will telephone for you to come 
 down here to see me." 
 
 It was the report that he had received from Rodney 
 Rushton that Tom was reading while Betty was search- 
 ing among the daguerreotypes. 
 
 Betty completed her investigations first. 
 
 She started eagerly, and her lips parted to speak 
 to Tom, when, perceiving that he was closely occupied, 
 she waited; then, after another interval, he broke the 
 silence between them rather queerly, too, she thought. 
 
 "Look here, Betty," he said, "what is your opinion 
 of that chap Belknap? You're rather clever about 
 such things, and I'd like to hear it." 
 
 "Mr. Belknap? Oh, he's good looking, rather dis- 
 tinguished in appearance, and " 
 
 "That isn't your opinion; it's the verdict of the 
 bunch. I want yours flat-footed." 
 
 "I think he's horrid if you must know." 
 
 "Oh, do you?" Tom laughed. "I'd have bet a thou- 
 sand on your answer. Now, tell me why?" 
 
 "Oh, I don't know. I couldn't put my finger on a 
 thing that he's done, or failed to do, for that matter. 
 He's just horrid kinda snaky. I always have the 
 feeling when I am near to him, that he ought to smell 
 bad ; only he doesn't ; or, at least if he does, I have never 
 noticed it. He's er repulsive to me; and I ought 
 not to say this, but I'm going to, just the same I 
 can't get the notion out of my head that Kitten is 
 afraid of him." 
 
 "Wha-a-af?" Tom, in his astonishment, turned 
 around in his chair and stared.
 
 THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE 79 
 
 Bessie nodded her head with emphasis. Then she 
 replied, slowly: 
 
 "I've seen her start, and shiver, and contract her 
 lips and her eyelids when he has spoken suddenly to 
 her not so that anybody but I would notice it not so 
 that I would, if we hadn't been almost like twin sisters 
 ever since we were born. I I feel it, rather than see it. 
 Katherine is afraid of him or I miss my reckon-so. 
 And, say, Tom, dear, have you ever watched a cat that 
 was playing with a mouse that wasn't much hurt? Just 
 pretending not to see it, but watching all the time with 
 a sort of satisfied smirk around its jowl, and with one 
 of its velvet-padded paws ready to shoot out and plant 
 their needle-pointed claws into Mr. Mouse's tender 
 skin? Well, that's exactly the way that Conrad Bel- 
 knap looks to me when he's anywhere near to Katherine. 
 Now, if you can make head and tail to that, you're 
 welcome." 
 
 "That isn't a polite way to speak of one of her 
 guests, is it?" Tom bantered. 
 
 "He isn't her guest; he's Harry Archer's and 
 Harry doesn't know him from Adam. Kitten told me 
 so. I asked her, and she had to tell me. What are 
 you questioning me about him for?" 
 
 "Because I don't like him any more than you do, 
 Betty." 
 
 "I thought so." 
 
 "So I put Rushton on his trail." 
 
 "What does he say about him?" 
 
 "That is what I've just been reading. He doesn't 
 say anything and he uses two sheets of letter-paper 
 to do it. The gist of it all is that Belknap showed up 
 in town about three weeks ago; brought letters of in- 
 troduction to a lot of good people; has been 'put up' 
 at half a dozen clubs ; lives, when he's in town, at the
 
 80 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Hotel Colossal; is always well supplied with money; 
 poses as the owner of mines and ranches in the south- 
 west, and is probably trying to promote them; regis- 
 tered as from Phoenix, Arizona, but is supposed, in 
 Arizona, to be from New Orleans and the chief of 
 police in New Orleans never heard of him and doesn't 
 know anything about him. Rushton's report closes 
 with the two words, 'more later.' ' 
 
 "Are you through with Mr. Belknap for the moment, 
 Tom?" 
 
 "Yes. Why?'* 
 
 "Come over here and take a peep at this picture, 
 and tell me who it looks like." 
 
 Clancy did so. He leaned over Betty's shoulder, 
 and because of the reflected light, could not see the 
 daguerreotype distinctly. He took it in his hand and 
 presently got it into a position so that the picture was 
 risible. 
 
 "Great Scott !" he exclaimed, staring at it. Then he 
 turned it over in his hand, satisfying himself that it 
 really was an ancient daguerreotype, case and all. 
 Next, he covered the lower part of the picture with one 
 of his hands and put a thumb over the top of it, con- 
 cealing the hair; and after a moment, with entire con- 
 viction, he said : 
 
 "Betty, if it weren't for the style of dress, and the 
 way the hair is done if I could see nothing but the 
 features, I'd be willing to take the witness-stand and 
 swear that the beautiful dummy who played for us so 
 wonderfully to-night Senorita Cervantez, is her name, 
 isn't it? sat for his picture. Whose picture is it, 
 anyhow?" 
 
 "She was my great-grandmother, Tom. Also, she 
 was Katherine's great-great-aunt, because her brother 
 was Katherine's great-grandfather. But that isn't the
 
 THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE 81 
 
 point; this is it: who is Senorita Cervantez who can 
 she be that she is a perfect facial reproduction of my 
 great-grandmother and Kitten's great-great-aunt when 
 she was twenty years old in the year 1845, seventy- 
 two years ago? Who is the beautiful senorita, Tom? 
 Who can she be?" 
 
 There were other restless spirits and preoccupied 
 mentalities at Myquest that Saturday night. 
 
 The guests had begun to seek their several quarters 
 earlier than customary, ostensibly to make ready for a 
 planned excursion for the morrow, so that by eleven 
 o'clock Tom and Betty Clancy, the Archers, Demming, 
 and Coraline Crane who were rapidly approaching 
 the beatific state whereby an engagement is announced 
 Diana Loring and Belknap, who seemed to find mu- 
 tual delight in one another's society, and the senorita 
 with Bing and Lady Kate, were all that remained be- 
 low stairs. 
 
 It was shortly after eleven when Demming and Miss 
 Crane wandered down a path into the shrubbery for 
 their last good-nights, to reappear shortly, and part, 
 and disappear toward their separate ways. Then the 
 senorita rose abruptly, murmured a collective good- 
 night to all of them, and glided swiftly away, thus an- 
 ticipating by a hair the departure of Miss Loring 
 and making it seem to the ever-observant Katherine 
 that Roberta had been watching them for the very pur- 
 pose of rising and going at the moment when she would 
 best be able to avoid Belknap ; and Katherine was sure 
 that she caught a glint in Belknap's eyes that mani- 
 fested chagrin because Roberta had avoided him. 
 
 However, she did escape without giving Belknap an 
 opportunity for a word with her, and without a glance 
 in his direction, although he did rise from the swing- 
 ing piazza-chair, as if to approach her.
 
 82 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIN 
 
 The Archers were next to leave; then the Clancys; 
 and as they passed into the house Belknap lighted a 
 fresh cigarette, crossed to the top of the steps, and 
 remarked : 
 
 "The night is much too fine to turn in jet. I think 
 I'll take a stroll." 
 
 He disappeared down one of the paths, thus leaving 
 Harvard and his wife alone. 
 
 "Go to bed if you like, Katherine," Bing remarked. 
 "I'll sit here a while longer possibly I'll wait for 
 Belknap. I don't feel like going in just yet." 
 
 Katherine, who had risen at the beginning of his 
 speech, started a trifle as she bent forward to kiss her 
 husband good-night and then assuming that his re- 
 mark about waiting for Belknap had been merely a 
 casual one, an excuse rather than a purpose, she went 
 inside. 
 
 Bing Harvard did not alter his reclining position 
 upon the chair he occupied for several moments after 
 Katherine had gone; but, then, he got upon his feet, 
 passed down the length of the veranda, turned and de- 
 scended by the side steps to the path. 
 
 Instantly, when he had gained the shaded walk, he 
 was all alertness. 
 
 The instinctive dislike that he felt toward Belknap 
 had crystallized into a settled one during the week 
 just past and he had not a reason in the world that 
 he could call by name to account for it. 
 
 But the fact troubled him; also it had made him 
 hypersensitive to every surrounding condition, and 
 superwatchful of the little things that happened and 
 he had made up his mind to be the last one in the 
 house to go to bed that night, with no reason whatever 
 for the decision. 
 
 Nor did he become alert because of any accountable
 
 THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE 83 
 
 reason when he entered the shadows of the grounds; 
 rather, it was the alertness of habit, inculcated during 
 the Night Wind days, and never quite abandoned since 
 then. 
 
 Like every other member of the household, he was 
 conscious of the charm of Senorita Cevantez, and un- 
 der the spell of her marvelous skill upon the piano ; also, 
 like the others, although a little more so because more 
 sensitive in that respect, he resented the unkindness of 
 the fate that had deprived her of the power of speech. 
 It seemed monstrous to him unbelievably preposterous 
 a travesty; and he had found it difficult to keep his 
 eyes away from her. 
 
 Thus, while studying her with no other incentives 
 than sympathy and admiration, but nevertheless watch- 
 ing her covertly, he had seen well, other things that he 
 had not sought; little, nameless, unimportant triviali- 
 ties, chiefest among which was the impression he re- 
 ceived of her suppressed but to him apparent con- 
 sciousness of Belknap. 
 
 Outwardly she seemed almost to ignore him to be 
 less aware of him than of any other gentleman in the 
 party ; and yet Bing felt, rather than was conscious of 
 it, that the man did not utter a word that Senorita Cer- 
 vantez did not hear and register that the man did 
 not make a move, however natural, simple, or unimport- 
 ant, that Senorita Cervantez did not, by some occult 
 sensitiveness, anticipate. 
 
 Perhaps it was partly because Bing was also covertly 
 watchful of Belknap, although unconscious of it, that 
 he saw and took account of such happenings if there 
 were such ; and he was by no means sure on that point. 
 
 He did not go around to the side steps of the veranda 
 and descend to the path for the definite purpose of
 
 84 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 watching Belknap ; in reality he had no thought of such 
 a purpose when he started. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was his purpose, just the same 
 and before he returned to the house and sought his bed, 
 he had found a reason for more puzzling surmises anent 
 the true character and calling, and the undeveloped 
 purposes, of Mr. Conrad Belknap. 
 
 Katherine was restless also. 
 
 She did not retire when she had prepared herself 
 for bed. Instead, after a moment of pondering, she 
 put on a daintily embroidered negligee over her night 
 dress, extinguished the lights in her room, and stepped 
 through the open French window to her private bal- 
 cony. 
 
 She had at the moment no other thought than to sit, 
 quiescent, in the starlit night and think upon her per- 
 plexities; but, with the instant of stepping outside, 
 with the black background of the darkened window be- 
 hind her, and the starlight and waning moonbeams up- 
 on the gardenlike grounds of Myquest beneath her, she 
 too, became alert and watchful.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 MIDNIGHT AND AFTEE 
 
 SHE saw the figure of a man standing without mo- 
 tion just within the deep shadow cast by a thick- 
 boughed balsam that grew near to one of the paths, and 
 a spark of light that wavered close to him told her that 
 it was probably Belknap. Harvard did not smoke. 
 
 He stood like a statue, and nothing about him, save 
 the spark of fire, moved. He seemed to be watching and 
 waiting, and Katherine remembered that the tree which 
 sheltered him was located about midway of the dis- 
 tance between the little balcony beneath her own win- 
 dow, and another one like it at one of the windows 
 of the room that Roberta occupied which, as she dis- 
 covered by one swift glance in that direction, was still 
 lighted. 
 
 Katherine was puzzled and disturbed. 
 
 It did not occur to her that Belknap might be watch- 
 ing her own window or that she was visible from the 
 grounds below. She did at once assume that he was 
 waiting beneath the senorita's window for some sort of 
 signal and that she desired very much indeed to see 
 whatever might happen. 
 
 However, there were eyes in the shadows below that 
 did discover her; eyes that did not belong to Conrad 
 Belknap ; eyes that had seen him standing in the shadow 
 of the balsam as if waiting, that had then sought the 
 windows of Katherine's room in time to see the light 
 extinguished behind them ; eyes that glowed and burned 
 
 85
 
 86 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 in the darkness because of what they had seen, and 
 were seeing; Bingham Harvard's eyes. 
 
 Katherine had no thought that Bing might be some- 
 where down there. He was the last person in the world 
 to watch or spy upon another ; and there was no reason 
 that he could be aware of why he should watch Belknap. 
 
 If she had thought of her husband at all at that mo- 
 ment, which she did not, she would have believed him 
 still seated on the veranda or gone to his room and to 
 bed. 
 
 It did occur to her to have a care lest Belknap dis- 
 cover her, but she reflected that the pink of her negligee 
 would be like black in the shadow where she stood, and 
 therefore practically invisible; nevertheless, she drew 
 the balcony-chair closer beside her, and was on the 
 point of seating herself upon it when an upward glance 
 discovered the sudden extinguishment of the light in the 
 senorita's room. 
 
 She remained in an upright posture a moment longer 
 to see the better. In her eagerness to observe closely 
 she leaned upon the balcony-rail, bending over it and 
 peering believing, and at the same time fearing, that 
 Roberta would come out of her window to keep, from 
 her balcony, some sort of a tryst with Belknap, and 
 hoping and praying at the same time that she was mis- 
 taken. 
 
 All unknown to her as she bent over the rail, her 
 handkerchief slipped from beneath her sash where she 
 had tucked it, and fluttered to the ground; and being 
 white it attracted the attention of two pairs of eyes 
 with a widely different effect upon them. 
 
 Belknap had not seen her until that happened, and 
 in another moment he would have betrayed his purpose 
 in being there, and therefore would have informed Bing 
 of the fact of his somewhat intimate acquaintance with
 
 MIDNIGHT AND AFTER 87 
 
 the senorita for it had been his intention to call her 
 to her window at the least. 
 
 As it was, he abandoned his first intention for an- 
 other that instantly occurred to him. 
 
 He stepped out from the shadow of the tree precisely 
 as if the dropped handkerchief had been a preconcerted 
 signal upon which he might act. Within a second he 
 stood directly beneath Katherine's balcony, and with 
 both arms outstretched as if beseechingly he called 
 softly : 
 
 "Lady Kate ! Katherine !" 
 
 He did it, let us say, only to annoy her, to trouble 
 her, to anger her, and to give her an added proof of 
 his power. Perhaps there was even a deeper motive, 
 but that, if there was one, has not yet appeared. 
 
 But he did it ; and other ears than Katherine's 
 heard him. 
 
 For an interval too short to measure by ordinary 
 standards an interval, nevertheless, in which Bingham 
 Harvard fought desperately to control himself, and 
 succeeded Conrad Belknap was never so near to death 
 as then, and doubtless never would be again until he 
 met it. 
 
 Yet Harvard never once moved a muscle of his Her- 
 culean strength. 
 
 He stood like a statue in stone, and as hard and 
 frozen. 
 
 He saw Belknap's uplifted arms, as if the man were 
 expecting Katherine to leap from the balcony into 
 them. He heard Katherine gasp and utterly misun- 
 derstood the meaning of it. He saw her grasp the rail 
 with both hands and for just an instant bend her body 
 across it, as if to speak or gesture. He saw another 
 white thing, like an envelope, drop into Belknap's
 
 88 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 clutching fingers, and he heard Belknap speak the same 
 two names again. 
 
 "Katherine ! Lady Kate ! Don't go away. Wait. I 
 will tell you " 
 
 But she was gone by the time he had got that far 
 and had disappeared into the room behind her. 
 
 Harvard saw it all and misunderstood it all. Who 
 would not? 
 
 The simple truth of the matter was that Katherine, 
 in her consternation and fright at being discovered by 
 Belknap, was so startled that as she attempted to 
 escape into the house she tripped upon the leg of the 
 chair that she had drawn forward to sit on. 
 
 Two things happened as a natural consequence. 
 
 She seized the rail of the balcony to save herself 
 from falling; and a book that had been left on the 
 chair that afternoon was dislodged and fell, and an 
 old letter that had served for a bookmark dropped out 
 of it into Belknap's hands. 
 
 Katherine escaped into her bedroom. 
 
 Belknap's teeth shone and glittered with his wolfish 
 smile. 
 
 Bingham Harvard, alias the Night Wind, waited 
 among the shadows. 
 
 That night and after seemed to be replete with 
 surprises for everybody. 
 
 Belknap's wolfish smile still lingered upon his face, 
 and he was in the act of turning away, unaware that 
 a grim, silent, implacable man of superhuman strength 
 awaited him amid the deeper shadows when, sibilant 
 and sharp upon the night air, he heard a call: 
 
 "C. B. ! Ce-e Be-e !" the call sounded the enunciation 
 of it being no more than a whisper, although the sibi- 
 lance of the utterance gave it a penetrating force that
 
 MIDNIGHT AND AFTER 89 
 
 carried it ever to the ears of Harvard, where he stood, 
 twenty or thirty yards away, waiting. 
 
 The sound of it startled him and relieved the tension 
 of his attitude. 
 
 His instant thought was that Katherine had re- 
 turned to the balcony, but one swift upward glance as- 
 sured him differently, and at the same time he saw 
 Belknap start and turn and glance upward at another 
 window. 
 
 Now, Harvard had no notion regarding the location 
 of Senorita Cervantez's room. That was a household 
 detail to which he paid no attention the rooming of 
 his guests and in the darkness he had not the least 
 idea of the identity of the second individual to appear 
 that night in another balcony scene. 
 
 He knew, or sensed, or believed, that it was a woman 
 who had called to Belknap little reckoning that in do- 
 ing so she had perhaps spared his miserable life not 
 that Harvard had formed the intention of killing him 
 actually; but he had been awaiting the man and 
 
 Belknap, with one hasty glance at Katherine's win- 
 dow, went swiftly toward the person who had summoned 
 him, and Harvard, profoundly mystified and pos- 
 sibly more than ever angered because such happenings 
 should be undertaken at Myquest was torn by a thou- 
 sand conflicting emotions. 
 
 Nevertheless, he did not change his position, nor at- 
 tempt to approach nearer to the woman on the balcony 
 and the man beneath it. The idea of listening to their 
 clandestine interview did not occur to him, for in point 
 of fact his mind still dwelt upon the preceding scene 
 which had culminated in the dropping of a message into 
 Belknap's outstretched hands. 
 
 Nor notwithstanding what he had seen was he 
 suspicious of Katherine. He had no thought of wilful
 
 90 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 wrongdoing of any character on Katherine's part. The 
 suggestion of such a thing was not in his thought 
 but the scene he had witnessed was no less strange, and 
 all the more incomprehensible. 
 
 While he thought, and he thought rapidly, his eyes 
 followed every act of this second balcony scene ; he saw 
 Belknap stop beneath it, and heard his voice speaking, 
 although he could not distinguish the words. He saw 
 the woman bend across the rail and put the fingers of 
 one hand to her lips, while with the other one she ex- 
 tended and dropped precisely as Katherine had done, 
 Bingham thought something white, which, no doubt, 
 was also a message. He saw, rather than heard, the 
 man speak again; but the woman who could she be, 
 he wondered shook her head in a decided negative, 
 turned abruptly away, and disappeared into the dark- 
 ened room behind her. 
 
 Again he heard Belknap's voice and the utterances as 
 well although it was spoken in a very low and guarded 
 tone. 
 
 "Berta! Berta!" he called twice; but the window 
 remained closed; and after another moment of wait- 
 ing the man of such mysterious actions retreated slow- 
 ly to the shadow of the same tree that had sheltered 
 him before. 
 
 Harvard, still watching in utter silence and as mo- 
 tionless as a statue in stone, saw the flash of a pocket- 
 electric and then a faint glow, as if Belknap was en- 
 deavoring to conceal the light while he read his mes- 
 sages by it. 
 
 His messages ! 
 
 One of them and its contents did not concern Har- 
 vard in the least, but the other one did, and he de- 
 termined then and there to possess himself of it of
 
 MIDNIGHT AND AFTER 91 
 
 both, in fact, since he would have no method of differen- 
 tiating between them in the darkness. 
 
 It was then that he began to move stealthily nearer 
 to Belknap with the slow, relentless, absolutely noise- 
 less advance of a leopard that creeps without sound 
 upon its prey. 
 
 The sod beside the pathway was as soft as velvet. 
 Harvard's footfalls were as light and transient as a 
 globe of drifting thistledown, and Belknap, absorbed 
 in his occupation, had no suspicion of the presence of 
 another person near him. 
 
 Bingham Harvard's superhuman muscular strength 
 as compared to that of the ordinary man, might be 
 likened to the average man's strength as compared to 
 that of a little child; certain it was that Conrad Bel- 
 knap felt like a child in the grasp of the hands that 
 seized upon him without warning, as if they had reached 
 out of the black shades of night and clutched him. 
 
 His arms were pinioned behind him so suddenly that 
 the articles, three in all, that he had held in his hands, 
 fell to the ground : an open sheet of paper covered with 
 writing in pencil, an envelope that had passed through 
 the mail and that contained something within it, and a 
 small pocket flashlight. 
 
 He attempted to struggle and instantly realized the 
 futility of it. 
 
 The person who had seized him uttered no sound 
 whatever ; everything that was done was carried out in 
 utter silence. 
 
 Belknap's arms, drawn quickly and forcibly behind 
 him, were held together at the wrists by the grasping 
 fingers of one hand of his captor, while his own hand- 
 kerchief was taken from his coat-pocket and used to 
 bind his wrists together. 
 
 Once, when he made an effort to turn his head to dis-
 
 92 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 cover the identity of the man who had attacked him, a 
 hand flew to his throat and seized it, and he was so 
 powerfully choked for a moment that he made no 
 further effort of that sort. When his wrists were se- 
 curely bound, he was lifted from his feet and lain, face 
 downward, on the ground, and held there by the pres- 
 sure of a knee against the small of his back while a 
 second handkerchief was tied over his eyes. 
 
 Up to then Belknap had entertained no doubt that 
 the man who attacked him was Bingham Harvard and 
 for once in his life he was frightened, realizing his dan- 
 ger if Harvard had witnessed the two scenes in which 
 he had so lately been concerned. 
 
 The next act of his assailant amazed him- ?and it 
 convinced him, also, that the man was not Harvard but 
 a footpad or a yegg, who had caught him unawares 
 while wandering in the shrubbery which was, be it 
 said, precisely what Harvard wanted him to think, and 
 exactly why Harvard carefully and expeditiously re- 
 lieved him of everything of value that his pockets con- 
 tained. 
 
 Watch, pocketbook, loose change, stickpin Har- 
 vard took everything from Belknap that was worth tak- 
 ing exactly as a footpad or a disappointed yegg might 
 have done it, and Belknap was the more readily de- 
 ceived because he had never seriously believed the oc- 
 casional reference he had heard to Harvard's wonder- 
 ful strength of muscle. 
 
 Then, as silently as the robber had approached, he 
 went away. 
 
 Belknap had no knowledge of his going until he 
 realized that he was alone. 
 
 Alone, prone upon the ground, face downward, blind- 
 folded, and with his wrists tied behind his back! 
 
 But his feet and legs were free, and by dint of great
 
 MIDNIGHT AND AFTER 93 
 
 effort he managed to struggle to his feet, and a moment 
 later he started blindly forward in search of the path 
 by which he hoped to find his way back to the house. 
 
 But he made turns in the wrong direction ; he collided 
 with trees ; thorns penetrated his flesh and scratched his 
 face; he tripped in the soft loam of a flower-bed and 
 fell and got to his feet again and went on. 
 
 Harvard, in the meantime, had resumed his chair on 
 the veranda, and was waiting.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 HARVARD'S STRATEGY 
 
 BINGHAM HARVARD did some serious thinking while 
 he awaited the coming of Conrad Belknap whom he had 
 just attacked. He did not doubt that the man would 
 be able to find his way to the house without much diffi- 
 culty, blindfolded and with his hands tied behind his 
 back though he was. 
 
 Although the time was short until Belknap staggered 
 gropingly into view, Harvard was able to review the 
 several details that had happened during the past ten 
 days to disturb and annoy him. 
 
 He recalled again the scene at the summer-house 
 when Belknap was supposed to have received a message 
 summoning him to the city ; Katherine's avoidance and 
 dislike of the man which Harvard believed that he saw 
 or felt plainly; Tom Clancy's confessed repugnance of 
 him, and the ill-concealed covert watchfulness with 
 which Tom regarded him; the short scene at the rose 
 bower nothing at all of itself, yet which might have a 
 distinct meaning in its relation to other incidents when 
 theburningcigarettewas tossed from it, when Katherine 
 stepped out from it and turned in the path to speak 
 again to the man inside it and her all-too-evident per- 
 turbation at the time; her very plain repression of 
 something that she wanted to confide to her husband 
 that night, and which she refrained from doing; her 
 midnight, and therefore secret, talk over the telephone 
 
 94
 
 HARVARD'S STRATEGY 95 
 
 that same night; the atmosphere of restraint and por- 
 tending disaster that seemed to pervade the whole place 
 since the coming of Belknap; the anonymous letter; 
 and, last, more disturbing and confounding than all of 
 the other incidents put together, the utterly amazing 
 and astounding incidents that he had just witnessed. 
 
 Throughout all of it not one thought of doubt about 
 Katherine's motives entered Harvard's mind; not once 
 did it occur to him to question her conduct or to con- 
 demn it, save only in so far as the apparent fact that 
 she had not deemed it best to confide in him; and even 
 for that when he thought of it he was certain that 
 she must be following the dictates of her own best 
 judgment. 
 
 It was not until he saw and heard also Belknap's 
 approach that he remembered that he carried in one 
 of his coat-pockets at that moment, the electric flash- 
 light and the two written messages that he had seen 
 fall from the balconies into Belknap's hands, and that 
 they might, and doubtless would, disclose some of the 
 mystery. 
 
 But there was no time to examine them just then. 
 
 Belknap had found the path and was stumbling along 
 it toward the veranda where Harvard was seated, await- 
 ing him. 
 
 Bing had himself thoroughly in hand by that time; 
 not one whit of the blind fury that had gripped him 
 while he had waited for Belknap under the trees re- 
 mained. He was prepared for Belknap's approach, 
 and he received it as naturally as if it had been in 
 fact a surprise. 
 
 He started from the chair to his feet, shoving it away 
 from him so that it scraped noisily. 
 
 "Hello, there!" he called out, and ran forward and 
 down the steps to the path, and so met the sorry-look-
 
 96 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 ing victim of his controlled rage and strength. "What 
 in the world why! is it you, Belknap? What has 
 happened?" he demanded, with exactly the right de- 
 gree of stupefied amazement; and without waiting a 
 reply he began at once to remove the handkerchief that 
 covered Belknap's eyes. (It was his own, it may be 
 recalled, and although there was no mark upon it, it 
 would be, nevertheless, readily identified, so he thrust 
 it into one of his own pockets.) Then he untied the 
 other one, releasing Belknap's hands and retained pos- 
 session of that one also, so that it might not appear 
 that he had kept only one of them. 
 
 He seized Belknap by the arm and led him swiftly 
 forward, up the steps into the house, and up the stairs 
 to Belknap's own quarters, saying sharply as he did so : 
 
 "Don't talk now. Something has happened to you, 
 and we must do nothing to startle the people in the 
 house. Wait." 
 
 The man was a sorry-looking one, indeed, under the 
 glare of light in his own lavatory, whither Bing piloted 
 him; his face was scratched and bleeding in several 
 places from contact with the thorns of rose-bushes ; his 
 nose was plastered with loam where it had plowed into 
 the flower-bed ; one of his trouser-legs was badly torn at 
 the knee; his collar had been ripped open, and his tie 
 was twisted around so that the knot was under one of 
 his ears ; several of the buttons had been torn from 
 his white vest, which was terribly bedraggled and soiled. 
 
 "You look as if you had been through a threshing 
 machine, Belknap," Harvard remarked, secretly enjoy- 
 ing the evidences of his own handiwork and its conse- 
 quences. "What happened to you?" 
 
 Belknap had done some thinking also while so pre- 
 cariously making his way back to the house; and so, 
 while he washed away the marks of his adventure, he
 
 HARVARD'S STRATEGY 97 
 
 told his story which Harvard naturally accepted as 
 Hteral truth, and was proportionately sympathetic. He 
 told it in jerks as follows: 
 
 "Standing under a tree, smoking fellows, chaps, 
 footpads, something of the sort came up behind me 
 didn't hear a sound they jumped me and had me 
 down before I knew it two of them; maybe three 
 tied me up as you found me went through me, too 
 took everything watch, money, stickpi By Jove !" 
 He came to a sudden pause. 
 
 "What's the matter?" Harvard asked quietly. 
 
 "H-m ! Just remembered that I had a letter ; im- 
 portant one, too. I must have dropped it. I say, old 
 chap, wait here, will you, while I go back and look for 
 it? I er couldn't afford to lose that; and they 
 wouldn't have taken it." 
 
 He was gone before Bing could reply, but the latter 
 called after him : 
 
 "I'll go to bed, Belknap. You're all right now. See 
 you in the morning. Good night." 
 
 Thus, while Belknap returned to the scene of the at- 
 tack upon him, to recover the two objects that had been 
 dropped to him from two balconies, Harvard sought his 
 own room, carrying them with him in his coat-pocket. 
 
 So many things happened at Myquest that night, 
 and happened so nearly at the same time, that it is 
 difficult to keep them in mind as being of approximate 
 simultaneousness. 
 
 Betty was occupied with the daguerreotype, and Tom 
 was engaged upon Rushton's report, while Katherine 
 was preparing for bed, and Belknap was taking his 
 stroll in the grounds, to be followed presently by his 
 host. Senorita Cervantez, also restless, was at the 
 same time arriving at the decision that she must have 
 an interview with Belknap without delay, and so wrote
 
 98 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 a hasty note to him as soon as she got to her room 
 to be surreptitiously delivered at the first opportunity 
 that offered; and having done that she turned off her 
 light and stepped out upon the balcony from her win- 
 dow. 
 
 She did not do that quite soon enough to discover 
 Katherine, who had the instant before disappeared into 
 the darkness of her own room, after tripping upon the 
 chair and so without knowing it dislodging the book 
 which caused the old and forgotten letter to drop down 
 to Belknap; but she did see Belknap beneath Kath- 
 erine's balcony, and she surmised that he had mistaken 
 it for her own ; so she darted back, secured the message 
 she had written, hurried outside again and called to him 
 in that sibilant whisper. 
 
 So Katherine did not discover her, and she did not see 
 Katherine ; and she was much too wary to risk the use 
 of her voice even then. 
 
 Having dropped her written message to Belknap, she 
 retreated with almost the same haste that Katherine 
 had employed, with the difference that while Katherine 
 pulled down the shades and snapped on the lights, Ro- 
 berta came to a stop just inside of her window and, 
 concealed by the darkness, peered outward, watching 
 Belknap. 
 
 Thus she made several interesting discoveries and 
 was separately and severally alarmed by each of them. 
 
 She saw the light flare into being in Katherine's room 
 behind the white but opaque shades, remembered that 
 Belknap had stopped beneath that balcony instead of 
 her own and asked herself if, after all, he had made a 
 mistake, as she had at first supposed. 
 
 She saw the flash of Belknap's electric, and watched 
 him and then she saw the light disappear, and dis- 
 covered the figure of another man struggling with him ;
 
 HARVARD'S STRATEGY 99 
 
 and she caught her breath, frightened, although she 
 made no move whatever. 
 
 Roberta could see very little of what happened in 
 that deep shadow beside the thick balsam. She had no 
 idea as to who Belknap's assailant might be, or why he 
 had been attacked; but she was conscious of an insane 
 joy because he was in danger, and if she had known that 
 his life was at stake, she would not have lifted so much 
 as a finger to save him. After a timfe she saw one of 
 the shadowy figures glide swiftly away, and the other 
 presently get to its feet and lurch into the moonlight. 
 
 She recognized Belknap and saw that he was blind- 
 folded and had his hands tied behind him and she 
 laughed ; not loudly, but with intense amusement at the 
 chagrin she knew him to be experiencing; and then she 
 became grave again, for she remembered that the person 
 who had attracted him must have seen him beneath her 
 window and have witnessed the dropping of the written 
 message from her balcony. 
 
 That suggested a complication that might prove por- 
 tentous if, as she began to fear, the unknown hap- 
 pened to be an inmate of the house; and then she 
 started violently and clasped her hands together as she 
 breathed tensely the words: 
 
 "Bingham Harvard himself ! The Night Wind ! Was 
 it he? Could it have been I wonder!" 
 
 It was not of herself that she thought then, but of 
 Katherine. 
 
 If the man were Harvard, he must have seen Belknap 
 beneath his wife's window, and what might not be his 
 conclusions? "Yet," she mused on, unconsciously ut- 
 tering the words aloud: "C. B. still lives ; he is alive 
 so it could not have been the Night Wind. He would 
 have crushed C. B. into a pulp ; he would have torn him 
 apart piecemeal if he had caught him beneath Kath-
 
 100 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 erine Harvard's bedroom window at this hour of the 
 night." 
 
 She looked out into the darkness again. 
 
 Both of the men had gone, and she stepped out upon 
 the balcony. 
 
 The light was still glowing in Katherine's window 
 and for a moment Roberta wished that there were a 
 way to pass from one balcony to the other. She would 
 have gone to Katherine's room and peered into it had 
 it been possible; and then she remembered that she was 
 still dressed, having seated herself to write the note as 
 soon as she got to her room. 
 
 "Why not ?" she asked herself, meditating upon bold- 
 ly seeking Katherine's room, into which she had already 
 several times penetrated by invitation and tapping on 
 the door. "I will yes, I will pretend that I saw a man 
 prowling in the gardens below, and am frightened, and 
 perhaps that is, possibly she will talk." 
 
 So without turning on her own lights she went out 
 and glided like a spirit toward the door to Katherine's 
 bedroom. 
 
 She had reached it, she had lifted her hand to rap 
 upon the panel, when that indefinable sixth sense which, 
 without conscious sound, warns us of the nearness of 
 another person, made her withhold her hand ; and with 
 the same impulse she sprang away from the door and 
 crouched, hiding behind the solid back of one of the 
 big chairs that flanked Katherine's doorway at either 
 side. 
 
 Then she held her breath in startled, half-frightened 
 uncertainty. 
 
 Approaching swiftly along the wide hall, arrayed in 
 negligee and with slippered feet, and with something 
 grasped tightly in one of her hands, came Betty; and
 
 HARVARD'S STRATEGY 101 
 
 Betty's errand she knew was probably the same as her 
 own to make a midnight call on Katherine. 
 
 Betty, she well knew, had a habit of seeing things; 
 there was little that escaped her. 
 
 Discovery was almost certain, and yet
 
 CHAPTER XHI 
 
 NIGHT-TIME COMPLICATIONS 
 
 INTENT as the senorita was upon observing the ap- 
 proach and preparing herself for the encounter, she 
 was not aware that a third person had appeared upon 
 the scene until she saw Betty stop, hesitate, dart aside, 
 seize the knob of the door that was nearest to her, open 
 the door swiftly, and disappear beyond it. (Betty, it 
 must be borne in mind, was almost as much at home in 
 that house, and quite as familiar with its interior, as 
 was Katherine herself. She knew what rooms were oc- 
 cupied and what were not.) 
 
 At the instant when Betty passed out of sight, the 
 senorita became aware of the third person, and she 
 crouched still lower behind the high-backed chair in the 
 dimly lighted hall. 
 
 Belknap for it was he was walking swiftly, but 
 stealthily. 
 
 It was apparent that he had a definite purpose, and 
 the watching senorita could not doubt what that pur- 
 pose was an interview with herself. 
 
 Was the man mad to attempt such a thing? To 
 dare to approach her door in the middle of the night 
 and summon her to it? To risk the betrayal of both 
 of their complicity? 
 
 She could see, when he went past her hiding-place 
 without discovering her, the marks upon his face where 
 thorns had scratched it, and she noted the absence 
 of collar and tie and his general disheveled appearance 
 
 102
 
 NIGHT-TIME COMPLICATIONS 103 
 
 and also she believed that Betty was watching him 
 through a crack of the doorway of the room in which 
 she had hidden herself. 
 
 Betty, of course, could see the man go to Senorita 
 Cervantez's door and no matter what was destined to 
 happen after that would form her own conclusions. 
 
 Something had to be done, and done at once to offset 
 them. There was not a moment not an instant to 
 be wasted, and so 
 
 The senorita darted from her hiding-place as soon as 
 Belknap had passed her. She seized the opportunity 
 when Betty would be absorbed in watching Belknap and 
 moved the chair ever so little, and so was directly at 
 Katherine's door. She pressed her body closely against 
 it, thankful that the embrasure of it was almost deep 
 enough to conceal her unless an observer stood well 
 out into the hall. 
 
 Then not too loudly; not with force enough, she 
 hoped, to attract the attention of Betty, who was con- 
 cealed behind a door that was nearly tight-closed, or 
 of Belknap, whose own motion and footfalls might pre- 
 vent him from hearing she tapped against the panel. 
 
 The door was opened instantly, so that, pressing 
 against it as she had been, the senorita literally stum- 
 bled into the room and against Katherine, who had been 
 passing it at the moment of the summons and had pulled 
 it open quickly. 
 
 The senorita was really startled into the appearance 
 of fright. She had meant to play the part, but she 
 did not need to, because she looked it ; and yet she was 
 none the less cool, resourceful and competent. 
 
 She gasped in that whipering manner of one who 
 is without voice ; she turned like a flash, seized the door, 
 closed it, turned the key in the lock, and leaned against 
 the barrier with every appearance of one who is on the
 
 104 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 point of utter collapse. Thus she succeeded in fright- 
 ening Katherine momentarily, which she had meant 
 to do. 
 
 "Why, senorita! What " 
 
 Katherine got no farther, for Roberta seized her by 
 both arms an'd clasped her tightly; she put her lips 
 close to Katherine's ear; she exclaimed, in that breath- 
 lessly faint whisper of her adoption: 
 
 "Burglars ! Oh, Mrs. Harvard ! Burglars ! Thieves ! 
 The house is being robbed!" 
 
 Now, Katherine was Katherine. 
 
 She had no more terror of prospective burglars than 
 of crawling bugs and worms in the paths outside; and 
 literally she did not believe that burglars had entered 
 the house. She only thought that the senorita had 
 been unduly frightened, so she acted in a perfectly ra- 
 tional manner: she put Roberta aside, unlocked the 
 door and pulled it open and came face to face with 
 Betty Clancy, who had just at that instant lifted a 
 hand to rap against it. 
 
 Betty was looking frightened, too, and Katherine 
 began to believe that there were burglars in the house 
 and Betty, meanwhile, could not see Roberta, who 
 was concealed from her by the opened door. 
 
 Betty was holding her fingers at her lips to enjoin 
 silence. She did not attempt to enter the room; in- 
 stead, she gasped Katherine by one arm and pulled her 
 partly into the wide hall and she whispered in a tone 
 that was as nearly inaudible as the senorita' s had been : 
 
 "Look !" and she pointed down the hall. "Do you 
 see him? He is at the door of Senorita Cervantez's room. 
 He is rapping upon it. Do you see him, Kitten? 
 It's Belknap Conrad Belknap, I tell you? What 
 
 Katherine had stepped farther into the hall, and at
 
 NIGHT-TIME COMPLICATIONS 105 
 
 that instant the door of her room behind her slammed 
 shut with a loud noise. 
 
 A draft of air from the open windows might have 
 caused it but it didn't; Roberta, the resourceful, did 
 it. She did it to warn Belknap to make a sound that 
 would let him know that he was seen and watched 
 perhaps, or possibly, to prevent him from proceeding 
 farther with his prowlings. She remembered that her 
 own door was not locked, and she knew that it would be 
 quite like him, when he received no response to his rap- 
 ping, to turn the knob and open it. 
 
 Indeed, he had done that very thing when the door 
 somewhere behind him slammed and warned him. 
 
 It startled him so that he left the door in front of 
 him wide ajar. A turn of his head apprised him of 
 the fact that he was seen. The two figures outside the 
 door to Katherine's room were apparent. 
 
 Belknap knew that he was caught and that it would 
 require every whit of his wit and skill and effrontery to 
 get him out of the dilemma, 
 
 Katherine had, in her turn, taken Betty by the arm. 
 She had moved a step forward down the hall toward 
 Belknap, and Betty was holding back a little, reluctant 
 to follow. Both were astounded, but for different rea- 
 sons ; for Katherine knew what Betty did not : that 
 Belknap and the senorita were confederates. 
 
 Just then both of them were amazed anew by Bel- 
 knap's actions. 
 
 He seemed to be groping with searching hands along 
 the wall. He moved away from the door at which he 
 had been rapping and drew nearer to them; and al- 
 though they were by then plainly in view, he seemed not 
 to see them. 
 
 They both stood very still watching him. The door
 
 106 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 behind them opened by a crack, and Roberta peered into 
 the hall, but neither of them knew it. 
 
 Belknap came nearer and nearer to them gropingly, 
 feeling with his uplifted hands along the wall. His eyes 
 were wide open and staring, and he acted like one who 
 is in a trance, or who walks in one's sleep ; and Betty, 
 pressing her lips close against Katherine's ear, whis- 
 pered: 
 
 "Kitten! He's walking in his sleep! And look at 
 him! He has had a fall. His face is scratched 
 and " 
 
 Katherine disengaged herself from Betty's grasp and 
 went swiftly to Belknap. 
 
 She was not deceived, although she believed that Bet- 
 ty was. 
 
 She seized him and shook him, and he came "awake" 
 with a shudder and a half-inarticulate cry. It was sur- 
 prisingly well done amazingly well acted; and he be- 
 lieved that he had fooled both of them. 
 
 Katherine was astounded by his condition, his torn 
 clothing, his scratched and blood-marked face, the ab- 
 sence of collar and tie, his soil-stained garments, his 
 torn trouser-leg. He had been immaculate at dinner 
 and throughout the evening ; he had seemed to be so still 
 when she had seen him beneath her balcony; but since 
 then something untoward had happened to the man. 
 
 For a moment she was almost deceived into the belief 
 that he had wandered into that part of the house with- 
 out knowing what he was doing; she might have been 
 entirely deceived about it if he had been wise enough to 
 continue his play-acting instead of "coming awake" as 
 he did when she grasped him and shook him. 
 
 "Great Caesar!" he half gasped. "Where am I? 
 What has happened? What " 
 
 "You had better go to your room, Mr. Belknap,"
 
 NIGHT-TIME COMPLICATIONS 107 
 
 Katherine said coldly, interrupting. "You are dis- 
 turbing the household by wandering in the halls and 
 rapping at doors. Come, Betty." 
 
 "Wait," said Belknap. "I want to " 
 
 "Good night, Mr. Belknap," Katherine interrupted 
 again. She was already at her door. 
 
 She opened it, drew Betty into the room with her, 
 and closed it, and so left Belknap standing alone in 
 the hall with his sleep-walking act half done, with his 
 suddenly assumed subterfuge of doubtful success. 
 
 Meanwhile Betty was encountering another surprise, 
 for inside of Katherine's room, huddled in the depths of 
 a big arm-chair and apparently trembling with fright, 
 was the senorita, who, the moment they appeared, 
 sprang out of it and faced them timorously. 
 
 Her lips formed words. She seemed to try to speak 
 and to fail; but she managed to make them both 
 understand that she was trying to ask Betty if she 
 had also heard and seen the burglars. 
 
 Betty, by the way, still clutched the old-fashioned 
 case that contained the daguerreotype picture of her 
 great-grandmother, and the presence of the senorita 
 in Katherine's room brought to mind her own reason 
 for being there. 
 
 While Katherine was reassuring the senorita and 
 explaining that the supposed burglar was nothing 
 more than one of the guests walking in his sleep, Betty 
 hesitated; then, with an impulse born of the moment, 
 she extended the three-generations-old likeness toward 
 its living replica and said quietly : 
 
 "Look, senorita, and see what I have found, then 
 tell me if you can guess who it resembles. I had in- 
 tended to show it to Katherine first, but it would seem 
 to be your privilege don't you think?"
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS 
 
 BEAR in mind the fact that the senoiita was still 
 dressed exactly as she had been throughout the evening ; 
 Betty and Katherine were the only ones at that im- 
 promptu gathering in negligee, and Betty explained 
 even while she passed the daguerreotype to the pianiste, 
 that she had sought Katherine's room at that late hour 
 only on impulse, and with the thought that the latter 
 might not yet have extinguished her lights. 
 
 Roberta received the closed and hooked gutta-percha 
 case into her hand wonderingly ; but ever on the alert, 
 she prepared herself instantly for whatever disclosure 
 was to follow; and she knew that there must be one of 
 some sort, else Betty Clancy would not have sought 
 Katherine's room at that hour of the night to show 
 her the daguerreotype. 
 
 Nevertheless, she could not hide her amazement when 
 she opened the case and looked upon the picture of a 
 young woman so exactly like herself save in the fashion 
 of coiffure and style of dress that, barring the lapse 
 of approximately three-quarters of a century since it 
 was made, she herself might have "sat for it." 
 
 Roberta could not have concealed her astonishment 
 had she tried, and she made no attempt to do so. 
 Curiosity, intense and absorbing, outweighed discretion 
 had there been need for it; but she did not forget to 
 remain speechless. 
 
 108
 
 A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS 109 
 
 She seized upon her tablets and wrote: 
 
 "Wonderful! Who was she? Please tell me all that 
 you know about her." 
 
 Katherine, who had been peering over the senorita's 
 shoulder, exclaimed enigmatically before Betty could 
 reply to the written words : 
 
 "How strange! Yes, and wonderful. I understand 
 now, senorita, why, ever since you came to Myquest, 
 your face has reminded me of another one which I could 
 not bring to mind ; but I know now. Betty, my father 
 has an old daguerreotype portrait of that same face. It 
 was made, I think, some years later than this one. 
 She was " 
 
 "Wait, please," Betty interjected; then she turned 
 again to the senorita. 
 
 "I have quite a collection of daguerreotype pictures," 
 she said, "and a list of them in my grandmother's 
 handwriting with the dates when they were made. That 
 is a picture of my great-grandmother. It was made 
 on the 17th of June, 1845 seventy-two years ago ; and 
 on the day before she was married, which happened on 
 her twentieth birthday. The picture that Katherine 
 refers to was made a year or two afterward ; I haven't 
 the date of that one; but the reason why Katherine's 
 family also has a picture of her is because Katherine's 
 great-grandfather and my great-grandmother were 
 brother and sister. So, you see, by collateral descent, 
 Katherine and I are third cousins. 
 
 "We have always known that, senorita" she went 
 on after the slightest of pauses, during which the others 
 were silent. "My great-grandmother was a Maxwilton, 
 and the great-aunt of Katherine's father Katherine's 
 great-great-aunt. So, now, what I would like to know 
 is: Where do you come in? It goes without saying 
 that you belong. There is Maxwilton blood in your
 
 110 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 veins there must be, or " She stopped for lack of 
 ideas to go on. Then impulsively she cried out as she 
 went forward and peered into the eyes of Senorita Cer- 
 vantez : 
 
 "Are you another third cousin? Are you, some- 
 where in the past, a Maxwilton, or a Keese? That was 
 my name before I was married to Tom Clancy. Is 
 Cervantez your really-truly name, senorita, or is it 
 just a professional name? Yet you speak Spanish, for 
 I heard Mme. Savage talking it to you, and saw that 
 you replied to her with your pencil and tablets. My 
 goodness gracious ! How I have been rattling on and 
 never giving anybody else a chance to put in a word." 
 
 Roberta had grown pale and paler while Betty talked. 
 
 Neither she nor Katherine had noticed it, being more 
 intent upon the problem than with the object of it; 
 but, with Betty's closing remark, Roberta got slowly 
 to her feet from the chair upon which she had dropped 
 when the picture was shown to her. 
 
 She still held it in her grasp tightly, as if in dread 
 that it might be taken from her, and she seemed dazed 
 as indeed she was by the revelations and the mysteries 
 that were a part of them. 
 
 Her lips parted as if to speak, but she remembered 
 in time and closed them. She was groping for her 
 tablets with wandering, uncertain fingers when Kath- 
 erine put her arms around her and drew her into a 
 close and fond embrace. 
 
 "It doesn't matter who you are, dear," she said. 
 "Whether you are a Maxwilton or a Keese or if the 
 wonderful resemblance to the old portrait is only an 
 accident, the fact remains that you are here, and that 
 we are both fond of you ; that I am certainly. And," 
 she added, with another thought, "I am not going to
 
 A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS 111 
 
 let you go away, Monday, as planned. I will see to 
 that." 
 
 Roberta let go of the tablets which she had found and 
 grasped. She whispered into Katherine's ear: 
 
 "I I don't know anything about it, Mrs. Harvard ; 
 nothing at all. It is all a mystery to me. I am dazed, 
 excited, speechless, thoughtless. It is all so wonderful 
 so overwhelming. May I may I go to my room 
 now? And may I take the likeness with me, please? 
 I want to study it; I want to think about it. Please 
 let me take it." 
 
 Katherine repeated the substance of what she said 
 to Betty. 
 
 "Of course you can take the picture," Betty an- 
 nounced ; and then they both kissed her good night, and 
 she left the room. 
 
 "What does it mean?" Betty demanded of Katherine 
 after she had gone. 
 
 Katherine shook her head. 
 
 "I don't know," she replied. "I will ask my father 
 about it. He has got the entire Maxwilton genealogy 
 tucked away in his head, ever ready for instant refer- 
 ence. He will be likely to know ; or, if not that, he'll be 
 more likely to know how to make guesses about it than 
 we are." 
 
 Betty kissed Katherine good night. She started for 
 the door, and stopped half-way to it. 
 
 "Katherine?" she began. 
 
 "Yes? What now, Betty?" 
 
 "Do you think that Mr. Belknap might have known 
 the senorita somewhere, sometime, before he met her 
 here?" 
 
 "What a question! Why?" 
 
 "I have heard that when people walk in their sleep 
 they follow out ideas that were predominant before
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 they went to sleep. And and, honestly, Kitten, I 
 don't believe he was asleep any more than I am now." 
 
 "Why, Betty!" 
 
 "You just wait a moment. I saw him before I came 
 into this room. I was on my way to find out if you 
 were still up and to show you that picture. I saw 
 him in the hall and dodged into the room that Bing al- 
 ways reserves for Mr. Chester. I peeked out when he 
 passed the door and saw him plainly, and if ever any- 
 body was wide awake in this world, he was. He was 
 scowling and showing his teeth, and as mad as a 
 bear with a sore paw. Asleep? I reckon not! And 
 he went as straight to the senorita's door as a shot out 
 of a gun. He rapped on it, too ; and kept on rapping, 
 just as if he had a right to do it; or, if not that, as if 
 he knew that he could make her answer him, whether 
 she wanted to or not. And I was scared out of my 
 wits when I sneaked along the hall to this door, afraid 
 that he would see me ; but he didn't ; and you could have 
 knocked me down with a cobweb when I found the 
 senorita here. And, Kitten " 
 
 "Well, dear?" 
 
 " While I am on the subject, there is something else 
 that I want to say: Tom doesn't like the man, and I 
 don't either. Tom has put Rodney Rushton onto his 
 track, and " 
 
 "What?" Katherine cried out. 
 
 "Well, what of it? He has, anyhow, whether you 
 like it or not. Tom thinks that " 
 
 A wild cry, like the scream of a banshee, instantly 
 followed by three pistol-shots in rapid succession, in- 
 terrupted her, and both young women stood spellbound 
 and frightened. 
 
 "They came from outside from the gardens 
 didn't they?" Katherine asked breathlessly.
 
 A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS 113 
 
 "I wonder," Betty said, "if Belknap went back to the 
 senorita's room to wait for her?" 
 
 The wild scream and the pistol-shots that followed 
 it momentarily paralyzed every energy that Katherine 
 and Betty possessed, coming upon them as it did at the 
 moment when they were about to part for the night. 
 
 But the effect of them lasted only for a moment. 
 Both of the young women recovered their self-pos- 
 session instantly, and each of them was courageous, 
 resourceful, and quick to act. 
 
 They were close to the door into the hall when the 
 cry and the shots startled them. Katherine reached 
 out and punched the black button of the electric switch, 
 extinguishing the lights in the room; then she darted 
 across it to the window and out upon the balcony for 
 she was convinced that the sounds proceeded from with- 
 out the house, and believed that they were not far from 
 her window. 
 
 Betty Clancy seized upon the door, opened it, and 
 sprang into the hall for she was equally convinced 
 that the sounds came from within the house; that is 
 to say, both acted upon the impulse of the moment, 
 without thought. 
 
 Each of them was, in part, right. 
 
 Katherine, as cool as ever she had been in the old 
 days of her police experiences, was quickly outside on 
 the balcony, and bending over the rail of it, peering 
 eagerly this way and that; and she saw or thought 
 that she saw, not being entirely certain the outlines of 
 a human figure as it darted into entire obscurity be- 
 neath the shadows of the trees at the edge of the lawn. 
 And that was all. 
 
 Betty, as she literally jumped into the hall from 
 Katherine's room, saw nothing at first. But doors were 
 pulled open, timid and shrinking guests appeared as if
 
 114. LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 by magic, frightened figures of women and the startled 
 and questioning visages of the men, materialized from 
 every direction, for the alarm had been one that was 
 not to be ignored. It was not the sort of thing that 
 one hears vaguely in sleep when one wonders even 
 more vaguely about the cause and rolls over into sleep 
 again ; it was of the character that compels a person to 
 sit up and take notice. 
 
 Bing Harvard came into Katherine's room from his 
 own just as she reappeared from the balcony. He 
 snapped on the lights while she crossed from the win- 
 dow toward him, and she noticed instantly, but without 
 betraying her surprise because of it, that save for the 
 fact that, he was without a coat, he was dressed pre- 
 cisely as he had been at dinner that evening. 
 
 His quick questions also surprised her. 
 
 "Was any one here with you?" he demanded. 
 
 "Betty was here. We were " she began. He in- 
 terrupted her. 
 
 "Anybody else?" 
 
 "No, not just now, when we heard the shots. The 
 senorita had been here earlier, but she had gone. Why 
 there is Betty now !" For Betty had reappeared at 
 the door. 
 
 "Come!" Betty called to them from the doorway. 
 "Oh, Bing ! I'm so glad that you're here. They say 
 out there that it came from Mme. Savage's room." 
 
 Bingham and Katherine followed Betty into the hall. 
 
 They found that a group had already collected in 
 the corridor near the entrance to the suite occupied 
 by Mme. Savage and her maid, and that a hush had 
 fallen upon those who were gathered there. 
 
 The cause of it was at once apparent, for the un- 
 mistakable sounds of a woman sobbing could be heard 
 from beyond the door, and mingled with it were the
 
 A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS 115 
 
 sharp tones of Madame 's deep voice, almost masculine, 
 in timbre. 
 
 Harvard tapped upon the panel, and madame's 
 voice bade him enter. 
 
 The old lady was sitting up in bed, and she held in 
 her right hand a small automatic pistol with which she 
 had been gesticulating while she talked to her frightened 
 and sobbing maid who stood facing her across the foot- 
 board, grasping it with both hands. 
 
 Mme. Savage was a very old lady, it must be re- 
 membered ; a very young-old lady, with eighty years or 
 thereabouts to her credit, but as youthful as ever she 
 had been, in spirit and thought, and in her outlook 
 upon life. Nor was she one who had resorted to arti- 
 ficial devices to keep herself young; her natural buoy- 
 ancy, and her ardent love of being in the middle of 
 "something doing" had done that. 
 
 "Come in! Come in!" she called out when she dis- 
 covered the group at her door, headed by Harvard. 
 "I'm not a bit afraid to be seen in bed by all of you. I 
 don't wear a wig, nor do-up my face and neck in an 
 enameling-mask when I retire. My goodness, Bing, did 
 I wake up the whole household?" 
 
 "Naturally. Have you been practising at a target, 
 madame, or were you shooting at your maid? And, if 
 I may inquire, where did you get the pistol?" Harvard 
 was smiling as he put the questions, for he was reas- 
 sured. It had only been a scare after all, he was think- 
 ing. 
 
 Madame replied to the last question first. 
 
 "Where did I get it?" she retorted. "I've always had 
 it. Not this one, of course, but a pistol of some kind. 
 I'm not used to this new fangled contraption yet, and I 
 shot three times when I only meant to shoot once." 
 
 "But, my dear lady, "what did you shoot at?"
 
 116 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "A man. There were two of them, or a man and a 
 woman. I think that I must have winged one of them 
 at that. You see " 
 
 Betty interrupted impulsively. 
 
 "But the scream!" she exclaimed. "That came be- 
 fore the pistol-shots." 
 
 "Oh ! That Nistine is a ninny ; she is always scared 
 at her own shadow. It was she who did the screaming. 
 That is what I was scolding her about, and why she 
 is sobbing now, just like a scared child." 
 
 "But, madame, how did it happen? What did hap- 
 pen?" Bing asked. 
 
 "I was reading myself to sleep I always do that, 
 you know ; it's a habit I've had for sixty years ; and 
 Nistine was sound asleep in that chair by the window. 
 I heard a noise and looked around and saw Nistine 
 jump to her feet; and there was a man I could just 
 see his head and shoulders climbing in at the window. 
 He had a handkerchief or something tied across the 
 lower part of his face. You see, only this reading- 
 light was turned on, and he must have thought that I 
 was asleep with a night-light burning, or he wouldn't 
 have tried to climb in. 
 
 "Well, anyhow, Nistine let out that scream you heard 
 and jumped, and when she jumped she caught her 
 foot in something and fell. But in the mean time I 
 was reaching under my pillow for this. When Nistine 
 fell and was out of the way, I let drive at him, and 
 the thing went off three times instead of once. I guess 
 maybe that night-prowler didn't know that my father 
 and my husband were both cattle-kings in the South- 
 west, and that I learned how to use a gun at the same 
 time I learned to read a primer. I always sleep with 
 one of them under my pillow, and I always carry one 
 in my hand-bag with my book and lace-needles when I
 
 A SCREAM AND THREE SHOTS 117 
 
 travel. It's the habit of a lifetime; and, besides, this 
 isn't the first effort that burglars and porch-climbers 
 have made to get my diamonds away from me. 
 
 "That's the whole story, so No it isn't, either. I 
 jumped out of bed and went to the window, and I saw 
 two figures disappear among the trees, and one of them 
 either wore a long raincoat which isn't likely, for it's 
 not raining-: or was a woman and wore a dress. That 
 is all. I didn't shoot again because they got out of my 
 sight too soon. But I'll tell you this much : one of them, 
 the one that I'm sure was not a woman, acted as if I'd 
 winged him, and I've seen too many men shot not to 
 know pretty well when they're hit. Now, will you do me 
 the favor to send all of these people out of my room? 
 Those burglars had probably heard that I was down 
 here at your place and figured it out that it would be 
 a swell chance for them to get my jewels. They've been 
 hot-foot after my diamond-rope ever since that foolish 
 Sunday newspaper printed a picture of it and told what 
 it is worth. But they won't get it, Bing Harvard ! Not 
 while I'm alive, and I expect to be on earth a good 
 many years yet. And, Bingham, come nearer. I want 
 to whisper to you. Now, listen : I think I don't know, 
 but I think that I could make a good guess about 
 that chap that I did not hit. He moved just like er 
 somebody I know. But I'll tell you about that in 
 the morning."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 A KEY TO THE MYSTERY 
 
 THE impromptu gathering dispersed; the startled 
 guests departed to their several rooms after Harvard 
 had pooh-poohed any idea of a search of the grounds 
 of Myquest that night. 
 
 He followed his wife into her room and closed the 
 door, and was at the point of passing on, through it, 
 to his own, without comment upon the excitement that 
 had just passed, and its cause, when she stopped him. 
 
 "Bingham," she said. 
 
 "Yes," he replied, and wheeled about and went back 
 to her. 
 
 She reached out and rested her hands on his 
 shoulders, then she cuddled her face close against his 
 neck and sighed contentedly; and yet it was a sigh 
 that was much too deeply drawn to express merely con- 
 tent. There was repression in it, too, for she had in- 
 tended, when she called to him to stop, to tell him 
 everything, but in the barely perceptible moment that 
 intervened had changed her mind. 
 
 How she wished, in that instant, that she had told 
 him all about her brother Roderick, long, long ago ; for 
 there was not, nor had there been, anything about the 
 circumstances of Roderick's past, or in connection with 
 his supposed death and burial, which Katherine had 
 need to hide from her husband. She had not told him, 
 because it had always seemed so unnecessary to recall 
 
 118
 
 A KEY TO THE MYSTERY 119 
 
 the dark and heart-rending chapter in her life, or to 
 harass Bingham by a recital of it. 
 
 Her reticence was not the consequence of any re- 
 luctance to confide the whole truth about Roderick to 
 Bingham, for if Conrad Belknap had been elsewhere, 
 and temporarily beyond her husband's reach, there 
 would have been none at all; but she knew as well as 
 she had knowledge of anything, what Bing would do 
 to the card-sharper if he was made aware of the things 
 that Belknap had done, and of the threats the man had 
 uttered since his arrival at Myquest. She knew that the 
 Night Wind would be unleashed again, as it had been 
 during those terrible days of the frame-up when he 
 had been hunted and hounded like a felon, for a crime 
 committed by another. 
 
 Above all things else in Katherine's mind was the 
 dread that her father and mother might discover that 
 their son did not lie buried in that grave in Kentucky 
 that was marked with his name; that the dead still 
 lived; that Roderick Maxwilton had not expiated his 
 misdeeds with his life and any violence on Bingham's 
 part toward Belknap must inevitably lead to such an 
 exposure. 
 
 So, in that interval of a second, while Bing returned 
 to her and she clung to him, with her head on his breast, 
 the impulse to tell him everything passed. 
 
 Harvard waited for her to speak, but when she re- 
 mained silent he asked: 
 
 "What is it, dear? Is something troubling you?" 
 
 "N-no," she replied. 
 
 "Are you quite sure about that, Katherine?" 
 
 "Of course. I am only babyish." 
 
 "That is not like you." 
 
 "N-no. But, then, we are not always immune from 
 nervous shocks, are we, Bingham?"
 
 120 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 He did not reply to the question. Instead, he asked 
 one, with a glance as he did so, toward her bed that 
 had not been occupied. 
 
 "Why had you not gone to bed, Katherine?" 
 
 "I had callers, as I told you," she replied. "The 
 senorita, and Betty." 
 
 "What errands did they have, at such an hour, to 
 bring them " 
 
 Katherine brightened, and lifted her head as she 
 interrupted him. 
 
 "That reminds me," she said, speaking rapidly for 
 she did not wish to be questioned too closely about the 
 things that had happened after she had said good night 
 to her husband. "The senorita must have seen or 
 heard the same burglars that disturbed Mme. Savage. 
 She was badly frightened when she came in. She had 
 seen somebody prowling about outside of the house a 
 man, or some men, under the trees, I think." 
 
 "Was that what you wished to tell me about when 
 you called me back just now?" Bing asked her; and 
 when she hesitated for a reply, he added : "There was 
 something that you wanted to tell to me, wasn't there, 
 Katherine?" 
 
 "There is something that I want to ask you, dear," 
 she answered, evading his question, and believing that 
 he did not notice that she did so, although he was aware 
 of it, and disturbingly so. 
 
 "Yes?" he replied, noncommittally. 
 
 "Do you think that it would be possible" (the idea 
 had just occurred to her as a possible solution of her 
 difficulties) "for us to go away somewhere, very early 
 in the week just for a short trip somewhere any- 
 where at all?" Being well into the subject, she warmed 
 to it, and went on rapidly: "The guests need not 
 hinder us, you know, if you can get away from the
 
 A KEY TO THE MYSTERY 121 
 
 bank. And I don't care to stay long, anywhere. I 
 would so much like to go away alone with you for a 
 short trip, somewhere, Bingham." 
 
 Harvard smiled a bit grimly, although Katherine did 
 not notice that. 
 
 "That sounds," he said, "very much as if there is 
 somebody here a man or a woman, or both that you 
 would like to be rid of." He hesitated just an instant, 
 and added: "Is there such a person?" 
 
 "Why er perhaps, dear. I had not thought about 
 it in just that way; but " 
 
 "Have you forgotten, sweetheart, that you have one 
 guest here who cannot very well be gotten rid of for 
 another whole week, without giving offense? Mme. 
 Savage makes her dates for months ahead, and is as 
 exact about them as a railway schedule. Don't you 
 remember that it is only a short time since you told 
 her that we would remain at Myquest all summer, and 
 that you asked her down here for as long a stay as she 
 could make and she told you the date when she would 
 come which she kept and the date, twelve days later, 
 when she would leave us, which she means to keep to the 
 letter? You can't send her away, Katherine. She'd 
 be lost. It would upset her entire system to interfere 
 with her timetable of dates." 
 
 Katherine nodded without replying. 
 
 "Besides," Harvard went on, "your week-end enter- 
 tainment that began nine days ago, has developed into 
 a house-party. Demming and Sears, Cora Crane and 
 Di Loring, mean to stay on as long as you will keep 
 them ; and well, there's Belknap, too. He seems to 
 like it so well here that I shouldn't wonder if he de- 
 cided to stay all summer. No, Katherine, I don't think 
 that we can pitch them all into the highway and go
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 away; but, if you like, you can give notice that we 
 will close the house a week hence." 
 
 He was watching her closely while he talked, 
 although his tone was a bantering, rather than a de- 
 cided one. 
 
 He saw that she sighed again, resignedly, and that 
 she was vastly more disappointed than she wished him 
 to know. He was more than ever convinced that she 
 was keeping something from him that she wanted to 
 tell, and which, for some inexplicable reason, she with- 
 held. 
 
 "Who is it that you wish to be rid of?" he asked 
 abruptly. "Belknap?" 
 
 Instantly she was on guard. 
 
 Her husband's question might have been purely ac- 
 cidental, or there might have been a purpose behind 
 it. She did not wait to inquire of her own mind, but 
 replied instantly. 
 
 "Did you notice, Bingham," she asked, "that Mr. 
 Belknap was the only one of our entire guest-list who 
 did not appear when Mme. Savage alarmed the whole 
 house ?" 
 
 "Yes," he replied coolly. "I did notice it; but I 
 knew why he did not." 
 
 "You did?" Katherine almost cried out in her sud- 
 den alarm. "Why what " 
 
 Harvard replied to his wife's unfinished question 
 smilingly. 
 
 "Pie, too, like the senorita, discovered prowlers in 
 the grounds around Myquest, but with the difference 
 that he actually encountered one of them, and had been 
 very badly handled when he returned to the veranda 
 where I waited him, you'll remember. He had lost his 
 watch, his stick-pin, and some money and an irnpor-
 
 A KEY TO THE MYSTERY 123 
 
 tant message or letter, which he went back to search 
 for at the spot where he was attacked." 
 
 Katherine, in her amazement, gasped, and Harvard 
 misunderstood the reason for it. 
 
 "Do you mean that he was robbed actually 
 robbed in our grounds?" she demanded. 
 
 "Yes; perhaps by the same prowler, or prowlers, 
 that the senorita saw, and that Mme. Savage shot at. 
 However, you have not replied to my question." 
 
 "What was it, Bingham?" 
 
 "You would not want to go away, just now, unless 
 there were some persons here whom you prefer to be 
 rid of. I asked you if that person is Mr. Conrad 
 Belknap?" 
 
 "Oh. Why, yes, I suppose so, when all is said. He 
 is a stranger to us, isn't he? One can't say that he 
 really belongs, you know. But, dear, the truth is, that 
 I would like to be rid of all of them every last one of 
 them." 
 
 They had remained standing while they talked. Now, 
 Harvard reached out and put his arms around Kath- 
 erine, and drew her close to him, kissing her brow, and 
 inhaling the fragrance of her hair. Then, holding her 
 so, he asked: 
 
 "Has something happened to annoy you, Katherine? 
 Has any person annoyed you, by word or deed? If 
 anything of that kind has occurred I want you to tell 
 me." 
 
 "No, no, no, no !" she exclaimed, so vehemently that 
 he suspected she was not entirely truthful. Then she 
 broke away from him and laughed. "How silly we are, 
 just because of a burglar scare," she said. "Do go to 
 bed, Bingham. Do you know what time it is?" 
 
 "I wonder," Harvard remarked tentatively, as he 
 turned toward the door to his own part of the suite,
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 and while his back was toward Katherine, "if you, also, 
 saw a prowler under your window, to-night? I wonder 
 if that is what you want to tell me, and are afraid to 
 tell lest I should go outside and get hurt, or hurt 
 somebody else?" 
 
 Then, before she could reply, he wheeled and faced 
 her for his own words had provided the key to the 
 mystery that perplexed him so sorely. 
 
 "What has Belknap done to you, or what is he try- 
 ing to do? Tell me!" he demanded.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 AN APPALLING SITUATION 
 
 THERE was a crucial instant for Katherine Har- 
 vard when her husband put the abrupt question which 
 was a demand rather than an interrogation. 
 
 It was one of those vital instants when one has only 
 a flash of time in which to determine a course which must 
 be adhered to indefinitely in which a thousand queries 
 and replies pass into and out of one's rmnd with the 
 rapidity of thought which can span the distance be- 
 tween earth and sun within one ten-millionth of a sec- 
 ond. 
 
 Katherine realized in that instant when there was 
 no perceptible pause at all that she had to choose 
 between a deliberate deception and a complete revela- 
 tion of all of the facts. Merely a part of the truth, 
 with something withheld, would not suffice for Bingham 
 Harvard, once called the Night Wind by the men who 
 had hunted him. 
 
 Katherine lied to him and hated herself for doing 
 so the instant when it had been done; yet, had she 
 been given an hour or a day to think it over, she must 
 have arrived at the same decision for the dread of 
 what Bing might do filled her with terror. 
 
 "What has Belknap done to you, or what is he try- 
 ing to do? Tell me !" was the demand that he made up- 
 on her; and her reply was ready as soon as the last two 
 words were pronounced. 
 
 125
 
 126 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Mr. Belknap ?" she questioned instantly and Kath- 
 erine was a perfect actress in such emergencies. 
 
 The pronouncement of Belknap's name interroga- 
 tively, was made with such perfect simulation of as- 
 tounded surprise that it was quite enough without fur- 
 ther remark. It was so adroitly done that it disarmed 
 Harvard ; and she added : "What has he done, or tried 
 to do to me? Why, what could he do what could 
 anybody do what could any person try to do to Bing- 
 ham Harvard's wife or dare to try to do, that might 
 affront her?" 
 
 Harvard sighed, unconsciously, and with an inward 
 sense of relief. 
 
 "Then, dear, answer your own question the one 
 that you have just asked," he said. "What has any- 
 body done, or tried to do, that is not to your liking?" 
 
 "Nothing," she replied. 
 
 Thus Katherine uttered the first lie why soften it 
 by substituting the word untruth? that she had ever 
 told to her husband. 
 
 Harvard sighed again. 
 
 He believed her because he had never known her 
 to deceive. Yet there remained in the back of his mind 
 a mental reservation of doubt. It was so faint, so ob- 
 scure, as to be unrecognizable, but it was there. 
 
 He kissed her forehead again, curbed and withheld 
 other questions that sought utterance, held her close 
 in his arms for a second, said "Go to bed, now, sweet- 
 heart," and left her. 
 
 When the door had closed and he was gone, Kath- 
 erine moved about the room in her final preparations 
 for bed, methodically; automatically is perhaps a bet- 
 ter word. 
 
 She turned down the bed-clothing, snapped off the 
 lights, returned to her bed, got into it, pulled the covers
 
 AN APPALLING SITUATION 127 
 
 over her, snuggled into her pillows, and closed her eyes. 
 But she was another Katherine ; she was not the same 
 personality that she had been a little, just a very little 
 while before. 
 
 She had told her husband a lie. 
 
 Sleepless, although motionless and with closed eyes 
 for she was trying to sleep the events of the night 
 since she came to her room from the veranda passed in 
 review before her. She mentally visualized everything 
 chronologically. 
 
 Again, in retrospect, she put on her negligee, 
 snapped off her lights, and stepped from her window to 
 the little balcony to enjoy the night air. 
 
 Again Belknap made his appearance beneath her 
 window, and dared to address her intimately, by her 
 given name, and by another one which only an extreme- 
 ly favored few were permitted to use; again the seno- 
 rita Roberta came to her room, frightened, or pre- 
 tending to be frightened, by burglars. 
 
 Katherine had not believed, then, nor did she be- 
 lieve while she thought it over, in the genuineness of 
 that fright. She had thought then, as she still thought, 
 that it had been simulated. But why for what pur- 
 pose? 
 
 In the light of what had happened afterward with 
 the appearance of real burglars and the attempted en- 
 trance to the room of Mme. Savage ; with the absence 
 of Belknap from the scene that followed, and with 
 the senorita's too-reluctant reappearance, hovering at 
 the edge of the partly clad group of startled guests 
 there could be only one answer to those two questions. 
 
 Katherine opened her eyes wide, and sat up in bed, 
 startled into sudden revelation when that answer oc- 
 curred to her; and she whispered it breathlessly, in a 
 hushed whisper.
 
 128 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "That attempt at burglary upon Mme. Savage was 
 real; it was genuine. Belknap knows who those bur- 
 glars were, and was expecting them. He went from the 
 veranda into the paths among the shrubbery and trees 
 to meet them. They saw him under my window, and 
 they quarreled; perhaps that accounts for his bruises. 
 Roberta is Belknap's accomplice she knows why he 
 is at Myquest what he intends to do and she came 
 to my room to warn me by the only method she dared 
 to use." 
 
 Instantly, when she arrived at that solution of the 
 mysteries of the night, Katherine sprang out of bed, 
 seized her discarded negligee, and without switching 
 on the lights, thrust her feet into her bed-slippers and 
 ran litterally ran to the door. 
 
 She opened it softly, passed to the outside, closed 
 it noiselessly, and glided like a ghost in pink, to the 
 senorita's door. 
 
 She hesitated there for an instant, listening. Then 
 she tapped softly upon it, and waited. 
 
 There was no answer, even when she tapped a second 
 time, more loudly, so she grasped the knob, turned it, 
 discovered that the door was not locked, and entered 
 the room. 
 
 Senorita Cervantez was not there. The bed had not 
 been disturbed. 
 
 Katherine had gone to the senorita's room impulsive- 
 ly, without second thought regarding the wisdom of the 
 act, but with the settled determination to "have it out" 
 with the woman accomplice of Conrad Belknap with 
 the beautiful pianiste who pretended to be voiceless, 
 who was at once so beautiful and so double-faced, so 
 lovable and yet so deceitful. 
 
 If Katherine had needed any added conviction of 
 Roberta's connection with Belknap and his aims, she
 
 AN APPALLING SITUATION 129 
 
 found it in the senorita's absence from her room and 
 it was equally plain that only one reason could have 
 taken her from it at that time ; she had gone from it to 
 seek her master to find Belknap. 
 
 "Shall I follow? Shall I seek them?'* Katherine 
 asked herself mentally ; and shook her head slowly in a 
 negative. 
 
 "I will wait," she told herself voicelessly; and she 
 sought a chair in the darkened room, for none of the 
 lights was turned on, and only a dim glow shone into it 
 from the starlight without. 
 
 She found one, a big chair upholstered in leather 
 with a high and solid back, and she moved it a trifle so 
 that her presence in its depths could not be seen from 
 the doorway by a person entering the room. 
 
 Then she hid herself in it and waited. 
 
 During many minutes she sat with her eyes wide 
 open, staring slantingwise through the open window 
 where the filmy lace draperies swelled and subsided and 
 swelled again in the zepherlike night breeze. 
 
 When they bulged into the room, pressed apart 
 momentarily by the drafts of air, she could see be- 
 tween the iron spindles of the balcony-rail the same 
 big balsam-tree out of the shadow of which Belknap 
 had made his sudden appearance when he had startled 
 her so greatly, earlier in the night and she fell again 
 into going over the details of the evening and night, 
 bit by bit, item by item. 
 
 Thus the sleep that would not be wooed when she 
 had gone to bed crept stealthily and silently upon her 
 in the chair beside the opened window, and, without 
 realizing it, she drowsed and drifted into obscurity. 
 
 The clicking of a latch startled her into wakefulness. 
 A sharper draft of air bulged the draperies into the 
 room.
 
 130 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Katherine was aware that the door opened, and was 
 closed again, although she heard no further sound ; but 
 she was certain that the senorita had returned and was 
 standing somewhere between her and the closed door, 
 unconscious of her presence, unwise to the fact that 
 she was not alone. 
 
 It was Katherine's impulse to speak, but she did not. 
 She sat very still and waited, wishing fervently that 
 she could see; she was, at the moment, sorry that she 
 had so placed the chair that her own vision of the in- 
 terior of the room was minimized to next to nothing. 
 
 She could hear stealthy footfalls, presently, as the 
 person behind her crossed the floor. 
 
 Absolute silence followed, and continued so long a 
 time that Katherine found it difficult to restrain her 
 impulse to move ever so little so that she might turn 
 her head enough to discover what was going on ; yet she 
 feared to do so, knowing that the slightest of sounds 
 would betray her presence in the chair. 
 
 Then she remembered that she was clad only in her 
 night-dress and the filmy negligee that covered it; and 
 therefore there was nothing about her apparel that 
 would rustle if she moved ; the soft material of her 
 wrapper would slip noiselessly over the leather cover- 
 ing of the chair. 
 
 After another moment a single light was switched on 
 behind her, and by the dim glow of it Katherine knew 
 it to be the green-shaded desk-light in a far corner of 
 the room; but the silence remained unbroken. 
 
 Katherine could bear it no longer and, anyway, 
 since she had gone to that room for the express pur- 
 pose of having an understanding with the senorita, why 
 delay? So she moved ever so little, and turned her 
 head, and fortunately, made not a sound in doing so. 
 
 What she discovered terrified her.
 
 AN APPALLING SITUATION 131 
 
 For the first time in her life that she could recall 
 she was actually afraid really scared panic-stricken. 
 
 The person who had entered the room, who had so 
 silently crossed it, who was, in fact, at that very instant 
 moving slowly across the floor toward the very chair 
 upon which she was seated, was not the senorita. 
 
 It was a man ; and the man was Conrad Belknap. 
 
 Katherine saw, with that quick capacity for compre- 
 hension which one experiences in vital moments, that 
 he held in one hand an opened envelop and an unfolded 
 sheet of note-paper that he had evidently taken from 
 it a letter, apparently, that he had been reading by 
 the aid of the desk-light; a fact which would account 
 for that enduring silence of his after he had entered 
 the room and crossed it to the desk. 
 
 It was, without a doubt, a letter of the senoritd's 
 that she had left upon her desk. Katherine saw that 
 the envelope had been sealed with wax, and had been 
 ruthlessly broken open. 
 
 The green shade over the desk-light was thick and 
 heavy, and there was not sufficient illumination for 
 Katherine to see the man's face plainly, yet she did 
 discern enough to know that he was in a rage a silent, 
 impotent, helpless rage, about something that was, 
 for the moment, beyond his control. 
 
 She had no time in which to determine what to do; 
 there was nothing that she could do. 
 
 Belknap had not seen her; she knew that. He was 
 not aware of her presence in the room ; but he was ap- 
 proaching her swiftly, silently, implacably; evidently 
 seeking the chair as she had sought it earlier, and she 
 knew that in just another instant she would have to 
 rise in her place and confront him.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IN THE SENOBTTA'S ROOM 
 
 IF Conrad Belknap had taken one more step he must 
 have seen her. 
 
 He did not take it. There was a sharp click against 
 the knob at the door, and at the sound of it he turned. 
 
 Katherine had been on the point of rising to confront 
 him, and she had swayed her body around in the chair, 
 grasping the back of it. She was ready to spring to 
 her feet and to demand of him why he dared to prowl 
 about the house at that hour of the night, when the 
 slight sound at the latch alarmed him and he turned 
 away. 
 
 Instead of rising, Katherine huddled herself more 
 closely into the chair, drawing her feet up into it so 
 that she was on her knees, and with only so much of 
 her head above the back of it as would permit her to see 
 what was going on. 
 
 Belknap had wheeled around so that his back was 
 toward her, and he stood a little to the right of her 
 line of vision toward the door which fell open quickly 
 after that click at the knob. 
 
 The senorita entered, turned, closed the door silently, 
 and locked it. Then, with an air that bespoke dejec- 
 tion, she leaned her back against it; and with bowed 
 head, and her gaze evidently upon the floor at her feet, 
 she stood there, relaxed and panting, as if she were 
 badly frightened or had been running. 
 
 Thus she did not see Belknap until his voice startled 
 
 132
 
 IN THE SENORITA'S ROOM 133 
 
 her so that she jumped. Without any sort of doubt 
 she had believed herself to be utterly alone when she 
 came into the room so hastily and locked the door after 
 her. 
 
 The move that she did make, then, was bewildering. 
 
 It is an axiom that persons thus rudely startled will 
 act instantly and impulsively upon the idea that has 
 been most emphasized in thought immediately pre- 
 ceding the alarm. 
 
 "Where have you been?" Belknap demanded with- 
 out preface. His voice was sharp, cold, and authori- 
 tative, and Roberta jumped as you have seen kittens 
 spring into the air when one's foot is scraped sharply 
 upon the floor behind them. 
 
 She sprang toward the desk where Belknap had 
 snapped on the light beneath the green shade, which she 
 had not noticed, evidently, till then; possibly she 
 thought she had left it so. 
 
 Her body bent forward and her right arm was ex- 
 tended as if she would seize something without doubt 
 the same letter that Belknap was holding in his hand, 
 and which he had opened and read, and which had 
 angered him, as Katherine had divined. 
 
 Also, he seemed perfectly to understand her im- 
 pulse, for when she turned to face him again, with one 
 hand clasped at her breast, and utterly heedless of his 
 question, Katherine heard him say in that coldly sar- 
 donic manner which was so thoroughly his character- 
 istic: 
 
 "I found your letter. I have it here. I have opened 
 it and read it." 
 
 Bear in mind the fact that there was no light in the 
 room save the very dim glow that escaped from beneath 
 the green shade where Belknap had turned on the desk- 
 light.
 
 134 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 It was not sufficient to enable Katherine to observe 
 either of them distinctly. Belknap's back was toward 
 her; Roberta was beyond him, partly facing Katherine. 
 The impressions she got from the scene were the result 
 of intuition combined with so much of observation as 
 the dim light would afford. 
 
 She was certain of just one thing, however; neither 
 Belknap nor Roberta suspected her nearness. Fortu- 
 nately it did not occur to either of them to turn more 
 light upon the scene. 
 
 Katherine's terrors of a moment ago had left her. 
 
 All of the masterfulness, all of the shrewdness for 
 which she had been noted when she was attached to the 
 detective bureau at headquarters, all of her long latent 
 abilities as one of the keenest and the best of opera- 
 tives, returned to her in that moment. 
 
 She became on the instant once more the Lady Kate 
 of the Police the quick-witted, far-seeing, inscrutable 
 Lady of the Night Wind the indomitable personality 
 that had made of her a force and power to be reckoned 
 with during the days of the great frame-up which had 
 made an outlaw of Bingham Harvard, and which, but 
 for her efforts, would have kept him an outlaw for the 
 rest of his days. 
 
 She forgot that she was in negligee and bed-slippers, 
 and was the hostess of a house-party who had pene- 
 trated surreptitiously to the room of one of her guests 
 for although Senorita Cervantez was a hired en- 
 tertainer, she was nevertheless a guest. 
 
 Roberta we must call her that, save when require- 
 ment renders necessary the name she assumed for use as 
 an entertainer seemed in the half light of the room to 
 straighten and stiffen where she stood, as if her at- 
 titude had become one of defiance. 
 
 She did not reply to Belknap's question at all, and
 
 IN THE SENORITA'S ROOM 135 
 
 there was a perceptible pause before she answered his 
 remark about having opened and read her letter. Even 
 then she uttered only one word. It was: 
 
 "Well?" The enunciation of that one word was as 
 clear and distinct as the tone of a bell, and the voice 
 was the same melodious one that had so charmed Kath- 
 erine upon the wires of the telephone. 
 
 "Where were you? Where did you go after you 
 wrote this letter and left it to be found on your desk 
 in case you should not return? Where have you been?" 
 
 Roberta did not answer; but Katherine could see 
 that she shrugged her shoulders in a disdainful gesture 
 that was almost as indifferent to consequences as the 
 manner and attitude of Belknap always was. 
 
 "Answer me," the man commanded sharply. 
 
 Katherine thought that Roberta actually smiled at 
 him then ; she could see the flash of her perfect teeth. 
 
 Again the pianiste did not reply. 
 
 Instead she was still near to the desk with its 
 shaded light, although her back was toward it she 
 moved backward and reached out one arm until her 
 hand covered a button that was against the wall be- 
 side the desk. 
 
 Holding her hand thus she spoke again, and with an 
 element of cool daring in her voice voice, remember, 
 coming from one who was supposed to be speechless 
 that was rather amazing under the circumstances ; and 
 it seemed to be her turn to make demand. 
 
 "Leave the room, C. B.," she said. 
 
 Belknap's answer was entirely characteristic and 
 without words. 
 
 He took one step forward and to the right, reached 
 out for one of those small bedroom chairs that are more 
 for ornament than for use, swung it around between
 
 136 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 his legs so that the back of it was toward Roberta, and 
 sat down astraddle of it. 
 
 "Go ahead and ring," he said then, coolly. "It is 
 getting along toward two in the morning. Who would 
 hear the bell? The butler, possibly. Who would re- 
 spond to it? Again, the butler or one of the servants. 
 What would he find when he arrived ?" Katherine could 
 see the expressive shrug of Belknap's shoulders ; then 
 he added: "Ask yourself that question, Berta and 
 answer it for yourself. You ought to know me well 
 enough by this time to know the answer to it. You 
 won't ring, I don't think ! Now, who is outside, in the 
 grounds of Myquest or, who did you expect to find 
 out there waiting for you? For I very strongly sus- 
 pect that you were disappointed." 
 
 He bent farther forward across the back of the gilt 
 chair and his chin was thrust forward as he added : 
 
 "You took a long chance when you wrote this letter 
 and left it on your desk and you have lost out. Of 
 course you did not suppose that I would dare to come 
 into your room in the middle of the night, as I have 
 done, and find it and read it; but you ought to know 
 by this time that I dare all things when I have a definite 
 purpose in view, and you ought also to know that I 
 shall stay right here where I am until you pull in those 
 little prickly horns of yours which couldn't hurt any- 
 body. You can't do anything but scratch with them, 
 like the feline little animal you are; you couldn't stab 
 with them if you tried ; they'd break off before they got 
 deep enough to hurt. I brought yor down here to do 
 my bidding, and you've got to do it, and you know it. 
 
 "Bring that desk-chair close to me and sit down 
 and sit facing me," Belknap ordered sharply. "I want 
 to see you while I talk to you. It will be as well to have 
 no more light in the room just now."
 
 137 
 
 "I prefer to stand," Roberta replied. Plainly to 
 the listening Katherine she was gaining courage 
 rather than losing it. 
 
 "Bring that chair here and do as I tell you or I'll 
 do it for you, and put you on it," Belknap commanded 
 and although he neither raised his voice nor altered 
 its tone, Roberta obeyed him. 
 
 When she had placed it, and seated herself upon it, 
 her position was such that if she should lift her eyes 
 from Belknap's face she would see Katherine ; so Kath- 
 erine permitted her body to settle down in the big chair 
 until she was entirely concealed by it; and she cuddled 
 closely into the depths of it, content to hear, without 
 seeing. 
 
 But she did wish to hear everything that might be 
 said between those two ; there was strong likelihood 
 that their conversation would enlighten the mistress of 
 Myquest greatly. 
 
 Belknap, although Katherine could not see him, 
 seated astride of his chair, was bending slightly for- 
 ward with his forearms resting lightly across the back 
 of it. His eyes, hard and cold, but piercing, bored into 
 Roberta's gaze as if he would read her very soul while 
 he questioned her. 
 
 He still held in one hand the letter he had read, and 
 he tapped lightly upon it with one finger while he said : 
 
 "So you have been having another try at stealing 
 my trump card away from me, have you?" 
 
 Roberta did not reply. He said : 
 
 "Berta, if you don't answer my questions as I ask 
 them I'll make you. Now, answer that one, and answer 
 it straight." 
 
 "There isn't any answer," she replied coolly. 
 
 "Did you send for him to come down here?" 
 
 "Yes, if you want to know, I did."
 
 138 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "To come here to the house?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "This letter as good as tells me that you more than 
 half expected to find him in the grounds under the trees 
 waiting for you. Was he there?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "This letter was written by you and left on your 
 desk in case you should not return. What did you 
 mean by that?" 
 
 "I meant exactly what the letter said what it says 
 what you have read every word of it, C. B." 
 
 "So you were going to double-cross me at the same 
 time you made your own getaway, were you?" 
 
 "I meant to warn Mrs. Harvard against you yes 
 and I will warn her if you insist upon keeping me here. 
 I'll find my voice and speak out. I'll do it in your 
 presence, too; and in the presence of Bingham Har- 
 vard, also. Don't forget that he is the Night Wind, 
 C. B. Don't forget that he is the same man that you 
 have so often talked about and wondered about. Don't 
 forget that he loves his wife, and that if his wrath 
 should once be turned against you, you'd be withered 
 and crushed and rent apart in his grasp like a child 
 in the claws of a man-eating tiger." 
 
 "There, there, Berta; don't get dramatic. What 
 are you trying to do, threaten me, or are you just try- 
 ing to scare me?" 
 
 "Neither. I am warning you." 
 
 "Yes against yourself." 
 
 He chuckled. Then he snapped his fingers. There 
 was something akin to amusement in his voice when he 
 said coolly: 
 
 "You couldn't warn Katherine Harvard against me, 
 Berta. You couldn't say anything to her about me 
 that she doesn't already know or guess. I haven't been
 
 IN THE SENORITA'S ROOM 139 
 
 squeamish in letting her see under my shell of respecta- 
 bility. I don't care if she does know it all of it. I 
 shall tell her myself, exactly who and what I am, when 
 the proper time comes when a fitting opportunity 
 shall offer itself. She doesn't know that I'm a crook, 
 but she is fairly well convinced of it already. So, don't 
 you see? You'd better drop that lay." 
 
 Roberta did not reply. 
 
 "Listen here, you would-be fairy-godmother to the 
 Harvards. I came to Myquest for a definite purpose, 
 and I'm going to accomplish it. I brought you here for 
 a definite purpose, and I'm going to make you perform 
 your part of it. I made you come here because I needed 
 you, and I'm going to make use of you, exactly as I 
 planned to do it and you can't dodge that fact or 
 avoid it. You might as well put that fact into your 
 little pipe and smoke it, Berta. Are you paying atten- 
 tion to what I am saying?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, you'd better pay heed to it, too ; to all of it." 
 
 "Wait a moment," she said coldly. "You know, 
 C. B. it isn't the first time, either that I will throw 
 you down the very first time I find the chance. I have 
 told you that before. I mean it. I am tired, worn 
 out " 
 
 "Can that, Berta !" he interrupted her sharply. 
 "Why this sudden spasm of goodness and purity on 
 your part? Eh? What has put the worm into our 
 little apple? Tell me that. What is the reason for 
 this supposed dumbness? This inability to speak a 
 loud word? Who is here, among the guests at Myquest, 
 who might recognize that sweet voice of yours if you 
 should make use of it? Have you and Katherine Har 
 By God, I've got it! So! That's the idea, is it? I 
 get you, now, you she-cat. You tried to double-cross
 
 140 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 me even before you come down here, didn't you? And 
 you used a telephone to do it, didn't you? You have 
 talked to Lady Kate on the telephone, haven't you? 
 Answer me!" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "She is the one you were afraid would know your 
 voice, eh?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "You called her up and " 
 
 "I did not. She listened-in when you called me up. 
 Then, when you hung up, she spoke to me." 
 
 "Then why Oh, I see. You were afraid that if 
 she got onto your curves right off the reel, as soon as 
 you appeared on the scene, she'd fire you on the spot, 
 ch? And you wanted to play us two off, one against 
 the other, while you looked on for a little while before 
 you made a break. Fine! Fine! Really, Berta, I'll 
 take my hat off to you in some things." 
 
 He was thoughtful a moment; then went on, in the 
 same bantering tone, which, nevertheless held a sting: 
 
 "I see. I get you. I'm wise. Very clever of you, 
 you panther-girl. You are a sort of panther-girl, when 
 all is said. You're sleek, and beautiful, and graceful, 
 and as smooth as satin, and you can purr as softly as 
 one of their kittens ; but you've got teeth and claws, and 
 you can spit as well as bite and scratch. YOU were 
 lying back, eh, watching for the psychological moment, 
 so to speak waiting for the moment when you could 
 bring two certain people together, face to face, while 
 you looked on and patted them on their backs, and 
 played the good fairy. That is what you were up to, 
 is it? That is the way you intended to double-cross 
 me." 
 
 He got up from the chair and shoved it aside Kath- 
 erine ventured to peek over the back of her chair.
 
 IN THE SENORITA'S ROOM 141 
 
 She saw him seize one of Roberta's wrists and jerk 
 her to her feet ; she heard him say : 
 
 "All right for you. I told you, when you promised 
 to come here, that there was one thing that I would not 
 force you to do; but, just to prove to you that you 
 can't play the cat-and-mouse game with me, I'll make 
 you do it, now."
 
 CHAPTER XVin 
 
 ONE QUALITY OF FEAR 
 
 BELKNAP released Roberta's hand and started to- 
 ward the door, but he stopped and turned to face her 
 again before he touched it. Katherine dropped out of 
 sight a second time, but was conscious of a touch of 
 sardonic mirth in Belknap's voice when he spoke; she 
 could picture that wolfish smile of his which she had no 
 doubt he was employing. 
 
 "I wonder if by any chance you are jealous of the 
 beautiful Katherine," he said. 
 
 "I might be jealous for her," was the quick retort 
 from Roberta. "If I thought that you so much as 
 
 "Touche!" he interrupted, and laughed. "Rest easy, 
 my lady-of-the-claws-and-teeth. The charming chate- 
 laine of Myquest does not tempt me. It's her money 
 that I want, not her exquisite self. One or two of her 
 jewels, maybe one that she wore during the evening, 
 for instance, but not Katherine herself." 
 
 Roberta did not reply ; he left the door and returned 
 to her. 
 
 "On the level, I wouldn't give the nail off of one of 
 your little fingers for a dozen Katherine Harvards," 
 he said, and then Katherine heard the sounds of quick 
 motions and a gasp from Roberta, and a low, chuck- 
 ling laugh from Belknap. 
 
 "Got you, haven't I?" Katherine heard him say, and 
 she ventured to peek once more over the chair back. 
 
 142
 
 ONE QUALITY OF FEAR 143 
 
 He had seized Roberta's wrists and was holding them 
 while he bent forward with his face close to hers. 
 
 "I've got you so you can't bite or scratch, so don't 
 struggle. It won't do any good. I am going to hold 
 you till I have said something that I want you to hear. 
 It's " 
 
 "Let go of my wrists," Roberta demanded of him 
 coldly, and without a sign of an attempt to free her- 
 self. "If you don't " She did not complete the sen- 
 tence, but he seemed to know what she would have said. 
 
 "I won't let go until I have finished with what I 
 meant to say when I turned back from the door, just 
 now," he told her. "It's this : you seem to be the only 
 person of my acquaintance who has the power to ex- 
 asperate me to the limit of endurance. You are the 
 only person alive who can madden me to the point of 
 losing my temper. I who never lose it! And I don't 
 know whether it is because I love you or because I hate 
 you. I " 
 
 She interrupted him. 
 
 "It is neither," she said coolly. 
 
 "No?" He chuckled again, still holding her hands. 
 
 "No," Roberta repeated after him. "It is solely be- 
 cause you know that you are not my master. It is 
 because I defy you because you cannot make me your 
 slave because there is an element within me that is so 
 utterly beyond your control that you are mystified. 
 But, after all is said, C. B., those are only side reasons. 
 The real reason why I exasperated and madden you 
 at times is " 
 
 She stopped, gazing frankly into his eyes ; and while 
 she did so he slowly released her hands and stepped 
 backward, away from her and it was noticeable (or 
 would have been so if another could have seen Roberta 
 just then; Katherine did not dare to lift her head above
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 the top of the chair back) that she did not move away 
 from him. She had forced him to become the one 
 who put more distance between them. 
 
 When she paused in her speech, he demanded: 
 
 "Well, what is the real reason? I would like to know 
 it." 
 
 She replied to him slowly, and with quiet emphasis: 
 
 "Because, deep down in your heart you are afraid of 
 me. Because I am the only person in the world that 
 you are afraid of; and because the experience is so 
 strange to you so entirely apart from your regular 
 scheme of things that although you know it to be 
 true, you will not permit yourself to believe it. You 
 won't admit that it's so." 
 
 Belknap laughed softly, showing his tooth wolfishly. 
 
 "You are afraid of me," Roberta said again. "You 
 know that I carry around with me the power to kill 
 you as surely and as quickly as the lightning strikes 
 and kills. You know that I carry with me wherever 
 I go the means of ending my own life as suddenly, and 
 you know that I have the will to use that means 
 against you or against myself. You know, too, that 
 there is only one thing that keeps me from using it 
 that makes me withhold my hand, and it all resolves 
 itself to the one fact that you are afraid of me. You 
 are in constant and deadly fear lest you go a step too 
 far, and so " She stopped. 
 
 He had withdrawn as far as the door; Katherine 
 realized that when he spoke again. His voice was low, 
 his speech deliberate and filled with menace. 
 
 "Sometime," he said, "you will take the step too far. 
 Sometime you will force me to take the step which will 
 compel you to act; but, when I do take it don't for- 
 get this little fact, Berta you will be the victim, not 
 I. You will take your own life, not mine."
 
 ONE QUALITY OF FEAR 145 
 
 Katherine heard the click of the lock as he turned 
 the key. He pulled the door partly ajar, and closed it 
 again. His cool suavity of manner had returned when 
 he said : 
 
 "It is Sunday morning now. To-morrow will be 
 Monday, and I shall see to it that an occasion is made 
 for you to make use of your skill at cards. Do you get 
 that, Berta?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "I will keep the letter that you wrote for Lady Kate 
 to read in case you did not return. I have found it 
 interesting." 
 
 "You can do what you please with it ; I can easily 
 write another one, if need be." 
 
 "You will not write another one," he retorted care- 
 lessly. "There will be no need of one. Our useful 
 friend, for whom you sent to come here, did not make 
 his appearance; and he will not. You will see to that, 
 now. If he does, you will regret it ; and so will others 
 whom you have a mind to champion." 
 
 He pulled the door open, passed out, and closed it 
 after him. 
 
 Katherine kept very still in her hiding-place in the 
 big chair, but she peeped around the side of it and could 
 see Roberta standing with her back toward her, with 
 her face toward the door. 
 
 Her attitude, now that Belknap had gone, was one 
 of utter dejection. 
 
 Katherine's impulse was to make her own presence 
 known at once ; and yet her police training assured her 
 that it was much better that she should not do so. She 
 kept very still, withdrawing into the chair. She knew 
 that it was quite likely that Roberta would presently 
 discover her, and just as likely that she would not. 
 In the one case she intended to appear to be very
 
 146 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 soundly asleep, and in the other she would wait where 
 she was until Roberta slept, and then steal silently out 
 of the room. 
 
 After a time that seemed interminable, so long did 
 Roberta remain in that attitude of thoughtful dejec- 
 tion, Katherine could hear her moving about the room ; 
 but she did not turn on any more lights, nor appear to 
 have any thought of preparing herself for bed. All 
 that she seemed to do for Katherine could only hear, 
 and not see was to walk slowly up and down the room, 
 and with each turn that she made she sighed deeply, 
 as if the burden she bore was almost too much for her. 
 
 Katherine was in a dilemma. 
 
 More than once she was at the point of making her 
 presence known; she had, in fact, determined to do so, 
 and had partly lifted her head in the beginning of the 
 act, when, as if Roberta had reached a guiding decision, 
 she passed the chair, went swiftly to the window, and 
 stepped out upon the balcony. 
 
 Katherine could see her peering with apparent eager- 
 ness this way and that, as if she searched tlie dark- 
 ness with her eyes for somebody she hoped to see; and 
 presently she wheeled about, reentered the room, 
 crossed it swiftly without seeing Katherine, and went 
 out, closing the door softly behind her. 
 
 Instantly Katherine slid from the chair to her feet. 
 
 At all hazards, and notwithstanding her negligee at- 
 tire, she felt that it was her duty to follow for 
 Roberta had said to herself, whisperingly, as she 
 crossed the room : 
 
 "I will look again. Possibly he was detained. He 
 may be there, now, waiting for me."
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A MAN IN THE OPEN 
 
 KATHERINE was not to leave the house that night on 
 the track of Roberta in precisely the way she planned, 
 although she did go out into the darkness by another 
 method than the door by one that was forced upon 
 her, which she would not have attempted, nor, indeed, 
 believed possible of accomplishment had she not been 
 compelled to it, and if she had not been transformed, 
 by the scene she had just witnessed, to the keen and 
 daring Lady Kate of the Police, to the Lady of the 
 Night Wind who had dared so greatly and accom- 
 plished so much, long ago, when she had taken upon 
 herself the task of clearing her husband of the framed- 
 up charges against him. 
 
 When Roberta went from the room after making 
 those self-addressed whispered remarks about her go- 
 ing, Katherine became suddenly alert and eager. 
 
 She was again the shrewd, resourceful, and skilful 
 detective of her "Miss Maxwell" days at headquarters, 
 unafraid, self-confident, and competent. She became, 
 on the instant, the skilled operative of by-gone times. 
 
 It did not matter to her then that she was in negligee. 
 Senorita Cervantez, the Roberta of the midnight con- 
 versation over a telephone wire, the confederate of Bel- 
 knap in his schemes, had just gone out into the night a 
 second time to meet somebody she had sent for and was 
 expecting somebody who was inimical to Belknap and 
 his plans somebody whose identity Katherine vaguely, 
 
 147
 
 148 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 very vaguely, suspected and Katherine was bound to 
 discover who and what that same somebody might be; 
 she was determined to find out if there were any grounds 
 for her faint but insistent suspicions. 
 
 She had what Tom Clancy would have called a 
 "hunch." 
 
 She guessed that in the conversation she had just 
 overheard, Belknap and Roberta had both referred to 
 her brother Roderick and yet and yet 
 
 She darted to the door and pulled it a little way 
 open without a jar or sound. 
 
 There was the possibility that Roberta had paused 
 just beyond it ; that she might have changed her mind ; 
 so Katherine was extremely cautious and it was well 
 that she was so. 
 
 She peered into the hall, which, although dimly lit, 
 was lighter than the room behind her. 
 
 Instantly she withdrew her head, reclosed the door, 
 and turned the key in the lock, fastening it. Then, 
 almost holding her breath, she waited. 
 
 What she had seen was startling enough. 
 
 Roberta had already disappeared much more quick- 
 ly than Katherine had believed she could; more than 
 likely she had run to the stairs and down them. But 
 Belknap was returning. 
 
 She had caught sight of him at the moment he turned 
 around the post of the balustrade coming from the 
 floor above, where his room was located; she had seen 
 him and she feared that he had caught a glimpse of 
 her. Not enough to have recognized her ; she was quite 
 certain as to that, but his eyes had evidently been on 
 the door when she had thrust her head outward. He 
 had started forward with quickened pace, and 
 
 The knob of the door turned ; then when it would not 
 yield, the knob was shaken gently.
 
 A MAN IN THE OPEN 149 
 
 Katherine made no response whatever. She stood 
 very still, listening. 
 
 Belknap, at the opposite side, tapped lightly against 
 it. Then Katherine heard his voice raised barely above 
 a whisper. 
 
 "Let me in, Berta," he said. "There is something I 
 forgot to say, and there is no knowing when there will 
 be another opportunity like this one. You haven't 
 undressed, yet, I'm sure. Open and let me in. I won't 
 stay five minutes. I promise." 
 
 Katherine smiled, well pleased to know that he had 
 not recognized her; and, of course, she made no reply 
 whatever. 
 
 Belknap did not, immediately, speak again, but 
 Katherine could hear a faint rustling beyond the closed 
 door; and then she became genuinely startled. 
 
 She heard the click of metal against metal at the 
 keyhole, and Belknap's muttered remark made at the 
 same time: 
 
 "All right. If you won't let me in, I'll go in." 
 
 And Katherine understood. 
 
 She knew that he was using burglar-forceps to grip 
 the post of the key and turn it, and thus unlock the 
 door from his side, and she knew that it could be done 
 as easily as if he held the key itself. She knew all about 
 such instruments ; she had seen many a pair of them in 
 the museum-cabinet at headquarters. 
 
 It did not at the instant occur to her to seize the 
 key and hold it and even if she had done so, Belknap 
 would presently have discovered that it was not 
 Roberta, but another, beyond the door and he might 
 guess who that other person was. Katherine was very 
 far from wanting him to suspect that she had been a 
 witness to the scene that had just happened inside of 
 the room. 
 \
 
 150 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 When the forceps clicked against the lock, and she 
 realized what was doing, she darted away, and by the 
 time he had begun to turn the key in the manner de- 
 scribed, she had fled into Roberta's bath-room, and had 
 closed and locked the door after her and that time 
 she withdrew the key and dropped it to the tiled floor. 
 
 But there was no other way out of that room un- 
 less She glanced toward the high and narrow win- 
 dow and shook her head but approached it neverthe- 
 less and stepped upon the low chair that stood be- 
 neath it while she pushed wide open the hinged screen 
 to peer into the night outside. 
 
 "It might be done," she told herself mentally. "It 
 can be done. I must do it. That man shall not know 
 that I " 
 
 Belknap had entered the other room and was rapping 
 softly against the bathroom door. 
 
 "Come out here," she heard him say. "What is the 
 matter with you?" 
 
 But Katherine was working with feverish haste and 
 paid no heed to him. 
 
 There was a pile of bath-towels in the small cupboard 
 where they were kept; and they were of generous size. 
 
 She seized upon them one by one and knotted them 
 together until she decided that her improvised rope was 
 long enough, for she had made up her mind that she 
 would experience only slight difficulty in forcing her 
 slender body through the window. She had not a doubt 
 that Belknap, when he became convinced that Roberta 
 would not go out to him nor answer him (for of course 
 he could not doubt that it was Roberta inside of the 
 bathroom), she believed that he would do one of two 
 things ; he would either try to force the door an un- 
 likely thing 1 or he would calmly announce that he 
 would sit down and wait till she came out, if it took
 
 A MAN IN THE OPEN 151 
 
 her till doomsday to decide an extremely likely thing 
 for him to do in his present mood. 
 
 Well, he could wait; but Katherine did not propose 
 to remain where she was to be waited for. Roberta 
 might have done so ; she would not. 
 
 She tied one end of her rope around the pipe of the 
 hot-water-heating apparatus that passed from floor 
 to ceiling in the corner beside the window; then she 
 got upon the low chair again and began her strange 
 exit from the bathroom. 
 
 She could hear Belknap talking, but she paid no heed 
 to what he was saying. 
 
 She had to force her way head first through the 
 window there was no other way but she kept a firm 
 grip upon her towel-rope. 
 
 Head and shoulders first while she clung with one 
 hand to the rope of towels, she forced her way through 
 the narrow space. 
 
 Katherine was slender and willowy. There was but 
 little impediment of clothing to overcome, as we know. 
 
 It was a tight squeeze, nevertheless ; but she made it 
 inch by inch, by squirming and edging her body for- 
 ward a little at a time, first at one side and then at the 
 other, emerging finally at the opposite side in the 
 position of one who dives into the water. 
 
 When at last she was free from the window casings, 
 she did dive, but she clung desperately to her rope as 
 it caught her weight and whirled her body over. 
 
 The impetus of her fall and the sharp jerk upon the 
 improvised rope proved too much for the knot she had 
 tied around the water pipe; it was not equal to the 
 sharp and sudden strain upon it. 
 
 It came loose, and she fell, a few feet only, and upon 
 the soft sod, so that in her quite natural excitement of 
 the moment, and her glee over the escape she had made,
 
 152 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 she was barely conscious of the shock of it and the 
 knotted towels fell with her, and she gathered them up 
 as she got upon her feet and sprang into the deeper 
 gloom of the night among the shrubbery. 
 
 So Katherine was free from the house, leaving Bel- 
 knap none the wiser. 
 
 She smiled at the thought of his amazement, if, while 
 he waited beside the locked bathroom door, Roberta 
 should return and remembrance of Roberta brought 
 to mind her original purpose. 
 
 But a moment of thought convinced Katherine that 
 it would be worse than useless to seek her under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Roberta had gone out with a definite purpose, and 
 doubtless to a definite place ; there was no such thing as 
 guessing where that place might be located. 
 
 Moreover, now that she was in the open air, she 
 needed, and very much wanted, clothing. 
 
 There was no means of reentering the house at once ; 
 she knew that she would have to wait until morning to 
 do that if she hoped to accomplish it without betray- 
 ing the unusual circumstances of her being outside, and 
 she had no notion of letting anybody into that secret. 
 It was wholly her own, thus far, and she meant to keep 
 it so. 
 
 She did not know where she could go. 
 
 There was always the Nest, her one place of secure 
 refuge from any and every sort of storm or stress. 
 There was everything that she might need there; and 
 never yet had there been a time when she was so thank- 
 ful for its existence so grateful for that whim of hers 
 that she had coddled and encouraged since childhood, 
 which had induced Bingham to let her build it never 
 had she appreciated the fact of it so much as at that 
 moment.
 
 A MAN IN THE OPEN 153 
 
 It was her "mystery place," her very own sanctum, 
 and with a smile of content she made her way swiftly 
 along the winding paths among the bushes and shrubs 
 toward the artificial lake beside and above which it was 
 located. 
 
 She glided along like a spirit and with scarcely 
 more noise than one might make and so she came at 
 last to the shore of the little lake, to a pathway that 
 followed the indentures of it and would lead, presently, 
 to another one that ended at the Nest. 
 
 Katherine was too impatient to keep to the path ; the 
 way across was shorter, and she knew every inch of it 
 even if the darkness was deeper among the towering 
 trees from beneath which every scrap of lesser growth 
 had been cleared away. 
 
 Gliding noiselessly onward, flitting like a sprite from 
 tree to tree, she came to a sudden stop, and sniffed the 
 air like a hunting-dog that has caught the scent of 
 game. 
 
 It was the unmistakable odor of a cigar that Kath- 
 erine had sensed, and as she came to a halt and lis- 
 tened, peering eagerly this way and that, she detected 
 the low murmur of voices in conversation just the low 
 hum of them, with nothing distinct about it. 
 
 "Roberta !" she thought quickly. "Roberta, and the 
 man she came out to meet. And he is smoking. Foolish 
 man ! But he could not guess that a regular old-timer 
 detective would be out here on his trail." 
 
 She smiled broadly at her own facetiousness while 
 she stood very still and listened intently in order to 
 catch the exact location of the sounds she heard. Then 
 her face took on a serious expression; and as she 
 moved slowly forward toward the sound, she murmured 
 to herself:
 
 154 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Can it be? Oh, can it be possible that that he 
 No, no; I can't believe it. But, if it is not that, it 
 must be another part of this hideous plot; and, what- 
 ever it is, I mean to know about it."
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE FACE IN THE FLAME 
 
 A BROAD-SPREADING box-elder tree grew on the bank 
 of the lake just where Katherine approached it from 
 the wood. Its long, thickly leaved, horizontal branches 
 extended above the water in one direction, and as far 
 back from the shore in the other, creating a perfect and 
 extensive shade in the daytime, and enveloping all 
 things beneath it in black darkness at night. There 
 was a rustic bench under it, where Roberta and her 
 companion were seated, facing the lake, and therefore 
 with their backs toward Katherine as she stealthily ap- 
 proached them from among the trees. 
 
 Under the tree, against the surface of the water 
 that shone in the starlight beyond, Katherine could 
 discern the outlines of both figures with just enough 
 distinctness to determine one from the other to know 
 which was the man, and which was the woman. 
 
 They were seated very close together; the man's left 
 arm was stretched along the back of the bench behind 
 Roberta; they seemed to be conversing earnestly, but 
 their voices were tuned to a pitch so low that even when 
 Katherine had approached them as near as she dared, 
 she could hear no word distinctly that was uttered be- 
 tween them. 
 
 It became very quickly evident to her that whatever 
 might have been the reason for the clandestine inter- 
 view, its purpose had been already accomplished, for 
 even as Katherine attained a position from which she 
 
 155
 
 156 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 might have overheard them had they continued, they 
 got up from the bench and stood facing one another. 
 
 Katherine stood behind the trunk of a giant, old- 
 growth hemlock, with her lithe and slender body pressed 
 closely against it, and with her head bent forward so 
 that she could look past it ; but the drooping branches 
 of the box-elder hid their heads and shoulders from her 
 sight. But she was able to see that the man held both 
 of Roberta's hands tightly clasped in his and she was 
 aware that he bent nearer as if to touch his lips lightly 
 against Roberta's forehead. 
 
 They parted then and Katherine had heard not a 
 word that had passed between them. 
 
 Roberta glided away swiftly and noiselessly, and 
 was lost to sight around a winding of the path along 
 the shore, which, by the way, would have brought Kath- 
 erine directly upon them had she pursued that course 
 instead of cutting across through the trees on her way 
 to the Nest. 
 
 The man remained. 
 
 He stood quite still until Roberta had disappeared; 
 then he sat down on the bench again, struck a match, 
 and applied the flame of it to his cigar with the burning 
 match cupped in his hands, but with his back toward 
 Katherine, for all the world as if it were done pur- 
 posely to tantalize her. 
 
 She had the mad notion that the man was her brother 
 Roderick, and she could not rid herself of that convic- 
 tion, and yet, strange paradox, she felt, she almost 
 knew, that it could not be so. 
 
 He was tall, broad of shoulder, well built, and car- 
 ried himself like a soldier ; she had been able to discern 
 that much. Every item of that description, so far as it 
 went, would apply to Roderick Maxwilton; but so 
 would it apply as precisely to thousands of others.
 
 THE FACE IN THE FLAME 157 
 
 She had not heard, with any distinctness, the sound 
 of his voice, and she was by no means sure that she 
 would remember Roderick's if she could hear him speak. 
 She believed that she would, but she was doubtful, too, 
 so many years had come and gone since she had listened 
 to it and loved it. 
 
 She had been only a girl, then, with her hair in braids 
 down her back. Precocious and wise beyond her years, 
 perhaps, but a girl, nevertheless. And Roderick was al- 
 ready a young man with a drooping though somewhat 
 scanty mustache, with coal-black hair that he had per- 
 mitted to grow quite long, after the fashion of the 
 Southern youth, at that time, and he had been ad- 
 dicted to frock coats and wide-brimmed hats, string 
 ties, and a touch of "swagger" like other young Ken- 
 tuckians of his class. 
 
 Besides, during the three years that had immediately 
 preceded his "going away from home," Katherine 
 Maxwilton had seen very little of her brother less and 
 less with each succeeding day and week and month. 
 
 He had been wild, untamed, and untamable; she, 
 only the kid-sister at home. He had raced his horses, 
 drank his toddies and juleps and smashes, played cards, 
 made love, and sowed his wild oats broadcast with 
 generous indulgence; she had been the kid sister at 
 home who saw him scarcely at all, save when as quite 
 often happened in the dead of night, or at dawn, 
 she stole down the stairs to help him into the house 
 and to his room, without waking their parents. 
 
 She had idolized him and worshiped him, nevertheless 
 her only brother; for he had been the eldest and 
 Katherine the youngest among five, and of the three 
 who had died, she had no recollection whatever. 
 
 So she panted with expectancy and dread while she 
 stood behind the trunk of the hemlock watching the
 
 158 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 man on the bench who smoked on as unconcernedly 
 as if he had not a care in the world beyond the im- 
 mediate consumption of the cigar. 
 
 She wished that he would throw that one away and 
 light another, and turn so that he would face toward 
 her when he did it. She was certain that she would 
 know him if he were Roderick. She was not sure about 
 the voice, but she knew that she could never forget the 
 handsome, somewhat dissipated, but wholly patrician 
 face of her brother. 
 
 After a time he stood up again, tall and stalwart, 
 with his head and shoulders veiled within the black 
 gloom above him, and Katherine crouched low behind 
 her tree. 
 
 Then he did precisely what she had been hoping that 
 he would do; having turned his body slowly around, 
 gazing first out across the lake, then toward the build- 
 ings of Myquest, he presently faced directly toward 
 herself as if he looked at the trunk of the very tree 
 behind which she was crouched. 
 
 He struck a match; he held the flame of it before 
 his face while he applied it to the cigar so that every 
 line of his features showed plainly and Katherine was 
 conscious of a sharp pang of disappointment. 
 
 She saw no resemblance to her brother Roderick in 
 that flame-illuminated face. 
 
 Katherine's disappointment was so keen that she 
 closed her eyes in the spasm of regret that followed it ; 
 she had not realized how earnestly she had hoped, nor 
 how confidently she had expected, that the flaring light 
 of the match would reveal the face of her brother. 
 
 When she opened them, and lifted her gaze again, he 
 had gone. 
 
 It amazed her that he could disappear so swiftly and 
 silently; but the fact of it reminded her of Bingham
 
 THE FACE IN THE FLAME 159 
 
 when he had been the Night Wind, and a hunted man. 
 
 She kept very still for a time after that, for she did 
 not know that the strange man might not be close at 
 hand where he would discover her if she started away ; 
 but ere long she became convinced that he had really 
 gone, and so she continued on her way toward the Nest. 
 
 The artificial lake was the gem of Myquest. 
 
 It was somewhat more than two acres in extent, and 
 had been made by erecting a dam across a narrow ra- 
 vine to hold back the waters of a brook of sweet cold 
 water that had no doubt once been a torrent. It was 
 fed by numerous springs as well as by the brook, and 
 was clear, and cold, and deep, and was well stocked with 
 several varieties of trout which the guests at Myquest 
 always found delight and entertainment in feeding. 
 
 There was a boat-house and two bath-houses at 
 the shore-side nearest to the Myquest home, while 
 upon the higher of the two bluffs that bordered the 
 ravine, Katherine had had built, under her personal 
 supervision and direction, and after her own self-made 
 plans, a Swiss chalet ; and the building of it had been a 
 whim of hers which Bing had indulged to the limit 
 and then some. 
 
 It was Katherine's very own more individually and 
 exclusively hers than in her wildest imaginings she had 
 ever dreamed of for her husband had gone her one 
 better in every suggestion she had made about it until 
 it had become a veritable Castle of Seclusion for the 
 indulgence of her own pet hobbies, theories, tastes, and 
 talents, and into which no other human being than her- 
 self had penetrated since the moment when the last of 
 the imported workers upon it had completed his task 
 and gone away. 
 
 She would have admitted Bingham to it, gladly, of 
 course ; but she was none the less secretly pleased when,
 
 160 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 at its completion, and in reply to her suggestion that 
 he should go inside with her to inspect it, he had said, 
 laughingly, yet with seriousness: 
 
 "No, sweetheart. That little chalet of stone and 
 cement and tiling is, and shall continue to be, your very 
 'onliest' own. No foot but your own shall step across 
 its threshold ; not even mine. You planned it yourself, 
 you built it, you selected every field-stone for its con- 
 struction every hollow tile and ounce of cement, al- 
 most. It is the perfection of your own vision of such 
 a place, that you have so often told to me; it is your 
 childhood's dream come true. Another presence than 
 your own, inside of it, would be desecration even your 
 husband's. You are the hermit thrush, and the chalet 
 is your nest. 
 
 The Nest she had named it forthwith. 
 
 Katherine had no reason for desiring such exclu- 
 siveness save the whimsical one of absolute personal 
 possession entirely free from interruption and the fear 
 of interruption; a retreat that was all her own where 
 she could seek and find seclusion and solitude whenever 
 she wished, and where both would be perfect and in- 
 violate. 
 
 Her favorite etchings and drawings, her choicest 
 books, her sentimental penates that she had selected 
 and preserved since childhood, her tenderest keepsakes, 
 were there. 
 
 So was her easel, before which she passed many hours 
 with pallette and knife and brushes, or with pencil and 
 crayon as the whim might take her. 
 
 So was her desk there, over in one corner between 
 two windows that overlooked the lake at different 
 angles windows which permitted of no vision of the 
 interior from without ; as, indeed, was the rule without 
 exception for every other window, too.
 
 THE FACE IN THE FLAME 161 
 
 She passed many silent and happy hours at her desk, 
 writing, as also at her easel, painting; but these were 
 little secrets of her own, shared by none as yet. 
 
 Katherine required no key with which to enter the 
 Nest. 
 
 The lock which guarded its one door of entrance had 
 been made and adjusted for her by the so-called best 
 lockmakers in the world. It had neither dial nor key- 
 hole; it was invisible, and its presence unsuspected 
 and was as great a mystery from the inside as from 
 without. 
 
 Simple enough, all of it, to Katherine ; yet a stranger 
 outside of that chalet could not get in, and, by the 
 same token, a person inside of it and unwise to its 
 secret, could not get out ; for the windows were guarded 
 as thoroughly and as skillfully, and by the same sort 
 of mechanism as the door. When she was inside, the 
 steel blinds that covered them were shoved aside by the 
 mere pressure of one of her fingers upon the secret 
 springs ; and even then their arrangement was such that 
 prying or curious eyes could not see past them to the 
 daintiness and homeyness inside. 
 
 The ventilation was ample and complete, and could 
 be rendered greater, or less, by the pressure of a finger. 
 Indeed, very many mysterious things could be accom- 
 plished there by the touch of Katherine's fingers. 
 
 The Nest was really a wonderful place. 
 
 It contained every comfort and convenience of a tiny 
 home; and it stood high perched upon the bluff at one 
 end of the dam that was as solid and substantial in its 
 way as that one of Ashokan. 
 
 The little house was made of uncut, hillside stones. 
 The roof was of terra-cotta tile. The door and the 
 windows were framed with oak encased in steel. It was 
 built at the pinnacle of the taller of the two bluffs,
 
 162 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 which stood at either side of the narrow ravine like 
 sentinels on guard above the dam, and there was but 
 one pathway to it with a flight of stairs at the top 
 which could be transformed into no stairs at all by 
 another touch of one of Katherine's fingers inside of the 
 house, or below the stairs outside of it. 
 
 There were many other secrets, also, than those 
 already described, connected with Katherine's whimsical 
 hobby but they need not be gone into just now; we 
 will learn more about them later on. 
 
 She had day-dreamed of some time possessing just 
 such a place ever since, as a child, she had fallen under 
 the fascinations of Sir Walter Scott's masterpiece ; and 
 when Bingham's foster-father, Mr. Chester, made her a 
 belated wedding present of Myquest, she at once chose 
 the tall bluff over the ravine as the proper location for 
 the fulfillment of her lifelong dream. 
 
 So she mounted the steep path to the bottom of the 
 stairs, touching, as she drew near, the small spring that 
 made them practicable, and pressing upon another one 
 after she entered the house, which restored them to 
 their former condition of steep and smooth inaccessi- 
 bility ; and it is worthy of note that if one had stood at 
 her elbow looking on while she performed either act, 
 one could not have seen her do it, nor have told how it 
 had been done. 
 
 Then 
 
 Sleep blessed sleep contented sleep. The sleep 
 of perfect security, of utter safety, of complete se- 
 clusion. Even her own bedroom in the great house 
 beyond the lake had never been so much her home as 
 the Nest. There she could be found, and routed out; 
 at the Nest there was no such possibility. 
 
 Bing would know, when he missed her in the morning, 
 where she had gone; he would not know why, but he
 
 THE FACE IN THE FLAME 163 
 
 would not be impatient to know even that and if he 
 should particularly want her, there did exist a secret 
 means of communication between the two places, known 
 only to themselves, by which he could call to her. 
 
 Katherine slept. 
 
 Within the great house Conrad Belknap also slept 
 in the depths of a big chair that he had pulled across 
 the floor until it confronted the bathroom door beyond 
 which he believed that Roberta had locked herself away 
 from him. 
 
 And thus, upon entering softly, Roberta discovered 
 him.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 FLINT AND STEEL 
 
 ROBEBTA'S entrance, even though it was accomplished 
 silently, roused Belknap, and he was wide awake on the 
 instant. 
 
 He yawned, stretched his arms, and showed his teeth 
 in his wolfish smile. He wheeled the chair slowly 
 around to face her, without leaving it. He opened his 
 mouth to speak, but he started to his feet instead, 
 stared an instant at her, and then sprang to the bath- 
 room door and seized the knob of it. It would not 
 open at his touch, of course. 
 
 He had known that even before he made the effort. 
 
 His quick and observing eyes had noticed the mois- 
 ture of dew on Roberta's shoes. He knew, in that in- 
 stant, that it was not Roberta who was locked inside of 
 the bathroom who had been locked in it who might 
 be who doubtless was still there. 
 
 Again he started to speak and withheld the words 
 he would have uttered. 
 
 He had seen the amazement in her eyes when he 
 sprang to the door and attempted to open it. 
 
 His first thought was that the man whom she had 
 gone out earlier to meet was there ; his second one was 
 the same, although he added to it the belief that Ro- 
 berta was unaware of the fact. Being puzzled, and also 
 intensely curious, he was silent. 
 
 It was Roberta who spoke first. 
 164
 
 FLINT AND STEEL 165 
 
 "What are you doing here?" she demanded. 
 
 "I might reply by asking what the devil you've been 
 doing outside of the house a second time to-night," 
 he answered. 
 
 "Who is locked in the bathroom?" she asked in utter 
 amazement. 
 
 "I thought you were until this moment." 
 
 Roberta shrugged. She did not believe him. 
 
 "Who is in there?" she repeated. 
 
 "I don't know unless it is the man you expected 
 here to-night," he answered, leaving his chair and 
 standing facing her. 
 
 "Then why don't you open the door and find out?" 
 
 "There are several very good reasons for that," he 
 drawled. "I could not use the forceps because the chap 
 inside withdrew the key. I could not pick the lock or 
 force the door because I haven't my tools with me and 
 I didn't think it wise to leave the room long enough 
 to get them. You fooled me, you see. I really sup- 
 posed that you were the person in the bathroom." 
 
 Roberta was plainly puzzled a fact which Belknap 
 was not slow to see. 
 
 "Don't you know who is in there?" he demanded, 
 bending nearer to her. 
 
 "No; and I don't believe that anybody is there. It 
 is a trick of some sort that you are attempting, C. B. 
 One of your Machiavellian schemes, doubtless." Her 
 voice and manner were so sincere that he was suddenly 
 convinced that she told the truth. 
 
 "Was somebody besides ourselves in this room when 
 I came here the first time?" he asked sharply. 
 
 "No. Or, if there was, you should know it. You 
 were here when I returned." 
 
 "How long a time had I been gone when you went out 
 again ?"
 
 166 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "I don't remember. Five ten minutes. Perhaps 
 more than that." 
 
 "And I was gone no longer than that when I re- 
 turned. Somebody was here, then. Somebody partly 
 opened the door into the hall to go out ; I saw the door 
 move, but I did not see the person, although I knew that 
 
 one was at the door. That person locked it and It 
 
 all resolves itself into the fact that we were spied upon. 
 Somebody knew that I was in this room with you to- 
 night, and probably overheard our conversation. Do 
 you insist that you do not know who that person was ?" 
 
 "I not only do not know, C. B., but I don't believe 
 there was such a person. I don't in the least know 
 what you are up to, but whatever it is I wish you'd un- 
 lock that door and have done with it. I am very tired, 
 and I want to undress and go to bed but I'd like you 
 to unlock that door before you go. Besides, it is very 
 late, and if you were found here " 
 
 "You would be compromised, eh?" 
 
 "Compromised! As if you could compromise me. 
 I care less than that" she snapped her thumb and 
 finger together contemptuously "about such compli- 
 cations. In fact, I would welcome such an interrup- 
 tion. I'd be glad, overjoyed, right now, to see Bingham 
 Harvard himself walk into this room followed by the 
 entire household. It would not result in my undoing, 
 but in yours. I would betray you, wholly, on the 
 spot root, trunk, bark, and branch." 
 
 Belknap reached out and seized her by one wrist and 
 held it. 
 
 "Listen to me," he said, speaking with cold precision. 
 
 "Well?" she demanded, meeting his eyes unflinching- 
 
 iy- 
 
 "I can't unlock that door unless I leave you long 
 enough to get my tools to do it with, and I won't bother
 
 FLINT AND STEEL 167 
 
 to do that. Whoever went into that bathroom to avoid 
 me has probably gone out of it by way of the window. 
 It is big enough to get out of, and it isn't much of a 
 drop to the ground under it. That incident is closed 
 so far as I am concerned. But I want answers to a 
 few questions. When you have made them, I will go. 
 I will know if you lie to me." 
 
 "Ask them." 
 
 "Did the man you sent for come and did you see 
 him when you went out the last time?" 
 
 "Yes." " 
 
 "It was " he went on, but Roberta interrupted him. 
 
 "Yes," she said again. 
 
 "Where is he now?" 
 
 "I sent him away." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because the fact that you had discovered that I had 
 sent for him spoiled my plan. It is evident enough, 
 isn't it? Wait, C. B. You need not ask questions; I 
 will tell you all that I will say in almost one sentence. 
 I sent for Roderick Maxwilton to come here. It was 
 my wish that he should make himself known to his 
 father and mother, after he had had a talk with his 
 sister. I believed that I could persuade him to do it. 
 In case he should insist upon not doing it, I had made 
 up my mind to go away with him. Is that plain enough, 
 C. B. ?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "If he consented to my plan, I meant to bring him 
 directly into the house, to Mrs. Harvard's room and 
 to-morrow morning you would have seen the end of 
 your career, no matter what the consequences might 
 have been to me, or to him, or to anybody. You spoiled 
 both or either of those plans by finding and reading that 
 letter. It told you that I had sent for him, and you
 
 168 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 guessed the rest. You guessed who I had sent for, and 
 why I had summoned him. He did not come at the ap- 
 pointed hour. I decided that he declined both of my 
 pleas : the one to make himself known to his parents 
 because he dreads the effect of it upon them as much as 
 his sister does ; and the other one (in case he refused the 
 first), my offer to go away with him to the other side 
 of the world away from you and your schemes, for- 
 ever and ever. If he had taken me at my word in that 
 I would have gone with him and that is why I wrote 
 and left that letter for Mrs. Harvard, that you found 
 and read. When I returned and found you here, and 
 knew that you had read my letter, both of my plans, 
 or either of them, were spoiled particularly that one 
 upon which I had hoped the most: to go away with 
 Roderick Maxwilton, and to escape from you forever." 
 
 While Roberta talked, Belknap regarded her with a 
 careless, although inscrutable smile. There was a com- 
 mingling of amusement, interest, and concern in his 
 expression. He had succeeded in removing nearly all 
 of the outward evidences of his encounter with Bing 
 Harvard under the tree, and he was really handsome 
 even if a trifle diabolical in the green tint of the shade 
 over the desk-light. He shrugged when she finished. 
 
 "Sometime," he said, "I wonder why you don't take 
 yourself off with your Roddy-Max. You have suc- 
 ceeded so well in keeping him out of my sight that it is 
 a little bit strange that you don't get out of it, too 
 only, I guess you know mighty well that you couldn't 
 keep out of it. Also I sometimes wonder why since I 
 wouldn't know him by sight he doesn't slip a knife be- 
 tween my ribs, or put a bullet into me ; one more crime 
 to his record would not make him so much worse off 
 than he is now. But I guess that " 
 
 He stopped, for Roberta's eyes were suddenly glow-
 
 FLINT AND STEEL 169 
 
 ing. His words had given her an idea. Roderick had 
 said nothing about it in their interview, but then, that 
 would be like him to keep silent. 
 
 She spoke quickly, impulsively. She said: 
 
 "There are marks of recent scratches on your face, 
 C. B. You have tried to hide them, but they are there. 
 I saw you fighting, under the trees, to-night. Oh, yes, 
 I saw enough to understand what was happening; and 
 I know now, by your manner and your words, that you 
 have not read the message I dropped to you from my 
 balcony, and so, it follows that the man you were 
 struggling with took it from you. Has is occurred to 
 you that the man might have been 'Roddy-Max,' as you 
 like to call him, in the belief that it angers me?" 
 
 Belknap was, however, above being disturbed by that 
 suggestion. He only shrugged again, and smiled the 
 more ; and another idea, Roberta's original one about 
 the affair, recurred to her. 
 
 "Or," she added, "perhaps it was Harvard himself; 
 the Night Wind." 
 
 "More likely than the other, but equally absurd," 
 he agreed, still smiling. "Either of them might have 
 taken your message, having seen you drop it, but nei- 
 ther of them would have stolen my money, and watch, 
 and stick-pin. Oh, no; that man was an accident a 
 wandering yegg the subsequent porch-climber of Mme. 
 Savage's room, doubtless. But, really, Berta, I don't 
 care so much as the flip of a coin who it might have 
 been. However, since you have reminded me of the 
 message, what was it?" 
 
 "It was " she began, and stopped ; then she added : 
 " of no importance. The reason for it has ceased 
 to exist." 
 
 Then, before he could stop her, she stepped quickly 
 past him to the door into the hall and opened it.
 
 170 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Go," she said. "If you stay here another minute 
 I will go to Mrs. Harvard's door and call her." 
 
 Belknap smiled more broadly than ever; he bestowed 
 a mocking bow. 
 
 "Monday I shall ask you to be my partner at 
 bridge," he said coolly, and went from the room. 
 
 Roberta closed the door after him, locked it, with- 
 drew the key, and stuffed a corner of her handkerchief 
 into the hole.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE FORBIDDEN NAME 
 
 KATHERINE had not forgotten her father's lifelong 
 habit of early rising, so, notwithstanding the fact that 
 it was after three o'clock that Sunday morning when 
 she lost herself in sleep at the Nest, she was wide awake 
 again soon after five. 
 
 It was a bright and beautiful morning in June, as 
 near to perfection as one might wish. 
 
 Having selected a dainty morning costume from the 
 abundant wardrobe that she kept at the Nest, she stood 
 at one of the windows that overlooked the lake, beyond 
 which a three-pronged vista through the trees and 
 shrubbery beyond it had purposely been trimmed out so 
 as to command three distinct views of the house. 
 
 After a little time, as she had anticipated, she saw 
 the tall, dignified figure of her father as he descended 
 the front steps from the veranda and paused at the 
 bottom of them while with uplifted head he seemed to 
 be drinking in the beauty and peace of that perfect 
 morning. So she went to him, touching the proper 
 mechanical buttons as she left the Nest to restore it to 
 its wonted condition of somnolence and isolation. 
 
 Truly it was a wonderful place, the Nest, with its 
 hidden secrets and mysterious mechanical contrivances 
 more wonderful and marvelous, indeed, than Kather- 
 ine had intended it to be in the beginning, or than she 
 had dared to hope that it could be made; but, as 
 
 171
 
 172 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 has been said, Bingham had given her a free hand in 
 the construction of it, and there had been no counting 
 of its cost. 
 
 Imported labor from far and near, the best mechan- 
 ical geniuses that could be found in the length and 
 breadth of the land, and the highest skilled artisans in 
 every branch of the work required, had alike given the 
 best that was in them to the working out of Kath- 
 erine's desires and plans, and her plans had broadened, 
 and lengthened, and deepened as they were fulfilled one 
 by one; others had been added to them until the Nest 
 became, under the skilled touches of those workmen, a 
 veritable network of hidden secrets and mysteries that 
 were almost unbelievable until one actually witnessed 
 the workings out of them. 
 
 The Nest was created in the second decade of the 
 twentieth century, when every perfected device and 
 power of our own wonderful and marvelous age was 
 available. 
 
 Where hydraulic power was needed, the lake supplied 
 it. Whatever of electricity was required, the lake sup- 
 plied that, too, through the hydraulics for the Nest 
 had its own small dynamo, its own storage batteries, 
 and was not dependent upon outside sources for the 
 working of its mysteries. Whatever of compressed-air 
 resourcefulness was employed in the operation of heavy 
 steel blinds and doors, and the like, was produced from 
 that same placid source, the lake. Nature has not 
 blessed us with another power so manifestly stupendous 
 as the pressure of water. 
 
 Ah, yes, the Nest was a wonderful place, indeed 
 as we will discover. 
 
 Katherine passed outside in that early Sunday morn- 
 ing in June, and went swiftly to her father, former 
 Senator Maxwiiton, "the Senator from Kentucky."
 
 THE FORBIDDEN NAME 173 
 
 "It is such a comfort to have you here with me," 
 she said softly as she slipped a hand under his arm, and 
 they strolled along one of the paths which would lead, 
 ultimately, to the stables for well Katherine knew 
 that they would have been his goal that early morning 
 had he been left to his own devices. The Senator was 
 all Kentuckian in his love for horses, and Katherine's 
 inheritance of that love had not been marred or lessened 
 by the high-powered cars in her husband's garage. 
 
 "I want you to see Daniel Boone, 3rd," she said, 
 while her father gently patted the hand that clung to 
 him. "I call him just Dan, and he knows his name 
 so well all of it, I mean that it would make you smile 
 to see his appreciation of the different uses of it that I 
 make. You see, he is very playful, and awfully mis- 
 chievous. When he is just a little bit naughty, I say, 
 in a surprised and dignified way, 'Daniel !' and he looks 
 as conscious as can be. When he is very mischievous, 
 I say, 'Why, Daniel Boone !' and he drops his ears and 
 his tail and looks as sorry out of his eyes as a chided 
 puppy-dog. Then, when I think he is thoroughly re- 
 pentant, I say, 'All right, Dan!' and instantly he 
 arches his neck, lifts his crupper, and dances like a hap- 
 py child, nozzling with all his might to express his 
 affection. Really, father, he almost talks." 
 
 The Senator nodded. It was his favorite topic. 
 
 "He's a thoroughbred, Kitten; he almost ought to 
 talk," he replied. "Let's see, he's almost five five next 
 month. He was just three when I sent him to you. 
 He ought to be a beauty by now." 
 
 "A beauty ! Well, I should say so. He walked off 
 with the blue ribbon in his class at the horse show 
 without a competitor that approached him. The judges 
 pronounced him an absolutely perfect animal." 
 
 "Of course," the Senator replied complacently.
 
 174 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "That is what he is. I could have told the judges 
 that without their bothering about it. That is the 
 only kind we raise on the old place, Kitten. I hope 
 nobody rides him but yourself." 
 
 "Certainly not. That is to say, of course Smokie. 
 He is almost as fond of that boy as he is of me. 
 Sometimes I'm almost jealous." 
 
 The Senator laughed. 
 
 "Kitten," he said, "that horse knows how to keep 
 Smokie in his place just as well as you do. He knows, 
 just as well as we do, that Smokie is a little black 
 boy that's his servant, made to wait on him, and he 
 loves him in just the same way that we love our colored 
 people who serve us faithfully and long. Here we are. 
 Has Bingham added any new stock to his stable since 
 last year?" 
 
 "Just an Irish hunter that was a present. I'll have 
 him brought out so you can see him." 
 
 Thus father and daughter inspected the stables, talk- 
 ing horse, laughing together over the Senator's criti- 
 cisms and suggestions father and daughter chums, as 
 they had been in the past, before Katherine went to 
 New York for this morning, beside her father, with 
 the mysteries and perplexities of the past night tem- 
 porarily forgotten, Katherine was a girl again. 
 
 When they came away from the stables and started 
 to return to the house, Katherine was laughing merrily 
 over one of her father's inimitable stories of the doings 
 of his black retainers on the stock farm and so they 
 rounded the end of the piazza where they met Bing- 
 ham. 
 
 "Now, that's too bad!" Bing exclaimed with mock 
 regret. "I guessed that you two were at the stables 
 together, and I was going to approach stealthily so
 
 THE FORBIDDEN NAME 175 
 
 as to hear what the Senator had to say about Erin, the 
 Irish hunter." 
 
 The three breakfasted together on a side piazza, 
 and were greatly surprised, and not a little pleased, 
 when, before it was half finished, Katherine's mother 
 joined them for early rising was not a habit with 
 Lady Kate's delicate, flowerlike mother. 
 
 "You see," she explained to Bingham, "I knew that 
 Katherine and her father would inspect the stables to- 
 gether as soon as the sun was up, and I reckoned that 
 you wouldn't be very far off, Bingham, so I thought 
 it would be nice if 'papa and mama and the children' 
 could have their breakfast together." Her smile was 
 good to see, then. 
 
 Bing put his arms around the fragile but stately lady 
 of the old South, and kissed her. 
 
 "God bless you, mother," he said, holding her and 
 speaking very low. "You make me very happy more 
 happy than I can tell you because you are the only 
 mother I ever knew." 
 
 "And Bingham," she replied, "you are just as near 
 and dear to me as you could be if I were indeed your 
 own mother, in fact as if you were my own son, my 
 very own." Then, with just a suggestion of hesitation, 
 she added: "Katherine had a brother Roderick, my 
 first born, my hope, my pride, my idolatry. We lost 
 him. He is buried in Kentucky. I I have given you 
 a place in my heart close beside his memory, Bingham, 
 my son." 
 
 The Senator sat very still and erect. 
 
 Katherine lifted her eyes to her mother in amaze- 
 ment and repressed joy. 
 
 It was the first time in many years that Roderick 
 had been mentioned openly between the daughter and 
 her parents.
 
 176 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 That Sunday passed uneventfully, save for a few 
 minor incidents which seemed, on the surface, to be of 
 no importance, but each of which was destined to be 
 recalled later by those most interested. In the order 
 of their happening they were : 
 
 1. Former Detective-lieutenant Rodney Rushton, 
 now at the head of an agency of his own, stopped for 
 an hour at Myquest in the middle of the forenoon 
 ( "ong-passong," as he expressed it), to pay his re- 
 spects, as, indeed, he was in the habit of doing when- 
 ever opportunity offered. 
 
 His real purpose was, of course, in response to Tom 
 Clancy's suggestion, and to give Mr. Conrad Belknap 
 what Rushton called "the once-over," which is to say, 
 to have an opportunity to observe the man carefully, to 
 recall, if possible, any memory of him of the past, 
 or, failing that, to provide a memory of him for future 
 occasion ; for Rushton possessed to a large extent what 
 in police parlance is known as the "camera eye." 
 
 2. A stranger came to Myquest in the early evening 
 a tall, soldierlike figure of a man, who might have 
 been handsome of feature but for a terrible disfigure- 
 ment of his face caused by a livid scar that extended 
 from the top of his forehead above the left eye, down 
 and over the left eyelid, across the bridge of his nose, 
 past the right corner of his mouth to which it appeared 
 to impart a sardonic twist, and thence on, under the 
 right cheek bone until it disappeared beneath his collar. 
 
 His hair was abundant, and of the whiteness of fresh 
 milk, although his brows were coal black. If you ob- 
 served him when his back was toward you, and were 
 asked to guess his age, you would have placed him as 
 anywhere from thirty to forty-five, and prematurely 
 white ; but if in the next breath he turned to face you, 
 and you had noticed the scar, and the lines between
 
 THE FORBIDDEN NAME 177 
 
 his eyes and radiating from their corners, you would 
 have amplified your own statement with, "anywhere 
 from forty-five to sixty, but with an extraordinary 
 physique and bearing." 
 
 He arrived, also, so it would appear, en passant 
 like Rushton ; which is to say that one of Harvard's 
 friends who was also a banker, with whom he was 
 motoring, stopped for a short call in passing. 
 
 Naturally the stranger was duly presented to the 
 guests who were present at the time, and was made 
 welcome, and notwithstanding the hideous scar on his 
 face, he seemed to cast some sort of a charm or spell 
 upon those with whom he chatted, while Harvard and 
 his banker friend strolled up and down, almost but 
 not quite within ordinary conversational distance 
 from the veranda. 
 
 The senorita was not present. She left the group 
 and entered the house through one of the French win- 
 dows just at the moment when Mr. Morton Saulsbury's 
 car was driven under the porte-cochere and during 
 all of the time that the callers remained, she sat at the 
 piano, playing softly, modulating from key to key, and 
 from major to minor and back again. To Betty Clancy, 
 who was very still and silent in her chair near the rail, 
 listening to and observing the stranger with the scar, it 
 seemed almost as if the senorita were indeed talking 
 to all of them at once with her magic fingers. 
 
 Belknap was present and was strangely silent for 
 him. When the stranger appeared he pushed his chair 
 into a deeper shadow. 
 
 The call did not extend beyond twenty minutes, but 
 nevertheless it seemed to have left a marked impression 
 particularly in regard to Mr. Carruthers. A dif- 
 ferent one, too, it appeared, with each of the Myquest 
 guests to whom he was presented.
 
 178 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 When it came to an end when Bingham and his 
 banker friend having concluded their conference, re- 
 turned to the veranda, and the latter announced to 
 Carruthers that they had better be on their way, and 
 the two had got into the car to depart Bing called 
 out, suddenly, and with every outward appearance that 
 a happy thought had just occurred to him: 
 
 "Wait a moment, Saulsbury, I have got an idea," 
 and he half turned his head and shot a smiling glance 
 at his wife before he added : 
 
 "When we came down to Myquest it was our inten- 
 tion to have a series of week-ends throughout the sum- 
 mer, but this one has developed into a house-party, 
 instead." Bing had again turned his back toward 
 the group on the veranda and was addressing only his 
 banker friend, but he spoke with a distinctness that 
 rendered every word he uttered plain to all. 
 
 "I am a bit seedy, myself, and although I shall 
 probably drive into the city now and then just to look 
 things over, I have decided to stay down here this week 
 and possibly next week, also for a little vacation 
 and rest, and I'm going to ask Clancy to do the same. 
 Hell do it, too. Tom nearly always does what I sug- 
 gest. But the thing that I'm getting at is this: why 
 can't you and Mrs. Saulsbury join us, for this week 
 anyhow, and bring Mr. Carruthers along? Eh? Just 
 say that you will, and come along down as early as 
 possible to-morrow." 
 
 Katherine, who, after greeting Saulsbury and his 
 companion, had withdrawn from the group, and was 
 hovering in the background, listened to her husband's 
 totally unanticipated announcement in unconcealed 
 amazement a fact which Belknap was quick to notice 
 as he shot a glance at her beneath half-drooped eye- 
 lids.
 
 THE FORBIDDEN NAME 179 
 
 He left his chair and strolled carelessly toward her 
 with his ears keyed to catch Saulsbury's reply, and 
 he knew that Katherine was waiting for it as eagerly 
 as he was, although he could not guess what her interest 
 in it might be. 
 
 But Katherine acted quickly, accepting Bing's cue, 
 and acting upon it as he threw another quick glance 
 over his shoulder in her direction. 
 
 Before Belknap could get to her before Morton 
 Saulsbury had opportunity to respond to the invitation 
 so cordially given, she stepped quickly forward and 
 down the steps to her husband's side. 
 
 "Do, Mr. Saulsbury," she said. "I shall be delighted 
 to have Miriam with us ; and" she permitted her gaze 
 for a moment to rest upon the scarred visage of Daniel 
 Carruthers "I am sure that Mr. Carruthers will find 
 it possible to come with you, for I heard him say only 
 a moment ago, to Miss Loring, that he is idling his time 
 with you because he had found that he has a month's 
 time on his hands with nothing to do." 
 
 "I fear that I am too busy just now to accept for 
 myself, Mrs. Harvard," Saulsbury replied smilingly, 
 "but there is no reason why Miriam can't come, nor 
 why Dan Carruthers cannot come with her. Eh, Dan? 
 You can do that, can't you? And I'll come down Fri- 
 day afternoon for the week-end." 
 
 So it was arranged that Carruthers would arrive with 
 Mrs. Saulsbury the following day, and the banker de- 
 parted with his scarred-face companion. 
 
 Then happened the third incident which several of 
 the group on the veranda were to recall to mind later. 
 
 The butler came out to them, crossed directly to 
 Belknap, and announced: 
 
 "You are wanted at the telephone, Mr. Belknap
 
 180 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 a long-distance call from the city of Washington, the 
 operator said." 
 
 Belknap thanked the butler, and with a nod of 
 apology toward the others in general, entered the house. 
 
 Instantly there was a chorus of exclamations and 
 interrogations all around Bing and Katherine concern- 
 ing the stranger whom Saulsbury had brought to My- 
 quest in his car, and who was, thenceforth, to be of 
 their party. 
 
 They all agreed that he was interesting, and would 
 have been strikingly handsome but for the disfiguring 
 scar across his face. Diana Loring thought that the 
 scar was the most fascinating thing about him. Betty 
 announced that, "Scar or no scar, I think he is splen- 
 did," and Tom, grinning while he lighted a cigar, asked : 
 
 "Who the devil is he, anyway, Bing? Banker or 
 baker or candlestick maker? And, for the sake of a 
 few of the ladies present, is he benedict, widower, or 
 bachelor? That is the main idea. Is he married or 
 single?" to which Bing replied: 
 
 "Search me, Tom. He is Morton Saulsbury's friend, 
 and that's enough for me !"
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE GENTLEMAN FROM KENTUCKY 
 
 IN mid-June the sun gets up early. 
 
 So do babies, and small children, and old people 
 and such others as love the air and the sunlight and the 
 freshness of the early morning hours, while the dew is 
 on the grass and leaves, and the air is as if it has been 
 washed and polished, and hung out to dry. 
 
 Senator Maxwilton was one of such ; and that morn- 
 ing was like the preceding one, although Katherine was 
 not waiting to greet him as she had been yesterday. 
 
 The earliest of the servants invariably encountered 
 him in one of the paths, or saw him seated upon one of 
 the veranda chairs, or found him in the stables among 
 the hunters and cobs, petting them, and feeding them 
 sugar. The Senator was a typical Kentuckian, and 
 loved horses. 
 
 He came out that Monday morning with the first 
 rays of sunlight came out, as had been his habit in 
 his own Southern home, and continued in his daughter's, 
 by one of the windows. 
 
 His movements, without intention, happened to be 
 noiseless, and as he stepped outside he saw Belknap 
 and was on the point of going forward and speaking 
 to the man who "had beat him to it," when some in- 
 definable thing about Belknap's attitude made him hesi- 
 tate, and then step backward, within the window, where 
 he stood still, and observing. 
 
 181
 
 182 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 He had not seen Belknap about at that hour be- 
 fore, and, although in riding togs, the man appeared 
 to be without intention of seeking the stables. 
 
 More than that, he was passing up and down a short 
 stretch of pathway in the vicinity of Katherine's favor- 
 ite rose-bower, and glancing this way and that, from 
 side to side, in front of, and behind him, furtively, and 
 with rapid motions, exactly as if he were on the watch 
 for something or for somebody. 
 
 Belknap had been there and elsewhere among the 
 paths two hours and more, if the Senator had but 
 known it, and was both exultant and disappointed, both 
 pleased and angry, both annoyed and delighted; like- 
 wise, and without the paradox, he was tired of his 
 vigil. 
 
 The long-distance-telephone conversation to which 
 the butler had summoned him the preceding evening, 
 had in a measure upset many of his calculations, al- 
 though he was inclined to doubt the logic as well as 
 the fact of the warning that had been transmitted to 
 him from Washington. 
 
 Nevertheless he had passed a more or less sleepless 
 night, and with daybreak, before the sun was up, he had 
 donned riding togs as being the most appropriate 
 and palpable explanation for being about so early 
 and had gone outside. 
 
 There was a threefold purpose in that : he wanted the 
 air and the exercise ; he wanted to secure a saddle horse 
 from the stables at rather an early hour, to ride alone 
 to meet a messenger at an appointed place as an- 
 nounced in the telephone talk the preceding evening; 
 and, quite an important and imperative in case there 
 were logic and fact (and therefore danger to him) in 
 what he frad been told and what the expected messenger
 
 THE GENTLEMAN FROM KENTUCKY 183 
 
 was yet to impart, he greatly desired a short but un- 
 interrupted conversation with Katherine Harvard. 
 
 He knew that it was her habit to rise early, and to 
 ride Daniel Boone, 3rd, cross-country, and alone, at 
 sunrise or soon thereafter, over the extensive acres 
 of her own estate of Myquest. Belknap had no notion 
 of accompanying her he had other fish to fry that 
 morning but he had determined that he would see 
 her and talk with her before she started, and so, he was 
 watching out for her when the Senator stepped from 
 the window and saw him. 
 
 He did not discover the nearness of the Senator 
 when the latter, grown tired of watching him from the 
 window, approached until, close at hand, he heard 
 the quiet deep-toned voice of the statesman greeting 
 him. 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Belknap," the Senator said. 
 "Have you been riding so early?" 
 
 "Ah. Good morning, Senator," Belknap replied in 
 his imperturbable manner. "No ; I haven't been riding 
 yet. It was earlier than I supposed when I came 
 out. Nobody was about when I went to the stables." 
 
 "You were" the Senator smiled "searching for 
 something? I have been observing you from the win- 
 dow. Have you dropped something, or lost something, 
 or" again that inscrutable Senatorial smile "per- 
 haps there is another early riser whom you are expect- 
 ing?" 
 
 "You have guessed it, Senator," Belknap responded, 
 returning the smile in kind if inscrutability be the 
 criterion. "Mrs. Harvard, your daughter, is in the 
 habit of indulging in early morning rides, cross-coun- 
 try. I thought I'd beg permission to ride with her, 
 but the men must be about by now so I think I'll go 
 ahead."
 
 184 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Why not wait a little longer? I don't know if she 
 intends to ride this morning or not, but she is sure to 
 come out soon. She always gets up with the sun, no 
 matter at what hour she retires. And, by the way, 
 since we have met so auspiciously this delightful morn- 
 ing, I am reminded of a question that I have wanted 
 to ask you." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 "Are you, by any chance, related^-kin, we would 
 call it to the Beldings, of Kentucky?" 
 
 Belknap, who had not lessened his watchfulness over 
 the approaches to the house, and who was still casting 
 furtive glances along the path that led to it, narrowed 
 his eyes a trifle, and an almost imperceptible crease 
 showed between his brows when the question was put to 
 him. It was as if he were startled by it, although he 
 replied instantly, and smiled as he did so: 
 
 "Not by any chance in the world, Senator." He 
 laughed aloud, then. "Have you discovered a fancied 
 resemblance ?" 
 
 "No. Not a resemblance not a facial one, cer- 
 tainly." 
 
 Belknap made no comment. The Senator continued : 
 
 "I should call the resemblance, if there is one a 
 reminder, would be a more appropriate word tem- 
 peramental ; a trait, rather than a likeness. I am er 
 pleased to know that you are not a kin to the Beld- 
 ings of my acquaintance, sir." 
 
 "Thank you. I assume that you are not favorably 
 disposed toward them." 
 
 "Was not. The branch of the family that I refer 
 to has died out. I er assisted at the last er 
 function, so to speak. He was named Cranshaw Bel- 
 ding. He er was hung." 
 
 "Were you the hangman?"
 
 THE GENTLEMAN FROM KENTUCKY 185 
 
 The Senator ignored the insolence of the question ; 
 possibly he did not notice it. He answered quietly: 
 
 "No. I sentenced him. I was on the bench, then. 
 He murdered the mother of his child a woman who 
 was not his wife, although she believed that she was 
 but who nevertheless, had been his good angel, or had 
 tried to be. He er escaped with the boy, after he 
 had killed the mother, and was not caught till two 
 years later. After his trial, after sentence was passed 
 upon him, he announced that he had killed the boy also. 
 I have always er hoped that he did so, although I 
 didn't believe him at the time. That boy would be 
 let me see thirty-five or so, by now, if he is living." 
 The Senator seemed to be reminiscing rather than ad- 
 dressing Belknap. Thinking aloud, rather than talk- 
 ing. 
 
 Belknap was plainly frowning. He had ceased to 
 watch the approaches to the house or its entrances. 
 He was standing very still, staring straight ahead of 
 him without motion, apparently without the flicker 
 of an eyelash. 
 
 His lips were drawn tightly together over his teeth, 
 in a straight line; a physiognomist would have said 
 that he was straining every effort in his power for 
 self-control as, indeed, he was. 
 
 He spoke, after a moment, in a low, monotonous 
 tone, devoid of anger, but nevertheless coldly ominous. 
 
 "Your remarks, Senator Maxwilton, are capable of 
 unpleasant inference. Am I to assume that you so 
 intended them, sir?" 
 
 "God bless my soul, no ! Forgive me, Mr. Belknap. 
 I was dreaming remembering harking back into the 
 past. I hated I disliked that man greatly." 
 
 "I see. The girl, also, doubtless ; the mother of the 
 boy."
 
 186 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "No. I honored and esteemed her. She did not 
 know that she was not a wife. It was because she dis- 
 covered the truth that Cranshaw Belding killed her. 
 She was a she belonged to one of our oldest and best 
 families." 
 
 Very slowly Bclknap withdrew his gaze from the dis- 
 tance distance is the precise word for it in this case, 
 for the Senator's remarks had expelled from his 
 thoughts all immediate recollection of the expected 
 messenger, and of Katherine. Although he seemed 
 to continue to stare at the house, he was visualizing 
 other things. 
 
 "Senator," he said, and his voice seemed to carry a 
 chill with it, "if the idea were not preposterous I might 
 easily infer that you are seeking to connect me, in some 
 remote way, with your retrospective remarks. Such a 
 thing would be absurd, naturally particularly so, 
 since it is not even a fancied resemblance that brought 
 back the memories. You called it a trait I suppose 
 you meant a mannerism, didn't you? What was it, 
 pray, that brought to mind the memory of your .friend, 
 the wife-killer? For, if the woman honestly believed 
 herself to be a wife, she was one. No lack of priests or 
 proper ritual, no absence of prescribed sacrament, 
 could deny that sanctity to her. What was the man- 
 nerism, Senator?" 
 
 The Senator, like many Kentuckians, was tall and 
 straight. Age had not bent his soldierly figure, nor 
 wasted it. He carried his years without a suggestion 
 of them, and one found it only in his wealth of snow- 
 white hair. 
 
 He met Belknap's gaze calmly, looking down upon 
 the man from his greater height, and said, with slow 
 emphasis and quiet dignity : 
 
 "I have offered my apology, Mr. Belknap."
 
 THE GENTLEMAN FROM KENTUCKY 187 
 
 "Quite so, sir; and I have accepted it as offered. 
 Also, I have ventured to ask you a question a natural 
 one under the circumstances. If I am addicted to a 
 mannerism which suggests memory of a man who was 
 hung for murder, I would like to know what it is, so I 
 may avoid it in the future." 
 
 The Senator shrugged. Then he smiled. 
 
 "Do you recall," he asked, "that you gave me the 
 impression that you had lost something, or that you 
 were impatiently awaiting the coming of another per- 
 son? I had been observing you from the window. The 
 mannerism if you insist upon that word, although it 
 is a much stronger one than I would apply to it was 
 in the way you moved your head and eyes as you 
 glanced along the paths, and toward the house; it was 
 your impatience of restraint ; your repression of eager- 
 ness ; your attitude of commingled expectancy and ap- 
 prehension. I was reminded without a reason in the 
 world, of course of the man whose name I have spoken 
 of his demeanor throughout his trial. Pray forget 
 it." 
 
 What reply Belknap might have made may not bo 
 known, for at that instant Bingham Harvard came out 
 of the house, sprang lightly over the rail of the ver- 
 anda, and approached them swiftly along the path, 
 moving, as Belknap could not help but notice, with that 
 feline, leopardlike grace of alertness and power that 
 had so frequently been described in the newspapers in 
 the days of "Alias the Night Wind." 
 
 Belknap was startled in spite of his outward calm.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 BLACK JULIUS RIDES 
 
 JUST why Belknap was startled by the sudden ap- 
 pearance of Bingham Harvard he could not have told 
 himself. 
 
 Possibly it was because it interrupted his train of 
 thought engendered by the Senator's remarks per- 
 haps they had stirred latent memories in the back of 
 Belknap's mind. Possibly it was because Harvard's 
 sudden appearance brought to mind Roberta's sug- 
 gestion that it might have been the Night Wind him- 
 self who had attacked him under the tree after he had 
 caught the old letter which Katherine had unknowingly 
 dropped into his grasp from her balcony, and after he 
 had received the note which Roberta had dropped to 
 him neither of which he had had a chance to examine. 
 
 Whatever reason there might have been for it, he 
 was entirely his cool and smilingly inscrutable self by 
 the time that Harvard joined them and if he had har- 
 bored any real fear, it was instantly dispelled by Har- 
 vard's cheery greeting. 
 
 "Monday morning, and all's well," Harvard said 
 after he greeted them. "I feel like a schoolboy on the 
 first day of his summer vacation : I don't know what to 
 do with myself. I see that you" addressing Belknap 
 directly "are togged for the saddle. If I had known 
 it I'd have gone with you." 
 
 "Mr. Belknap is waiting for Katherine," the Sena- 
 tor remarked. 
 
 188
 
 BLACK JULIUS RIDES 189 
 
 "Ah? That's odd. She was dressed and ready to 
 come down when I left her just now, but not in her 
 riding togs. Perhaps she forgot " 
 
 Belknap laughed pleasantly. 
 
 "Mrs. Harvard doesn't know that I'm waiting for 
 her," he said. "I was only hoping that she would let 
 me go with her if she was riding this morning. You 
 see, I didn't read my watch correctly when I got up. 
 I thought it was two hours later than it was. I think 
 that I'll go ahead, alone, if you don't mind. Will you 
 suggest a horse for me, Harvard?" 
 
 "Yes if you want a real one one that will make 
 you pay more attention to him than to the scenery. 
 Ask for Comet." 
 
 When Belknap had gone the Senator linked his arm 
 in Sing's, and as they started along one of the paths, 
 he asked, in his deep-toned, leisurely manner a man- 
 ner which any one of his old colleagues of the Senate 
 chamber would instantly have recognized as indicating 
 extreme interest, although not a suggestion of it ap- 
 peared : 
 
 "Is Mr. Belknap an acquaintance of long standing, 
 Bingham? Do you know him well?" 
 
 "Oh, he is new to all of us," Bing replied carelessly, 
 "even to the Archers, who are responsible for his pres- 
 ence. But, he seems a likeable chap, don't you think? 
 Then, without waiting for a reply, he changed the sub- 
 ject. "Jove! but I'm glad that I took the figurative 
 bull by the horns and decided to give myself a vacation 
 this week particularly because you and mother are 
 here with us." 
 
 "I am glad, too," the Senator rejoined earnestly. 
 Then : "I quite took a liking to your friend Saulsbury 
 last night, Bingham, although I saw next to nothing 
 of him. He is an old friend, isn't he?"
 
 190 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Yes, indeed. He is considerably older than I am; 
 graduated at Harvard two years before I matricu- 
 lated. His father and Mr. Chester are great cronies. 
 I have known him since I can remember." 
 
 "Fine chap. I like him," the Senator remarked with 
 emphasis, and they strolled on in silence for a time. 
 Then : "What about his friend that Mr. Carruthers ?" 
 The Senator chuckled, and went on before Bing could 
 reply: "I reckon that when one gets to know him well 
 enough not to see that scar, he'd be a fascinating sort 
 of a chap, eh?" 
 
 "Yes," Bing replied. "I liked him at once and you 
 may be sure that anybody whom Mort Saulsbury 
 vouches for is all white, clear through." 
 
 Followed another silence until they were within sight 
 of the stables and saw Belknap riding down the drive- 
 way on Comet, who was dancing and cavorting with 
 tripping feet and arched neck and tail. But Belknap 
 sat him like a Centaur, with perfect poise and loose 
 rein, thoroughly at home in the saddle. 
 
 "That chap rides like a Kentuckian," the Senator 
 remarked. 
 
 "Or a cow-puncher," Bing suggested. 
 
 "Both," the Senator rejoined. Then he stopped in 
 the path, thus forcing his son-in-law to pause also, 
 and, in a tone that was at once serious and emphatic, 
 and which carried a little note of pleading in it, he 
 said: 
 
 "Bingham, yesterday morning when we were break- 
 fasting, your mother mentioned the name of our son, 
 Roderick. I gathered from the expression of your 
 face at the moment that you had not known, till then, 
 that Katherine ever had a brother. Is that true?" 
 
 "Why, yes; but " 
 
 "Pardon me, Bingham. Perhaps Kitten should have
 
 BLACK JULIUS RIDES 191 
 
 told you about him; possibly she thought best not to 
 do so. But, now that his name has been mentioned, I 
 feel that it is my duty to " 
 
 "Please, Senator please, father, wait a moment. 
 Forgive me for interrupting you. I know by your 
 manner and your words that it is a subject that you 
 would prefer not to discuss. Will you, to please me, 
 let it rest where it is? If there is anything that needs 
 to be told to me, Katherine will tell it in her own good 
 time, and I prefer that it should be left that way. I 
 have never had occasion yet to see unwisdom in our 
 Katherine's judgment." 
 
 The Senator sighed, plainly relieved; and as they 
 started on again, remarked: 
 
 "I think, Bingham, after breakfast, I'll try that 
 Erin-hawss of yours that Irish hunter." 
 
 "Do, father. He's a wonder, really. You'll like 
 him only, he isn't gaited like one of your Kentucky 
 horses. He is Hello! Now what do you sup- 
 pose is taking Julius off for a cross-country ride at 
 this time of day, and all by himself? Some errand for 
 Katherine, doubtless." 
 
 He had seen Julius in the act of taking a fence be- 
 yond the pasture behind the paddock saw him for an 
 instant only before he disappeared from view, and 
 thought no more about it. 
 
 Black Julius was not, however, on an errand for his 
 mistress, although he was, most certainly, bound upon 
 one which he thoroughly believed to be definitely in her 
 interest. 
 
 Julius did not like Conrad Belknap had not liked 
 him from the moment of his arrival at Myquest had 
 taken one of those instinctive dislikes to the man 
 which are characteristic of the loyal and faithful col-
 
 192 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 ored folk of the South whenever a person who is inim- 
 ical to those they serve appears. 
 
 He had kept a furtive eye upon Belknap from the 
 first. He had seen and taken mental note of as many 
 trivial incidents as had Betty Clancy, or Tom, or 
 Bing himself ; not the same ones, perhaps, but as many, 
 or more; and his devotion to his mistress had made 
 him, even more surely and more quickly than others, 
 determine, intuitively, that the man was a fly in the 
 ointment of that house party, and that Katherine dis- 
 liked him and for some inexplicable reason, feared 
 him or dreaded him or at least would be glad to 
 be rid of his presence at Myquest. 
 
 It had so happened that Julius was talking with the 
 butler at the moment when the telephone call from 
 Washington came over the wire, and while the butler 
 was gone to summon Belknap, Julius had not hesitated 
 to plug the switchboard in such a manner that by 
 making haste to his own cottage he would be enabled 
 to "listen-in" to a part of the conversation that was 
 to follow, at least. 
 
 If Julius had been thoroughly versed in contem- 
 porary slang he would have said that he did it because 
 he considered it an opportunity to "get a line on Bel- 
 knap's curves." 
 
 Anyhow, he made the most of it, and although he 
 did not hear the beginning of the talk, he did hear much 
 of it, and although he did not get the line on the curves 
 that he might have wished for, he did discover that a 
 friend or an associate of Belknap's in Washington 
 was warning him against the appearance at Myquest 
 of a man whom they both had good reason to fear, 
 and that Belknap was requested to meet a messenger 
 at a stated time and place the following morning, who 
 would impart such further information on the subject
 
 BLACK JULIUS RIDES 193 
 
 as was not wise to discuss by telephone. Julius had 
 heard enough to make him want to hear more. Also 
 he believed that the appointed place was such as to 
 afford him every opportunity to do that very thing if 
 only he could get to it before Belknap arrived. 
 
 There are still in existence in various places on Long 
 Island the picturesque ruins of two-century-old (and 
 more) saw and grist-mills, some of them tide-water 
 mills, some of them otherwise, which the owners of the 
 estates upon which they are situated have preserved 
 for their picturesqueness. The telephone-made rendez- 
 vous was at one such, and was on the Myquest estate. 
 
 To get to it by following the highways (as Belknap 
 had been directed over the wire), was a roundabout 
 route that covered three miles or more; by the route 
 that Julius selected, over fences, through by-lanes, and 
 across fields, the distance was barely a mile. 
 
 Thus, he did get there first, so that he had ample 
 time to tether his mount where it would not be dis- 
 covered, and to creep into the ancient edifice and con- 
 ceal himself before either of the parties to that ar- 
 ranged interview arrived. 
 
 He was well hidden, where he could hear without fear 
 of discovery, when Belknap, who was the first of the 
 two to arrive, appeared. 
 
 After that there was a wait of fully half an hour 
 before the other man came, during which Belknap 
 strode up and down with every evidence of exasperated 
 impatience.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE MAN FROM WASHINGTON 
 
 BLACK JULIUS, after all, had his labor for his pains. 
 
 He could hear every sentence that passed between 
 Belknap and the other man at that meeting in the old 
 tide-water grist-mill, but he could not understand a 
 word of any of it. 
 
 The two talked in a language that Black Julius did 
 not know, although he rightly assumed that it was 
 Spanish. 
 
 Nevertheless, he was no wiser when he went away 
 a full half-hour after the two had gone than when he 
 arrived ; no wiser save in so far as his intuitive percep- 
 tions, and his steady regard of their faces while they 
 talked, rendered him. But he was more than ever 
 convinced of his opinion of Belknap. 
 
 Nearly all of the guests were assembled at the 
 breakfast table when Belknap joined them. Asked, 
 casually, where he had been, he replied, addressing all 
 of them generally: 
 
 "I don't know, exactly, only that I found the shore, 
 and an interesting old mill that must be two or three 
 hundred years old if it's a day." 
 
 "Two hundred and forty-two," Tom Clancy an- 
 nounced solemnly. "It was built in 1676. I wasn't 
 present, but I've been told about it." 
 
 "I ran into a chap while I was there, and we got to 
 talking, which explains why I am late," Belknap added, 
 
 194
 
 THE MAN FROM WASHINGTON 195 
 
 and thus accounted logically for the incident in case 
 he had been seen in the company of that other man. 
 
 When they left the table he managed to place him- 
 self beside Katherine, to whom he said, in a sharp 
 undertone : 
 
 "I must have a talk with you, Mrs. Harvard, as 
 soon as possible, and where there will be no fear of 
 interruption." 
 
 "We will walk down the " she began, but he in- 
 terrupted. 
 
 "No," he said decidedly, and in that tone of com- 
 mand which he had assumed toward her of late which 
 he seemed so greatly to enjoy for the sole reason that 
 he knew that she so bitterly resented it. "We will 
 ride, if you please or whether you please or not 
 in your roadster; and without a passenger in the 
 rumble. You will invite me, presently, to drive with 
 you to some point of your selection." 
 
 Katherine turned to face him, to resent, hotly, his 
 assumption of giving orders, but already his back was 
 toward her and he was moving leisurely away. 
 
 She flushed angrily, bit her lips, then smiled, and 
 accepted the situation for Katherine had decided that 
 morning to meet Belknap on his own ground, hence- 
 forth, and to puzzle him, even to deceive him, by an 
 outward appearance of entire acceptance of the incon- 
 ceivable situation. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Belknap," she called to him, and he paused 
 and turned. "It has just occurred to me," she went 
 on, "that since you seem to be interested in old mills, 
 there is another one about twenty miles from here 
 that is even more interesting than ours. If you will 
 go to the garage, I'll join you there, presently, and 
 take you to see it." 
 
 "Why can't we all go?" Betty Clancy demanded.
 
 196 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "You can," Katharine replied. "Suppose we do! 
 We will picnic there ; it is a beautiful spot. I will give 
 directions about the hampers, now, and the rest of you 
 can trail along as soon as you are ready. Mr. Bel- 
 knap and I will go on ahead in my roadster." 
 
 "You arranged that very deftly, Lady Kate to be 
 accompanied without having company," Belknap re- 
 marked as they drove out past the lodge gates. 
 
 Katherine shrugged. 
 
 "I suppose I must endure it," she said resignedly, 
 and shrugged a second time. 
 
 "Endure what? The 'Lady Kate'?" he asked, with 
 his wolfish smile, which, however, she did not see, 
 because her eyes were upon the road ahead of them. 
 
 "Your utterly contemptible and discourteous as- 
 sumption of familiarity whenever we happen to be 
 alone together," she said coldly. "Of course I can't 
 stop you, if you insist upon keeping it up, but"- 
 she shot a glance at him "you will find me much more 
 tractable to your whims and fancies, Mr. Belknap, if 
 you cut it out." 
 
 He laughed aloud. 
 
 "You ought to be glad that I do not seek other 
 familiarities than the mere use of names," he said 
 coolly; and, after a moment of pause, added: "when 
 I look at you, Katherine, I sometimes find myself won- 
 dering why I do not demand that prerogative also. 
 You are a very beautiful woman, my lady, with all 
 of the witchery " 
 
 "And you are a despicable scoundrel!" she inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 "Granted," he replied, and laughed outright a sec- 
 ond time. "I think I like you best when you are 
 angry that is why I tease you. Almost, when your
 
 THE MAN FROM WASHINGTON 197 
 
 eyes flash and flame, and you lift your pretty chin in 
 that defiant gesture of yours almost, I say, but not 
 quite I could fall at your feet and worship you, and 
 give up the worldly world for love of you, and promise 
 to be good and proper for the rest of my life for your 
 caresses, which I know perfectly well you would never 
 bestow. Really, it is rather an interesting as well as 
 a pleasant psychological study, when I am alone, and 
 thinking about you, to try to discover why I have not 
 capitulated why I know that I will not succumb to 
 your undeniable charm, Lady Kate." 
 
 Katherine slowed the car and turned to face him, but 
 the derision and mockery that she saw in his eyes re- 
 assured her. 
 
 "Did you force me to take you to ride in my car 
 to tell me that?" she asked coolly. 
 
 "No, dear lady, I did not." He laughed again. He 
 seemed to be greatly amused, and it appeared to be 
 real. "But, you see, you tempt me. I rarely find an 
 opportunity to talk, on equal terms, with real ladies 
 thoroughbreds ; and, besides, you amuse me. Come ; 
 that is a compliment with a sting in it." 
 
 "Why did you demand this opportunity for an un- 
 interrupted talk?" she asked unmoved. 
 
 "Because I have a request to make." 
 
 "A request, did you say?" 
 
 "Call it what you like. For the moment I am a 
 monarch whose requests are commands. I hoped that 
 the softer word might please you." 
 
 "What is it?" she asked him, pressing the acceler- 
 ator and returning her attention to the roadway be- 
 fore them. 
 
 "Before I state it, there is a question possibly two 
 or three of them." 
 
 "Well?"
 
 198 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Have you any idea as to the identity of that chap 
 who came here last evening, and who is due to return 
 co-day?" 
 
 "None, save that he is Mr. Daniel Carruthers, and 
 a friend of Mr. Saulsbury." 
 
 "Dear lady, he is neither the one nor the other. 
 He is a certain Mr. Bruce Brainard, an operative in 
 the secret service of the United States government. 
 Carruthers is not his name, and for that matter, 
 Brainard may not be, either. Nor is he a friend, in 
 the sense you mean, of Saulsbury's. He may be an 
 acquaintance, although, even so, he is doubtless a re- 
 cent one. And, now yes, there is another question. 
 Do you guess why he comes to Myquest?" 
 
 "Not unless he is after one Conrad Belknap in 
 case that happens to be your name." 
 
 "Splendid! You're a corker, Lady Kate. You 
 score a bull's eye first shot." 
 
 "How do you know this if it is true?" (Katherine 
 was inclined to doubt, attributing his statement to 
 one of his odd methods of annoying her. His reply 
 convinced her.) 
 
 "My call to the telephone last night was to warn 
 me of his coming, although neither the name nor the 
 description confirms it. When I rode out to the old 
 mill this morning I went to meet a messenger who was 
 sent to me with more particulars than could be re- 
 hearsed over the phone. Even the description did not 
 tally with the man; but, I have no doubts about it, 
 just the same." 
 
 "You say that he is after you? To arrest you?" 
 
 "He seeks several persons, of whom I happen to be 
 one. So far as arresting me is concerned, he will do 
 that in his own good time if he can and at his own
 
 199 
 
 pleasure and convenience if he is permitted to have 
 his way about it." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Would it interest you to know?" 
 
 "I would not have asked, otherwise." 
 
 "It is too long a tale for now, dear lady. Later 
 when you have hidden me away securely, if the neces- 
 sity arises I will tell you." 
 
 "Why do you tell me this? Don't you realize 
 that " 
 
 "That it gives you a power over me, you would say, 
 to betray me to him? Not at all. That it offers an 
 opportunity for you to rid yourself of my presence? 
 Again, not at all, sweet Katherine of the immaculate 
 heart. It does neither. You could not betray me 
 because you have nothing to betray ; and you cannot be 
 rid of me, because I will not be gotten rid of until 
 I have accomplished what I came to Myquest to do." 
 
 "You intend to stay on, then, and defy him?" 
 
 "I intend to stay on yes ; and to defy him, also, up 
 to a certain point. And this, Lady Kate, brings 
 me to the crux of this interview. I shall not leave 
 Myquest before it is my pleasure to do so, no matter 
 what happens not even if I have to commit a murder 
 in order to stay on. Oh, don't be shocked, pray. I 
 wouldn't do it myself ; I would have it done for me. I 
 said just now that I would defy him up to a certain 
 point. I will. But, when that point is reached, if it 
 is reached" he bent forward and touched her shoulder 
 with his fingers while he went on with slow emphasis 
 "you must have made ready for me, at Myquest, a 
 place of concealment where that man cannot find me, 
 but where I may, nevertheless, see you daily. There 
 is such a place, doubtless, and if there is not one now, 
 you must make one."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 
 
 THEY drove on in silence for a time. 
 
 Katherine was thoughtful, and so was Belknap. 
 Presently, when she stole a covert glance at him, she 
 saw that he was staring at the roadway ahead, and 
 that his somewhat thin lips were set in a straight line. 
 Katherine was psychologist enough to know that he 
 was thinking upon the subject that he had just men- 
 tioned to her the true identity of Carruthers, and 
 the reason for his appearance at Myquest. 
 
 She could read, also, that he was counting the risks 
 he would take in remaining and daring for a time at 
 least to brave the presence of a secret service opera- 
 tive; that he was figuring up the chances he would 
 take; his chances of success in whatever it could be 
 that he had determined to do, and getting away with 
 it. And she realized, likewise, that there was not a 
 shade of fear or hesitancy in his expression. 
 
 He would not be foiled in his purpose, or permit 
 himself to deviate from the direct course to its accom- 
 plishment and while she hated and despised the man, 
 she could not deny to him a modicum of admiration 
 for his courage and daring, his cool and calculating 
 cock-sureness, and his apparently utter indifference 
 to consequences for his acts. 
 
 Almost unconsciously certainly before she thought 
 
 200
 
 THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 201 
 
 how it would sound she gave voice to the thought 
 that was uppermost in her mind at the moment. 
 
 "What a pity it is that you are not a good man," 
 she said, speaking her thought. 
 
 "Why do you say that?" he demanded, turning his 
 head quickly toward her. 
 
 "Because you have it in you to accomplish great 
 things if only your aim was right, and your target 
 happened to be good instead of evil.'* 
 
 "Yes," he replied in the same tone that she had 
 used, "you are right, Mrs. Harvard. I have it in me 
 I have always had it in me." 
 
 He was looking straight at her, but seemingly 
 through and beyond her into the distances of the past, 
 and for the moment during that retrospect his face 
 was transformed. She could scarcely realize that he 
 was Conrad Belknap, the cheat, the blackmailer, the 
 self-confessed crook. He went on: 
 
 "I was born under a cloud. My life was begotten in 
 felony. I was bathed in the blood of an awful crime 
 when I was less than a year old. My boyhood and 
 youth were years of close association with criminals. 
 My young manhood was still worse." He lifted his 
 head and laughed aloud, harshly, and the Belknap 
 that she knew, and hated, and despised was predomi- 
 nant again. "So," he went on, "I grew up to be just a 
 human tiger, of the man-eating variety. I dominated 
 all of my associates because the blood of many gentle 
 generations on both sides flowed in my veins because 
 I had inherited brains, and knew how to use them 
 because I was always cold, implacable, relentless, and 
 because I have never known physical fear." He 
 laughed again, softly, and added: 
 
 "So, you see, what you said was true: if my aim
 
 202 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 happened to be right, and my target happened to be 
 good, there is nothing that I could not accomplish." 
 
 "Is it too late to try, even now?" Katherine asked 
 softly. 
 
 "Too late? Dear lady, it was too late for that 
 before I w&s born. I have said that I am a sort of 
 human tiger. Would you bring a tiger from the 
 jungle, half starve it until it attained maturity, and 
 then turn it loose among a lot of children and expect 
 it to fawn upon them and lick their hands? Too late? 
 It was always too late. I will confess one thing to 
 you, Katherine. This: I have never, by my own 
 choice, committed but one honorable act since I have 
 been a man. I mean by that that never but once have 
 I chosen the honorable course in preference to the dis- 
 honorable one and I have regretted it ten million 
 times. It was my one and only attempt to aim at 
 good, as you expressed it, and I missed, and I got what 
 was coming to me. 
 
 "That's all, sweet lady. We will change the sub- 
 ject. We'll get down to cases again. I have said 
 that a moment is likely to arise within the next few 
 days, or hours, when I will ask you to put me in 
 hiding at Myquest, or so near to it that I can reach 
 out and touch it. When I make that demand upon 
 you, it must be met. It must be. Is there such a 
 place? And if there is not, will you see that one is 
 prepared so that it will be ready when I have need 
 of it?" 
 
 Katherine had been thinking swiftly, too, during 
 that silence, just before these last remarks, and she had 
 determined upon a course which, an hour earlier, she 
 would not have dreamed of considering. She replied 
 instantly : 
 
 "Yes. There is such a place."
 
 THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 203 
 
 "Very good. And you will have it ready for me." 
 
 "It is ready now at any moment you need it." 
 
 "Where I will be close to Myquest, and can have fre- 
 quent interviews with you in case it is necessary?" 
 
 "Yes to both questions. Now, I will ask you one." 
 
 "As many as you like." 
 
 "Where do you find the courage to ask this of me 
 when you must know that having hidden you away, 
 I could so easily direct your enemies where to find you? 
 When you must know that my every impulse under 
 such circumstances will be to betray you, and so to be 
 rid of you ? Surely you must know that I could, under 
 such conditions, anticipate your betrayal of my secret, 
 and render your knowledge of it impotent." 
 
 "Lady Kate," he said slowly, "my favorite pastime 
 is the study of character. I know that it is as impos- 
 sible for you to do wrong as it is for me to do right. 
 You would no more betray me in that manner than 
 you would betray your husband in another one. Like- 
 wise, you are what men call a good sport." 
 
 "Then why aren't you one?" 
 
 "I will be, Lady Kate." 
 
 "You mean what?" 
 
 "I mean that while I shall compel you to assist me 
 in the fulfillment of my plans down here, I will not, 
 hereafter, needlessly offend you other than by the 
 use of your given names." 
 
 "Thank you for that much. Will you tell me why 
 you came to Myquest? What your plans are? Just 
 what it is that you seek? And let us get it over and 
 have done with it if it must be done?" she asked 
 with a touch of wistfulness in her tone. 
 
 "Not now. Another time. When you have hidden 
 me away if that has to be done." 
 
 "Is it money that you want, Mr. Bel "
 
 204 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "I have answered that question before. No; it is 
 not. Don't question me now." 
 
 They arrived at the mill shortly thereafter, and had 
 been there only a little time when the remainder of the 
 house party joined them and in the last car, which 
 Bing drove himself, came also Mr. Daniel Carruthers. 
 
 Katherine stepped forward at once to welcome him. 
 
 Notwithstanding the hideous scar on his face, there 
 was something about the man that fascinated her at- 
 tention. When he grasped her hand in greeting, the 
 touch of it thrilled her strangely. She studied the 
 expression of his eyes during that brief interval, and 
 wondered vaguely what it was that she saw there that 
 seemed to convey unintelligible words and phrases that 
 did not enter into his speech, and when she turned 
 away, it was with the feeling that she had known him 
 and liked him in the past, although she knew that she 
 had not; but, as if he were somehow mixed with an 
 incomplete and forgotten dream. 
 
 In turning away she encountered Belknap, who 
 drew her aside and away from the others with a pre- 
 text. 
 
 "I was right," he told her in a low tone. "It's 
 Brainard, of the secret service. I know, because of 
 one sure point that the messenger gave me. I shall 
 seek him, now, and talk with him. Keep an eye on 
 me, Lady Kate, and if this wild aster" he plucked 
 one ana fastened it in the lapel of his coat "should 
 disappear, it will mean that you must hide me away 
 at once, upon our return to Myquest." 
 
 Belknap sought, rather than avoided, the society of 
 the man with the scar and the feathery, purple-hued 
 aster did not disappear from the button-hole in the 
 lapel of his coat. 
 
 It was still there when the party returned to
 
 THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 205 
 
 Myquest. Belknap had found opportunity to say to 
 Katherine just before the return start was made, that 
 inasmuch as the aster was destined to fade, he would 
 replace it with some other flower when necessary, and 
 that whenever she chanced to discover him without 
 the decoration of a boutonniere, that fact would be 
 the signal for immediate action. 
 
 Harvard rode back with Katherine. Belknap went 
 in the car with Tom and Betty Clancy, Mrs. Saulsbury, 
 Diana Loring, and Carruthers. 
 
 "Truly," Katherine thought as she saw them depart, 
 "Conrad Belknap is not of the breed that runs away." 
 Nor did she believe that his insistence that she should 
 hide him when he gave the signal, was because of fear 
 of the secret service officer. Rather, she was of the 
 opinion that he had selected that course because he 
 believed that it would serve his own interests better in 
 carrying out his secret plans. 
 
 Over and over again she puzzled her brains in the 
 effort to determine the ultimate object of Belknap' s 
 visit to Myquest; but search as she might, she found 
 herself at fault with every turn of thought. 
 
 He had not come with intention to rob the house 
 of its plate, or her guests of their jewels ; of that much 
 she felt assured. His winnings at the card table, 
 although she knew they must be considerable, she re- 
 garded as a by-product, merely, of his real purpose. 
 To win at cards by cheating others was a character- 
 istic of the man which he as thoroughly enjoyed as a 
 marksman finds delight in making bull's-eyes. 
 
 Katherine had intended that day, during their ride 
 together, to ask him for particulars about what he 
 knew concerning her brother Roderick, but when he 
 made the strange request that she should hide him 
 away, if need be, she determined on the spot to defer
 
 206 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 such questionings till later for the Lady of the Night 
 Wind had then, very quickly, formed a little plan of 
 her own concerning that hiding stunt; a plan which 
 would prove to be considerable of a surprise to Mr. 
 Belknap; a plan that she smiled when she considered 
 it calmly, and thought of what the outcome of it 
 might be. 
 
 "Here is a letter of yours that I found under your 
 balcony," Bingham said to her while they were on 
 their way back, giving it into her hand "It is the one 
 your mother sent, announcing the time of her arrival." 
 
 "Oh, yes," Katherine replied without surprise. "I 
 was using it as a bookmark Saturday, I think. It 
 must have dropped out ; thank you." 
 
 Bing regarded her partly averted face in silence, 
 vaguely disturbed. 
 
 He had hoped that with the production and return 
 of the letter that had dropped from her balcony when 
 Belknap had so startled her Saturday night, she would 
 have something to say, something to tell him, about 
 the circumstance, but she said nothing. 
 
 He had read the incident correctly, although he did 
 not know that. He had assumed that Belknap had 
 come upon her unexpectedly, and startled her, when he 
 had found that what he had first supposed to be some 
 sort of a written message had turned out to be a two- 
 weeks-old letter from her mother. 
 
 The other paper that he had taken from Belknap 
 on that occasion had been no more enlightening. 
 
 True he had seen it dropped purposely into Bel- 
 knap's hand, and he now knew that the senorita had 
 dropped it, but the contents of it told him nothing 
 whatever. Indeed, it had appeared to be merely care- 
 lessly scribbled balderdash unless, indeed, it might be 
 some sort of cipher.
 
 THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 207 
 
 Bing had puzzled over it so much since it so 
 strangely came into his possession, that he had learned 
 it by heart, and while he covertly watched his wife, he 
 repeated it in thought. It was: 
 
 When every arm resists entirely, we are then concerned how 
 effort, done before endeavor, will award rebellion's end. 
 
 Such had been the senorita's message to Belknap 
 that she had deliberately so it had seemed dropped 
 into his outstretched hand from her balcony, Saturday 
 midnight. It had the appearance of a meaningless 
 quotation, and the more Bing thought it over, the more 
 inclined he became to consider it in much the same light 
 as the old letter that had dropped from Katherine's 
 balcony an accident. 
 
 Yet, deep down inside of him he knew that that was 
 not so, and the thing that puzzled him most while he 
 rode on in silence beside Katherine, was the fact that 
 she did not tell him about the unlooked-for appearance 
 of Belknap beneath her window that night. 
 
 'How does Mr. Carruthers impress you, Katheiine?" 
 he asked her presently. 
 
 "He impresses me very strongly," she replied, "but 
 just what that impression is I don't know. I am very 
 much inclined to like him, if that is what you mean, 
 Bingham." 
 
 "Yes ; that is what I mean," he returned. 
 
 "Is he a business man, or does he belong to one of 
 the professions?" she asked, with a quick glance 
 toward her husband out of the corners of her eyes, 
 for she had in mind the things that Belknap had said 
 about him. 
 
 "I don't think that he is in business," Harvard re- 
 plied evasively, "so we may assume that he belongs 
 to one of the professions."
 
 208 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Abruptly Katherine changed the subject. 
 
 "Why didn't you bring Senorita Cervantez with you 
 to-day?" she asked. "I was surprised not to sfee her at 
 our picnic. Did you forget to ask her?" 
 
 "No. I asked her. She whispered into my ear, in 
 that breathless way of hers, that she hoped I would 
 make her excuses to you, and I clean forgot to do it." 
 
 "Was she present when Mr. Carruthers arrived? 
 Did she meet him?" 
 
 "She was on the veranda when he drove in with 
 Miriam, but she went inside while they were getting out 
 of the car." 
 
 Therein, Katherine thought, was partial confirma- 
 tion of what Belknap had told her; for Katherine re- 
 membered that Roberta had gone inside to play dream- 
 ily upon the piano the preceding evening when Car- 
 ruthers came to call, with Mr. Saulsbury and again 
 she seemed to have purposely avoided meeting him. 
 
 Did Roberta know as Belknap confidently believed 
 that he knew that Carruthers was in reality a certain 
 Bruce Brainard, an operative of the secret service? 
 She decided then and there that she would lose no 
 time in bringing the two face to face, and that she 
 would watch them closely when she did so. 
 
 As matters stood, the key to her entire problem was 
 concealed within the real object of Belknap's presence 
 at Myquest. If only she could discover what that was ! 
 
 Bing drove home rather slowly. They had been the 
 last to leave the old mill where they had picnicked. 
 They were nearly half an hour behind the others in 
 returning. When Katherine ascended the steps to 
 the veranda, almost the first thing that she noticed 
 was the fact that Roberta was seated on a chair at 
 one corner of it while Carruthers was leaning against 
 the rail directly in front of her. Evidently he had
 
 THE RETURN OF CARRUTHERS 209 
 
 just made some remark, for Roberta was writing on 
 her ivory tablets at the moment, and she passed them 
 to her companion even while Katherine approached. 
 
 Belknap came out through one of the windows at 
 that moment, and the fact of his appearance at just 
 that instant convinced Katherine that he had been 
 watching the two from inside of the room. 
 
 "Will you be my partner at bridge, senorita?" he 
 asked at once, fulfilling, as Katherine knew, his threat 
 to Roberta made Saturday night. But Roberta had 
 evidently expected it, and was equal to it. She wrote 
 rapidly on one of the tablets and passed it to Bel- 
 knap: 
 
 "Thank you," she wrote, "but I do not play bridge. 
 I have never learned the game."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE SIGNAL 
 
 THE cool effrontery of Conrad Belknap and his utter 
 indifference to consequences were never better exempli- 
 fied than by a (to Katherine) startling episode that 
 occurred in the evening of that day. 
 
 The weather was unusually warm, even for late June. 
 Nobody cared to remain indoors, even for the at- 
 tractions of bridge or music. 
 
 Roberta improvised some dreamy airs on the piano 
 for a time, but presently came out through one of the 
 windows where Katherine was seated with Carruthers 
 and Belknap. 
 
 "Come with me and I will show it to you," she heard 
 Katherine say to Carruthers ; and as they got upon 
 their feet and started slowly away, Belknap remarked 
 coolly : 
 
 "Ah; here is Sefiorita Cervantez. We will go with 
 you, if the senorita will do me that much honor." And 
 he added, by way of explanation: "They are going 
 down to the lake. Will you go?" 
 
 Roberta knew that the polite question was intended 
 for a command, but she would not have hesitated to 
 deny him as she had done in the matter of the game 
 of bridge, before dinner, if it had not been her whim 
 at the moment to go. 
 
 So the four walked down the path toward the lake 
 together, with Katherine and Carruthers in the lead, 
 
 210
 
 THE SIGNAL 211 
 
 but not far enough ahead to render their conversation 
 unintelligible to the pair who followed. 
 
 Roberta, whose understanding of Belknap's moods 
 and methods was the consequence of long and varied 
 experiences, knew perfectly well that he had a definite 
 purpose in following the others, and she had her own 
 reasons for desiring to be present to witness whatever 
 might occur. 
 
 She was glad that Belknap kept so close to the lead- 
 ers that there was no opportunity for confidences 
 as she also knew, because of that same fact, that he 
 was meditating some sort of preconceived coup at the 
 first opportunity that offered; and that he was act- 
 ually making that opportunity. 
 
 They came to the lake at the boat-house and bath- 
 ing pavilion, and went out upon the wide and spacious 
 platform in front of the former, which extended above 
 the water. 
 
 "It is much cooler here," Carruthers remarked as 
 he brought some chairs forward for the ladies, and 
 proceeded to light a cigar. Then his eyes rested for 
 a long moment upon the Swiss chalet perched at the 
 top of the bluff opposite, where the glory of the moon 
 but added to its picturesqueness. 
 
 "What is that building over there?" he asked Kath- 
 erine. 
 
 "Oh; the chalet?" she replied indifferently. "Every- 
 body who comes here asks that question, Mr. Car- 
 ruthers. It is really, I suppose, a sort of storehouse 
 for the accommodation of articles that I don't care to 
 keep in the house. It is closed and shuttered, and 
 tightly sealed unused, practically. Mr. Harvard and 
 I have some plans regarding it, but, you know that 
 procrastination is the thief of time." 
 
 "By the way, Carruthers," Belknap spoke up before
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 a reply could be made, "I have been puzzling my head 
 about you ever since you came here yesterday, to call." 
 
 "Yes? Have you, indeed?" the man with the scar 
 replied, uninterestedly ; but Roberta bent slightly for- 
 ward in her chair, convinced that the moment had ar- 
 rived when Belknap would make the play that had 
 brought him out there with the others. 
 
 Katherine, because Belknap's remark, and the man- 
 ner of it, had startled her, half turned toward them 
 to listen; and Belknap well, whatever it was that he 
 intended to say, he knew himself to be master of the 
 situation, for he knew what the other man could not 
 know (as he figured it) that both of the women pres- 
 ent were more or less in his confidence; at least he 
 was not afraid of anything that might be said in the 
 presence of either of them. 
 
 "I have," he rejoined, without hesitation. "I 
 thought, last evening when you came, and I am quite 
 certain, now, that we have met before; only 
 
 "I have no recollection of such a meeting, Mr. Bel- 
 knap." 
 
 "Possibly not. It happened some years ago. You 
 have met with a serious accident since then. You did 
 not wear that scar at the time" he hesitated while 
 Katherine caught her breath and bit her lip in amaze- 
 ment at his insolence, and while Roberta sat bolt up- 
 right on her chair as if petrified ; and Belknap deliber- 
 ately plucked the boutonniere from his coat and tossed 
 it into the lake "and," he went on, "your name was 
 not Carruthers, then. It was Brainard Bruce Brain- 
 ard. You were, so I was informed, an operative in the 
 secret service." 
 
 It was all said very deliberately, concisely, and in a 
 tone of finality that left no room for argument or de- 
 niaL
 
 THE SIGNAL 213 
 
 A pistol shot exploded immediately behind them 
 could not have been more astounding, although it might 
 have produced a different effect. 
 
 As it was, all three of his listeners sat very still and 
 silent. Belknap alone of the group was on his feet. 
 
 There was a space of perhaps a full second, but 
 which seemed, to at least two of the four, to be many 
 seconds, during which nobody spoke; then, as de- 
 liberately as Belknap had spoken, Carruthers replied: 
 
 "Your memory is remarkable, but misleading, Mr. 
 Belknap. It is remarkable because I happen to be 
 acquainted with the Mr. Brainard to whom you refer, 
 who is, I believe, a member of the secret service, and 
 who, quite unaccountably, resembles me, save for the 
 facial disfigurement to which you have so delicately re- 
 ferred. Shall we stroll on, Mrs. Harvard, along the 
 lake shore?" he added, before Belknap could reply. 
 
 Katherine left her chair instantly, glad to be re- 
 lieved of the strain. 
 
 Belknap, apparently, had no desire to pursue the 
 subject. He knew that Katherine had seen him pluck 
 the boutonniere from his coat, and that she had un- 
 derstood the signal. Also, he had accomplished his 
 purpose, which had been to inform Carruthers that he 
 was "on to" him and to defy him. 
 
 It was plainly up to Roberta to follow Carruthers 
 and Katherine, if she so desired, but she kept her seat 
 and let them go and watched them in silence until 
 they were out of hearing. Then, in a tone so low as 
 to be barely audible, she said to Belknap: 
 
 "Why did you do that, C. B.?" 
 
 He shrugged, and indulged in his sardonic smile. 
 
 "Because it pleased me. I was warned of his com- 
 ing by telephone last night. I got the particulars
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 early this morning. The man is Brainard, of the secret 
 service. There is no doubt about it." 
 
 "And he is here" she hesitated, and Belknap noticed 
 for the first time that she was pale and tense "why 
 is he here, if you are right about him?" 
 
 Belknap smiled even more pronouncedly as he re- 
 plied: 
 
 "There is only one reason why any of his kind would 
 be after me. You know that. It is old, to be sure ; but, 
 you know that legend, don't you, that Uncle Sam never 
 lets go? A thousand years are as a day, and all of 
 that rot. He hasn't got the gall to try to put irons 
 on me, even if he is sure that I am I which I doubt ; 
 and if he did it he could not prove his case, Berta. 
 Bah!" he snapped his fingers, "I don't fear him that 
 much." 
 
 Then he turned sharply upon her. 
 
 "What did you guess at, about him?" he demanded. 
 
 "Nothing," she replied, calmly returning his gaze. 
 
 "I was watching you this afternoon when you talked 
 together on the veranda. I could not hear what he 
 said, and of course I couldn't read your written re- 
 plies; but, your manner and his were not as between 
 total strangers. I saw something that smelt of an 
 understanding between you, I thought. Are you try- 
 ing in another way to double-cross me? Did you sup- 
 ply the information that brought him here? Some- 
 body did, and if it was you * 
 
 He did not finish, but he managed to convey a world 
 of menace in what he left unsaid. 
 
 Roberta did not reply, for at that moment several 
 more of the guests joined them on the platform. 
 
 Belknap excused himself and returned to the house 
 as soon as the other guests came upon the scene. 
 
 Miss Loring and Demming were seated together on
 
 THE SIGNAL 215 
 
 the veranda, and saw him enter the house. Black 
 Julius, passing through the main hall, saw him ascend 
 the stairs as if he were going to his own room, and a 
 maid on the third floor saw him enter it. Nobody, on 
 the following day, remembered having seen him after 
 that ; at least, nobody admitted it, if he was seen. 
 
 Katherine saw and understood the signal of the 
 boutonniere when he plucked it from his coat and threw 
 it into the lake at the boat-house, and so, instead of 
 wandering along the shore with Carruthers although 
 for reasons of her own she did wish very much to do so 
 she guided him away from it, and, by a roundabout 
 way, led him back to the house, where she left him 
 on the veranda and went inside. 
 
 She wrote a single line upon a sheet of paper "The 
 rustic seat under the box-elder, after midnight," was 
 what she wrote folded it, carried it to the next floor, 
 and slipped it beneath Belknap's door unseen. After 
 that she went outside and joined the others on the 
 veranda. 
 
 "The others" were scattered along the length of it, 
 save for the senorita, who was inside at the piano, 
 playing for them ; and presently, while she was render- 
 ing Chopin's "Polonaise Militaire," Carruthers tossed 
 aside his cigar and entered at the window beyond which 
 the piano stood. 
 
 At first he began idly to turn over some sheets of 
 music on the top of the piano, as if seeking a choice 
 selection, and soon, having found it, apparently, he 
 carried it around the end of the piano to her. 
 
 "Will you play this one for me, please?" he asked, 
 fixing it against the rack ; and while he bent forward to 
 adjust it, Roberta murmured: 
 
 "He knows you. What will you do?" 
 
 "Nothing at present. I'll wait and watch."
 
 216 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 She began to play, but Carruthers, in withdrawing 
 his hand, dislodged a sheet of the music so that it fell 
 to the floor. When he stooped to regain it, she mur- 
 mured swiftly: 
 
 "I must talk with you. How can you manage it?" 
 
 "Go where you met me Saturday night," he replied 
 softly. "The bench under the tree by the lake." 
 
 "What time?" she asked, while he readjusted the 
 music on the rack. 
 
 "After midnight, Bobbie. Who arrives first will 
 wait." 
 
 She nodded as if to assure him that the music was 
 well placed at last, and he passed again around the end 
 of the piano and dropped upon a chair to listen to her 
 playing. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the coming of Carruthers to 
 Myquest, the first time, to call, and then to remain as 
 a guest, was not unexpected by at least one of its 
 guests that the stranger with the scar was the same 
 man whom Roberta had gone outside to meet in the wee 
 small hours of Sunday morning that he was the same 
 man whom Belknap had thought for a time was locked 
 in Roberta's bathroom and that he was the identical 
 individual whose face Katherine had observed in the 
 glow of a lighted match beneath the box-elder when she 
 fled to the Nest, which she had hoped she would recog- 
 nize, but did not ; and, wholly as strange and inexplic- 
 able as any part of the preceding, she had not remem- 
 bered it at all when that same person appeared at My- 
 quest Sunday evening with Morton Saulsbury. And 
 thus it appears, also, that there existed between him 
 and Roberta a degree of intimacy which nobody but 
 themselves knew about. 
 
 The man whom Katherine saw under the tree had 
 worn no scar. She would have seen it in the glow of
 
 THE SIGNAL 217 
 
 the lighted match had there been one. He had been 
 bearded and shock-headed but wigs and false beards 
 are not readily discernible at night, under trees ; and 
 he had been enveloped in a raincoat that reached nearly 
 to his heels. 
 
 No; Katherine had not suspected that Daniel Car- 
 ruthers, so called, was the same man who had talked 
 with Roberta under the tree that night. Such an idea 
 had not occurred to her at all. 
 
 But we know something more which none of them 
 guessed at. 
 
 Two appointments had been made, to take place at 
 the same spot, at approximately the same time, for 
 the night that had just begun; Carruthers and Ro- 
 berta were to meet there for a private conference which 
 she had insisted upon making; and Katherine was to 
 meet Belknap there to conduct him to the hiding place 
 which he had insisted that she should provide. 
 
 And there were two more incidents connected with 
 the same matters which none of the parties most inter- 
 ested knew about: 
 
 Betty Clancy had gone into the house by the door- 
 way at the same time that Carruthers entered it at the 
 window; and she had turned into the music-room 
 through another doorway, but had stepped backward 
 again when she discovered, or thought she did, two 
 significant gestures that passed between Carruthers 
 and Roberta while he searched among the music sheets. 
 
 Betty kept her place, too, and looked on, with more 
 or less understanding, at what followed. 
 
 The other incident had bearing, also, upon what 
 was to follow. 
 
 Harvard, a trifle earlier, entered Katherine's room 
 from his own, in search of such a trivial article as a 
 pin. He saw one that had been dropped on the blot-
 
 218 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 ter-pad of her writing desk, and as he bent fonrard to 
 secure it, he saw something besides. 
 
 There was a half sheet of note-paper there, with the 
 tracing of a pencil upon it that had been impressed 
 through another half sheet from which that one had 
 been torn; and the impression was as easily legible as 
 the literal pencil-marks would have been. 
 
 "The rustic seat under the box-elder after mid- 
 night," was what he saw and read. 
 
 When he went from the room he forgot t take the 
 pin with him.
 
 CHAPTER XXVHI 
 
 A NIGHT OF MANY DANGEBS 
 
 "THE rustic seat under the box-elder, after mid- 
 night," Bing repeated to himself as he went out of 
 Katherine's room totally forgetful of the pin he had 
 gone after ; and he added, perplexedly : "In Katherine's 
 writing written upon another half sheet and im- 
 pressed through it upon the one I saw. She had torn 
 that half sheet from this one and carried it out with 
 her, so it was intended for somebody for whom, I 
 wonder?" 
 
 He joined the others on the veranda, and although 
 he responded to such conversation as was addressed di- 
 rectly to him, and occasionally made a remark him- 
 self, his mentality continued to dwell upon the mys- 
 terious message he had seen and read in Katherine's 
 room. 
 
 "The rustic bench after midnight," he kept on re- 
 peating to himself. "After midnight might be any time 
 between twelve o'clock and daylight. Can it be possible 
 that Katherine has made an appointment to meet some- 
 body there at such a time?" 
 
 He could not understand it, and least of all could 
 he bring himself to believe it; but there was the evi- 
 dence of his own visual sense, the certainty of her 
 handwriting, and the seeming fact that the half sheet 
 upon which the actual message had been written had 
 been torn away to save bulk, probably, and carried 
 
 219
 
 220 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 in the hand to deliver yes, to deliver unseen into 
 the hand of the person for whom it was intended. 
 
 He noticed, then, for the first time, that Belknap 
 was not present on the veranda. 
 
 "Where is Belknap?" he asked generally. 
 
 Nobody answered; nobody knew; then Miss Loring 
 remarked : 
 
 "He has probably gone to his room, Mr. Harvard. 
 I saw him go into the house about nine o'clock.*' Bing 
 looked at his watch and found that the time was a 
 few moments past ten. 
 
 He left his chair and strolled down the steps and 
 along one of the paths to think. 
 
 There was no definite objective in his mind, but after 
 a time, and somewhat to his surprise at that, he found 
 himself before the rustic bench under the box-elder, by 
 the shore of the lake so he sat down. 
 
 Betty Clancy had been likewise disturbed by what 
 she had seen in the music-room, for she had seen 
 enough for her quick wits and lively intuition to read 
 with more or less correctness. 
 
 She was convinced, for example, that Carruthers 
 and the senorita were by no means strangers to one an- 
 other, although they maintained the attitude of ap- 
 pearing to be; also, she had convinced herself that 
 there had been a passage of words between the two at 
 the piano while Carruthers was arranging the music 
 on the rack, and picking up the fallen sheet which she 
 believed to have been purposely dislodged. 
 
 Now, Betty was mischievous rather than suspicious. 
 
 She read nothing more in the episode at the piano 
 than a hidden and unsuspected romance ; but romances 
 interested her, always, whether between book covers, 
 or in the open, between persons of her acquaintance. 
 
 So, Betty was watchful; she scented an approaching
 
 A NIGHT OF MANY DANGERS 221 
 
 love-scene between the man with the scar and the 
 pianiste ; she knew that since Carruthers's arrival there 
 had not been opportunity for the exchange of con- 
 fidences between him and the senorita, save that brief in- 
 terchange at the piano, and, therefore well, it was 
 plain to Betty that they had agreed to seek a better 
 opportunity before the night was done, and while any 
 idea of spying upon them was farthest from her 
 thoughts, she did want to satisfy herself that she had 
 guessed correctly. She made her own plans accord- 
 ingly- 
 
 Black Julius was also vaguely disturbed and uneasy 
 that night. 
 
 The scene that he had witnessed at the old mill in 
 the early morning had thoroughly convinced him of 
 Belknap's duplicity and that it was the sort of 
 duplicity that seemed to him to threaten his beloved 
 mistress, or her husband, or their property : the latter 
 more likely, since Julius had convinced himself that 
 Belknap was a thief in disguise. 
 
 So, Julius, hovering about among the paths, but 
 keeping himself unseen, watched the lighted windows of 
 Belknap's room until, somewhat after eleven o'clock, 
 they became suddenly black and Julius had already 
 been so mindfully suspicious of Belknap's character 
 and habits that he knew it to be unprecedented for that 
 person to retire so early. 
 
 Julius waited, thinking that the man might appear 
 on the veranda ; but when, after a reasonable time, 
 he did not do that, Julius entered the house at the 
 rear, ascended to the third floor, and delibertely tapped 
 at Belknap's door, with an excuse ready if the man 
 were there to answer. 
 
 There was no response, so Julius turned the knob 
 and entered the room.
 
 222 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Belknap was not there; the bed had not been dis- 
 turbed; and Belknap's evening clothes had been flung 
 carelessly across the back of a chair, showing that he 
 had changed before he went out. 
 
 Julius searched farther, then, by the aid of a small 
 flash-light that he always carried for emergency use 
 around an automobile ; and because he had been the one 
 to direct the stowing of Belknap's effects when they 
 came down from the city, he soon found that a black 
 leather handbag which should have been there was 
 missing. 
 
 Julius was gravely puzzled, and he hurried down the 
 stairs to inform his master of his discovery. "Mis' 
 Kitty," he decided, "mustn't be bothered with such 
 trifles." 
 
 But Harvard was not to be found anywhere, and the 
 black, after waiting around for a time, figured it out 
 that Belknap's interview with the stranger at the old 
 mill that morning had been for the purpose of perfect- 
 ing plans for the robbery of Myquest that night, and 
 he decided that he would remain in the grounds and 
 watch till daylight, if need be. 
 
 There is just one more thing of which cognizance 
 must be taken if we are thoroughly to understand the 
 events that followed. 
 
 Ex-lieutenant Rodney Rushton, whose services Tom 
 Clancy had retained for reasons already known to us, 
 possessed one gift that had taken him over many a dif- 
 ficulty that might have put a shrewder man at fault: 
 tenacity of purpose. 
 
 Having been directed to "Find out who Belknap is," 
 he had never had an idea of stopping investigation until 
 he did find out. Having been balked in Arizona, and 
 in New Orleans, he had sent a boy with a camera to the 
 neighborhood of Myquest, and he had secured a snap-
 
 A NIGHT OF MANY DANGERS 223 
 
 shot of Mr. Conrad Belknap (among others, to be sure) 
 without arousing suspicion. 
 
 He had had that one head of the group enlarged, and 
 hundreds of the enlargements had been printed for him. 
 He had sent them broadcast over the country, accom- 
 panied by the simple request : "Please identify, if pos- 
 sible." 
 
 It was by the last mail that Monday evening that he 
 received the first definite reply that the first informa- 
 tion on the subject came to him that was worth con- 
 sideration as a possible clue. 
 
 He realized the importance of discussing the matter 
 with Clancy without delay, but a telephone call to 
 Tom's home informed him that Mr. Clancy was stay- 
 ing at Myquest for the entire week, so he called him up 
 at Harvard's home, and announced that he had some- 
 thing important to discuss, and would drive down late 
 in the evening. 
 
 Unexpected duties detained him, so that it was late 
 when he started, but he called Tom up again in the 
 meantime, and asked that he should meet him at the 
 lodge gate at twelve, which was the earliest that he 
 could get there, possibly. 
 
 Truly that forthcoming midnight promised to be re- 
 plete with incidents, as it already was with appoint- 
 ments and surveillances. 
 
 Katherine was to seek Belknap beneath the box-elder 
 by the lake, after midnight. Roberta and Carruthers 
 had made the same appointment, and the Night Wind 
 was already at the spot, waiting. Black Julius was 
 hot on the trail of Belknap. Betty had planned to 
 watch the senorita, and Rushton and Clancy were also 
 to be abroad that night.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE HOUSE OF ALADDIN 
 
 WHEN Harvard seated himself upon the rustic bench 
 under the tree, the time was approximately half past 
 ten, and he had been there a full hour when he roused 
 himself to a realization of what he was doing. 
 
 "Good Heavens !" he exclaimed audibly, but softly. 
 "What am I doing! Spying upon Katherine." But 
 instantly he denied the charge that he had made against 
 himself. 
 
 He had not gone there to spy; he had not thought 
 of such a thing; he had been puzzled, and he had wan- 
 dered to that spot merely because the location of it 
 had been uppermost in his mind. 
 
 "My goodness!" he murmured, smiling. "What a 
 thing for me to do to come here and sit down and 
 wait, simply because ' He got to his feet and strode 
 swiftly away, taking a course that led him to the lodge 
 gate and out upon the highway, for he felt the neces- 
 sity of the exercise that a long and rapid walk would 
 give him. "Katherine may meet whomsoever she 
 pleases, at any time and place that best suits her, if 
 she wishes to, and she can inform me about it at her 
 own good pleasure. She always has reasons for doing 
 things, and her reasons are always good ones," he an- 
 nounced to himself as he passed the gate. 
 
 The saving grace which assisted Belknap's plans 
 and Katherine's that night was that both were a 
 
 224
 
 THE HOUSE OF ALADDIN 225 
 
 trifle ahead of time in arriving at the appointed place. 
 
 Belknap left his room soon after eleven. He had 
 stowed some necessary articles in the black bag which 
 he lowered to the ground from one of his windows by a 
 cord after the watchful Julius had transferred his 
 espionage from the windows to the veranda. 
 
 He then descended the stairs nonchalantly to the 
 first floor, and encountered nobody, as it happened, 
 although he was prepared for such an event ; but every- 
 body was outside. 
 
 He went out at the side entrance, darted into the 
 shadows, made his way cautiously to the point under 
 his room windows, secured his bag, and went swiftly 
 toward the lake, having determined that he would con- 
 ceal himself in the woods behind the rustic bench, but 
 at a point where he could keep an eye upon it, until 
 Katherine should appear. 
 
 A strong point with Belknap was that he never 
 neglected caution: therefore, without having made a 
 sound in his approach to the place, he made the dis- 
 covery that the bench was already occupied and by 
 a man. 
 
 He watched and waited, not without misgivings, a 
 time that seemed interminable; but at last Harvard 
 left the bench, and Belknap recognized him and at- 
 tributed the circumstance of his being there to acci- 
 dent. 
 
 Fifteen minutes later Katherine came fully ten 
 minutes before midnight. 
 
 She also approached the spot through the woods, 
 and so silently that even the watchful Belknap did not 
 hear her; but when she crossed the open space to the 
 elder, he saw and recognized her. 
 
 Instead of following after her, his caution being 
 predominant, he uttered a low whistle, which brought
 
 226 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 her to a standstill, listening. When he repeated it, 
 she went to him among the trees. 
 
 Neither of them suspected that other ears than their 
 own had heard that warning whistle ; but there was one 
 who did who heard it and crept toward the sound of 
 it who caught a recognizing glimpse of Katherine 
 as she returned from the tree to the wood and who 
 very nearly forgot to watch on, because of the utterly 
 amazing fact. 
 
 Katherine went close to Belknap. 
 
 "Do not speak," she said in a whisper. "Make no 
 sound whatever, if you can avoid it. Follow me." 
 
 She led the way among the huge trees where the 
 darkness was so deep that Belknap felt as if he was pur- 
 suing only a shadow that was more dense than those 
 around it. Meanwhile, the owner of those other ears 
 that had heard the whistled signal, came to a full stop, 
 stood irresolute for a moment, and then deliberately 
 turned away in the opposite direction. 
 
 Katherine led her companion to a point where she 
 halted a moment as if to rest. In reality she did it 
 in order to press a finger upon a certain spot in the 
 bark of the tree against which she leaned. After a sec- 
 ond or two she went on. 
 
 They came, presently, to a long flight of hard 
 wood steps which she proceeded to mount. When they 
 were nearly at the top, Belknap murmured: 
 
 "Can I venture to make a remark, Mrs. Harvard?" 
 
 "If you speak softly, yes," she answered without 
 turning her head. "What is it?" 
 
 "I thought that I had thoroughly looked over the 
 place, but I never saw these steps before. I didn't know 
 they were here." 
 
 "They weren't," she replied laconically. "Come on, 
 please."
 
 THE HOUSE OF ALADDIN 227 
 
 A steep and winding path succeeded the steps. It 
 twisted so amazingly about between boulders that it 
 was not discernible as a path even in daylight. 
 
 Again Katherine paused, half-way along the wind- 
 ing path. She pressed upon two more secret places 
 without Belknap's suspecting that she did so. The first 
 pressure converted the stairs they had just climbed 
 into a smooth and steep and inaccessible surface; the 
 second one converted the same sort of inclined surface 
 above them to steps. 
 
 Thus, presently, they arrived at the door to the Nest, 
 which was wide open for Katherine had negotiated 
 that secret mechanism while she climbed the last flight 
 of steps. 
 
 She passed inside, into black darkness. Belknap fol- 
 lowed her, wonderingly; and as he was on the point of 
 asking a question, he heard the click of a closing door. 
 There was no other sound or jar to it. 
 
 Then, so suddenly that it startled him, the room in 
 which they stood was flooded with light, and Belknap 
 discovered that he was facing Katherine across a huge, 
 square-cornered table of solid oak, in a great room 
 that might have been "the dream come true" of any 
 artist, musician, writer, or pronounced sybarite. 
 
 Long accustomed as he was to manifest no surprise 
 at anything, Belknap could not conceal his amazement. 
 
 "Aladdin's lamp !" he exclaimed. "Where do you 
 keep it concealed, dear lady? And where is the jinee?" 
 
 "The jinee," she replied, smiling a little, "is here. 
 Would you like proof of it? Look behind you." 
 
 He turned slowly. 
 
 As he did so the lights went out all save one which 
 glowed faintly by comparison with the recent illumina- 
 tion in the ceiling over their heads. 
 
 Even Belknap's stoic self could barely repress a
 
 228 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 startled exclamation and an involuntary shudder when 
 he discovered that he had been standing within a few 
 inches of a floorless space into the black depths of 
 which a spiral staircase descended; and as he turned 
 again to question Katherine, the last light was shut off. 
 
 "Oh, I say!" he exclaimed with a half laugh, and 
 yet with a touch of petulance ; but before he could add 
 to that remark all the lights were turned on again, and 
 he saw that Katherine stood near the center of the 
 other half of the room beyond the table. The trap in 
 the floor behind him had closed itself without a sound. 
 
 "Be seated, Mr. Belknap," she said to him formally. 
 "That is not a trap in which to catch the unwary, that 
 I showed you. It is my cellar my storehouse, carved 
 out of the solid rock. It is one only one of a 
 thousand secrets of this place." 
 
 "Why did you show me that much?" he asked, shrug- 
 ging his shoulders. "Was it to warn me, perhaps?" 
 
 "I did it as a reply to your former question to 
 prove to you that the jinee of my conjuring is con- 
 stantly at my hand, in this house, prepared for instant 
 obedience." 
 
 "I understand," Belknap replied soberly. "That is 
 at once a warning and a threat. Have no fear of me, 
 Mrs. Harvard. While I am here I will be a 'slave of the 
 lamp.' " 
 
 Katherine, in the coldly formal tone in which she 
 had last spoken, instructed Belknap concerning his 
 surroundings. 
 
 "Over against the wall behind you, there is a wide and 
 soft couch where you may rest, and sleep," she said. 
 "Such conveniences as you require, you will readily dis- 
 cover, if you seek them. Before I go I will switch off 
 the major part of the lights, leaving the others burning, 
 which you may turn on and off at will. Such doors as
 
 THE HOUSE OF ALADDIN 229 
 
 you find fastened against you, may not be opened by 
 any skill of burglary. I mention that fact merely to 
 spare you useless effort in case you have brought your 
 tools of the craft with you in your bag." 
 
 "I assure you " he began. 
 
 "Don't. It is unnecessary." 
 
 "We are inside of the Swiss chalet, on the bluff, are 
 we not?" Belknap asked. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What about this brilliant illumination in case 
 somebody outside should look in this direction?" 
 
 "Not a ray of light within the house can be dis- 
 covered from outside," she answered. "You will find 
 reading matter here, if you want it," she went on. 
 "There are cards for solitaire in the table drawer ; also 
 chess, for working out problems, if that pastime enter- 
 tains you. If you can cook, there are electrical con- 
 veniences, and material for anything which I have 
 thought you might require ; only, while you remain, you 
 will have to forego fresh meats and vegetables. You 
 will find sufficient canned goods, however. The water 
 which constantly flows in and out out of the porcelain 
 tank in the electric kitchenette, is from a never-failing 
 spring, and is nearly as cold as ice-water. That, with 
 tea, coffee, and perhaps chocolate, must suffice you as 
 beverages. 
 
 "When occasion makes it necessary that I should 
 come here to see you, you will hear the humming of 
 an electric buzzer, and I will invariably announce my 
 approach at least twenty minutes before I will appear." 
 
 She stopped a moment, and an enigmatical smile 
 softened her expression. Then : 
 
 "I will suggest that you had best not stand too near 
 to the door when you are expecting me to arrive. The 
 jinee is always there on guard."
 
 230 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Will you tell me what you mean by that remark, 
 Mrs. Harvard?" Belknap inquired, impressed by her 
 manner. 
 
 "I mean that in case you should be too eager to re- 
 ceive me, when you have been signaled that I am coming, 
 it would not be safe for you to stand too near to the 
 door. There is another entrance to my cellar in the 
 rock, just in front of it, which I shall probably open 
 as I approach. You might get a nasty fall, you know, 
 for there is no spiral staircase there." 
 
 "By Jove!" Belknap could not refrain from ex- 
 claiming in his admiration. 
 
 "You are the only person," she went on, unmoved, 
 "save myself, who has set foot within this building 
 since it was completed. Nobody comes here " 
 
 "Not your husband?" 
 
 "Nobody and none will come." 
 
 "What if I should want you to come to me in 
 case you should remain too long absent? Is there some 
 method by which I can signal to you from a window 
 or " 
 
 "Mr. Belknap, while you remain here, you will not 
 see daylight once. There are windows, but they may 
 not be opened if you would be entirely secure. You 
 will have plenty of air, however the ventilation system 
 is perfect, but electricity must take the place of sun- 
 light. But, if you should want me" she crossed the 
 room swiftly and lifted a small Japanese idol that stood 
 upon one end of the granite shelf above the fireplace 
 "you will find a button here. By pressing it five times 
 in succession remember, five times it will convey 
 a silent signal to me which I will presently discover. 
 That is all for the present, I think." 
 
 She turned abruptly and moved swiftly toward the
 
 THE HOUSE OF ALADDIN 
 
 door, which, to his profound amazement, swung open 
 as she advanced. 
 
 He darted forward to detain her not by force, but 
 by expostulation and argument for there was much 
 that he wished yet to say to her, and to hear her say ; 
 but she had passed the threshold before he could take 
 the second step in her direction; the massive door 
 closed itself swiftly and silently without a sound save 
 a delicate click of its mechanism ; and Belknap could 
 see, when he stared at the place beyond which she had 
 disappeared, only a smooth surface, unrelieved by knob 
 or bolt or visible hinge.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 BLACK JULIUS SPEAKS 
 
 KATHERINE, making her way back to the house, 
 touching hidden secrets here and there as she pro- 
 gressed to facilitate her progress, and, metaphori- 
 cally, to "shut her gates behind her" selected the same 
 route by which she had led Belknap to the Nest. 
 
 Naturally she passed again quite close to the rustic 
 bench under the box-elder and as naturally she 
 glanced toward it in passing. 
 
 She halted. 
 
 Outlined against the opalescent surface of the lake 
 beyond, she plainly saw two persons seated there, side 
 by side, and quite close together; moreover, they were 
 so perfectly silhouetted against the faintly shining 
 background that she recognized both, on the instant. 
 
 "Strange," she thought, and moved silently back- 
 ward, away from them, before she continued on her way. 
 "Roberta and Mr. Carruthers seated there together at 
 this hour, and in an intimate position that suggests 
 former acquaintance. I wonder " 
 
 She did not complete the conjectural thought, for 
 just ahead of her, in one of the paths that led to 
 the house, she saw Betty Clancy hurrying away. 
 
 "That is strange, too," Katherine commented 
 silently. Then she smiled, and added to her thought: 
 "Why, of course ! Betty walked down to the lake with 
 them, and, little matchmaker that she is, scented a 
 
 232
 
 BLACK JULIUS SPEAKS 283 
 
 possible romance, and so sought the first excuse she 
 could think of to leave them together." 
 
 She permitted Betty to enter the house before her; 
 then, as she ascended the steps to the veranda, she en- 
 countered Black Julius. 
 
 "Why, Julius!" she exclaimed. "You ought to be 
 in bed." 
 
 "Yes, Mis' Kitten, I know it. But I thought I'd 
 wait fo' Mr. Harvard. He hasn't come in yet ; and Mr. 
 Clancy is out, too." 
 
 "Where did they go?" she asked, assuming that they 
 were together. 
 
 "Mr. Harvard went down toward the lake about half 
 past ten, so Mr. Archer told me. And Mr. Clancy 
 went out 'bout half an hour ago, Mis' Kitten." 
 
 "Oh, well, you need not wait for them, Julius. They 
 are doubtless taking a walk together. They are just 
 'boys again' whenever they can get by themselves" ; and 
 with a smiling good-night to her faithful servitor, she 
 entered the house and sought her own room. 
 
 Julius stared after her, slowly shaking his head. 
 He was deeply puzzled, and profoundly troubled. 
 
 "No," the black muttered to himself "She wouldn't 
 take that man to the Nest. She has just sent him 
 off about his business ; but but but ' ; 
 
 Down at the lodge gate, Harvard, returning from his 
 long and rapid walk, came upon Tom Clancy and 
 Rushton engaged in earnest conversation. 
 
 "What the dickens " he began; but Tom inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 "Gee, Bing. I'm glad you happened along. Rush- 
 ton has made a most extraordinary discovery 
 about that guy Belknap if only it turns out to be 
 true. And, say, we'll have to take the old Senator into 
 our confidence in order to determine that point."
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "What in blazes are you talking about, Tom?" 
 Bing inquired impatiently. 
 
 "I'm talking about Belknap. Rushton has got a line 
 on him. Come on into the house, Rushton. We'll go to 
 Bing's den and talk it over." 
 
 When Harvard, accompanied by Clancy and Rush- 
 ton, approached the veranda, Black Julius stepped out 
 from a shadow among the shrubbery just in front of 
 them, and his appearance was so unexpected that 
 Rushton's right hand flew to the pocket where he 
 carried a weapon; but he grinned in the darkness, and 
 drew forth a handkerchief instead as he heard Julius 
 say: 
 
 "Mr. Harvard, sir." 
 
 "Yes, Julius. What is it?" Harvard returned. 
 
 "May I speak with you a moment, sir?" 
 
 Clancy and Rushton moved onward, and Julius, in 
 a low tone, made the report to his master that he had 
 determined upon. 
 
 "I ask your pardon, sir, for doing things that are 
 outside of my duties," he began (Julius, remember, was 
 an educated negro, and his language, save for an oc- 
 casional slurring of the vowels, was nearly always cor- 
 rect. "But I have seen certain things that have made 
 me watchful, and I have discovered other things which 
 I think I ought to tell to you." 
 
 "Won't they keep till morning, Julius?" 
 
 "No, sir ; begging your pardon." 
 
 "Things about what? Things about whom, Julius?" 
 
 "About Mr. Belknap, sir." 
 
 "Are they matters which you believe I should know 
 about to-night?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Very good. We are going to my lounging-room
 
 BLACK JULIUS SPEAKS 235 
 
 now to discuss that same person. You may come with 
 us, Julius." 
 
 In Harvard's den, behind closed doors, he announced : 
 
 "Julius has something to tell us about Belknap. I 
 think it'will be well to hear what he has to say before 
 we listen to your report, Rushton. It begins to look, 
 to me, as if everybody save myself has dug up some 
 definite criticism of Belknap. I am thoroughly op- 
 posed to discussing the character of one of my guests 
 in this manner, but, because only my best friend, my 
 confidential emplo} r ee, and Julius, who is always trust- 
 worthy, are here, I will consent to it. Now, Julius, 
 what have you to tell us?" 
 
 "Mr. Harvard," Julius replied soberly, "in ihe be- 
 ginning, I just didn't like Mr. Belknap; that was the 
 onliest thing I had against him ; but, sir, I set myself 
 to watching him. At first I didn't see anything that 
 I could put my finger on, that was against him, only" 
 he turned toward the others "you must remember 
 that I have been Mis' Harvard's special servant ever 
 since she was bo'n, and there ain't no expression of 
 her face that Black Julius don't know the meanin' of. 
 I was going to say that at first I didn't see anything, 
 only that Mis' Kitty excuse me ; Mis' Harvard that 
 she certainly did seem to me to despise him, an' to be 
 just a little wee scrimpsy bit afraid of him. That set 
 me to watchin' closer." 
 
 "Get down to the facts, Julius,'' Harvard com- 
 manded. 
 
 "Yes, sir. There wasn't any facts till Mr. Belknap 
 was called to the telephone last night. I knew it wasn't 
 right, sir, but I fixed the switchboard so that I could 
 hear, too, and " 
 
 "Julius !" Harvard exclaimed, aghast. 
 
 "I know, sir, it wasn't right; but I did it just the
 
 236 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 same, and I'm glad of it seeing what has happened 
 since. I didn't hear all that was said. A man in 
 Washington was talking, and he didn't say much, 
 'cept to tell Mr. Belknap to go to the old mill on our 
 place the next mawnin' to meet a man who would 
 tell him the rest. Well, sir, I went to the old mill, too, 
 and I got there first. They didn't talk English, so I 
 couldn't understand what was said 'ceptin' when they 
 used names." 
 
 "What names did you hear them use?" Rushton 
 demanded, intensely interested. 
 
 "I wrote them down, sir, so I wouldn't forget them 
 those that were not familiar. One was Bruce Brain- 
 ard; an " 
 
 "What?" exclaimed Harvard. Then: "Go on, 
 Julius; I understand." 
 
 "Another name was Saulsbury, and a third one was 
 a name that I used to know, years ago, down in Ken- 
 tucky. It was fielding." 
 
 It was Rushton's turn to manifest surprise. 
 
 "fielding, did you say, Julius? What was the first 
 name that went with it?" 
 
 "It wasn't mentioned, sir; but the first name of the. 
 fielding that I knew about, years ago, was Cranshaw. 
 Yes, sir; Cranshaw fielding." 
 
 "Gee-whillikins ! You don't say !" Rushton ex- 
 claimed. "Now, what do you know about that! How 
 old was he when you knew him, Julius, and what became 
 of him? How long ago was it when you knew about 
 him?" 
 
 "It is a good many years ago, sir when Senator 
 Maxwilton was a judge. More than thirty years ago. 
 Cranshaw fielding was a little under forty years old, 
 then. He was hung for murder, and it was Judge Max- 
 wilton who sentenced him."
 
 BLACK JULIUS SPEAKS 237 
 
 Rushton, manifesting considerable repressed excite- 
 ment, turned to Harvard and Clancy. 
 
 "That seems to clinch matters so far as my report is 
 concerned," he said ; "and the Senator will know more, 
 likely enough. The Cranshaw Belding that Julius 
 knew must have been the father of what am I talk- 
 ing about? You haven't heard my report yet. Say, 
 Julius, is that all you can tell us?" 
 
 "No, sir; not quite." 
 
 "Well, then, give us the rest of it." 
 
 "You see, sir, I was afraid that those two who met 
 at the old mill were planning to rob us, so I kept an 
 eye on Mr. Belknap all day. But I reckon I was mis- 
 taken, because he has gone away !" 
 
 "Gone away? Left Myquest? Gone, without say- 
 ing a word about it to anybody? Is that what you 
 mean to say, Julius?" Clancy demanded. 
 
 "Yes, sir with a satchel soon after eleven, to- 
 night. He went through the woods at the south side 
 of the lake skulkinglike. I saw him myself." 
 
 "Did you follow him, Julius?" 
 
 "No, sir.'* 
 
 "Was he alone when you saw him? Did that other 
 chap the one at the mill meet him? Did you see 
 anybody with him?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I saw somebody meet him, but it was very 
 dark under the trees, and well, sir, one couldn't see 
 more than the outlines of a person." (Julius would 
 have lost his right arm rather than tell anybody that 
 the outlined figure of the person who had met Belknap 
 in the woods was as familiar to him as his own face in 
 
 mirror. ) 
 
 The three white men of the group were silent for a 
 space; then Harvard spoke. 
 
 "What Julius has told us compels me to say some-
 
 238 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 thing that I had intended to keep to myself," he said. 
 "You noticed my surprise when Julius mentioned the 
 names of Brainard and Saulsbury. Bruce Brainard is 
 here. Carruthers is Brainard. Saulsbury brought him 
 first, yesterday, to ask me if I would receive him as 
 a guest, under the assumed name. The man is a secret 
 service operative. He is on the trail of a man whom 
 he believes to be identical with Conrad Belknap. I re- 
 fused to receive him, at first, but Saulsbury overrode 
 my objections. Carruthers's scar, by the way, Tom 
 is not a real one, although it is as perfect as if it 
 were. It is stained on. Saulsbury told me that he is 
 wonderfully adept at disguising himself, and is consid- 
 ered one of the best operatives in Washington. I 
 
 "Say, Mr. Harvard," Rushton interrupted, bend- 
 ing forward. 
 
 "Well, Rushton?" 
 
 "I think that it's about time that you listened to 
 my report; and, likewise, I think that you'd better 
 wake up Mr. Brainard and bring him here before I 
 make it. Maybe it will help him in his work, and 
 more'n likely he can help me in mine." 
 
 "Very well, Rushton. Since we have gone to such 
 lengths already, no doubt you are right. No, Julius, I 
 will go myself."
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 BRAINARD, OF THE SECRET SERVICE 
 
 WHEN Harvard stepped into the corridor on his 
 way to Carruthers's room he discovered that gentle- 
 man in the act of ascending the stairs toward it. He 
 turned about when he heard Harvard's low-toned call. 
 
 "You have been outside?" Harvard asked abruptly. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "On the trail of your man?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Belknap has gone. I thought, possibly, you mighB 
 know it." 
 
 "Gone? Gone, when and where, Mr. Harvard?" 
 
 "Come with me, please," Bing said, instead of an- 
 swering the questions. "We are holding an impromptu 
 conference in my den. Mr. Clancy, and a detective in 
 whom I have every confidence, are there; also Black 
 Julius, who is a privileged person in this family. 
 Julius has told us some surprising things about Bel- 
 knap, and Rushton still has something more to say 
 about him. He would also like to hear what you may 
 be willing to tell. Will you come, please?" 
 
 "Yes, thank you. I will be glad to. Have you told 
 them who and what I am?" 
 
 "Yes ; and also that you are Brainard, instead of 
 Carruthers." 
 
 Introductions were quickly made. At the last, Har- 
 vard added: "And this is Julius, Mr. Carruthers. (We 
 will stick to that name, and not use Brainard, I think.) 
 
 239
 
 240 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 He has served in Mrs. Harvard's family all his life." 
 
 It was the first time that Julius had seen Carruthers 
 close up. As he turned to face him, the others saw 
 the negro give a violent start, heard him catch his 
 breath in a short, quick gasp saw him lift one hand 
 and brush it across his eyes. They supposed it was 
 the livid scar that startled him so, notwithstanding 
 that he had been told that it was not a real one or, 
 possibly it was astonishment because the stranger 
 grasped him by the hand, as he would have done to a 
 white man. 
 
 "I foresee that Julius and I will be friends," Car- 
 ruthers said while he held the negro's gaze for a short 
 moment. Then he turned to the others, and Julius 
 crossed the room on a pretense of bringing up another 
 chair, although one had already been shoved forward. 
 
 "You may be seated, Julius ; there is no necessity 
 for you to stand," Harvard remarked. "Tom, will 
 you, as concisely as possible, tell Mr. Carruthers of 
 what has already been said?" 
 
 Clancy did so, rapidly; and although Carruthers 
 listened intently, he made no comment. 
 
 "Now, Rushton, we will listen to you," Clancy 
 finished. 
 
 "Mine '11 be short, but to the point," Rushton an- 
 swered and it was noticeable that he addressed him- 
 self directly to Carruthers, as if in him he had already 
 recognized a master mind for criminal investigation. 
 "Mr. Clancy didn't cotton to Belknap from the first. 
 He asked me to find out who he was and is. I couldn't 
 get no satisfaction from any lines that we already had 
 on him, so I sent a kid down here with what looked 
 like a toy-camera. He's a little guy, but older than 
 he looks ; and he's smart. I figured that nobody'd pay
 
 BRAINARD, OF THE SECRET SERVICE 
 
 any attention to a kid takin* snap-shots with a toy. 
 See?" 
 
 Nobody replied. Rushton continued: 
 
 "He got two. One of 'em was a corker. I had it 
 enlarged, and a thousand of 'em printed. I sent one 
 to the police of every city, big an' little, an' to almost 
 every town I could think of, with the request, 'Please 
 identify, if possible.' When I'd finished sendin' 'em, I 
 had a dozen of 'em left. Then I got a hunch. Says 
 I to myself, 'That guy went to Archer's just to get 
 himself took to Myquest. He ain't there on no common 
 stunt, either, and he ain't no common crook, or I'd 
 have had a line on him before now. What's his lay?' 
 says I. 'Card-sharpin', mebby, or blackmail.' Black- 
 mail sort of fitted my sconce ; and, if that was his 
 lay, it followed that he thought he knew something 
 about the Maxwilton family, or about Mr. Harvard, 
 that would draw coin. Well, I sent the dozen pictures 
 I had left to every place on the map around about the 
 locality where Lady Kate was born, in Kentucky sent 
 'em to constables, and all that. Then I had another 
 hundred printed and sent more to other places down 
 there; and I looked up a list of Mr. Harvard's class- 
 mates in college and sent them some and so on. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Carruthers, I got this letter this after- 
 noon. You read it out loud. It's the finish of what 
 I've got to say." 
 
 Carruthers received the letter, glanced through it, 
 and then did as requested. It was dated from a town 
 in Kentucky that was located less than a score of miles 
 from the homestead of Senator Maxwilton. 
 
 The letter was as follows : 
 
 DEAE SIR: 
 
 Your letter with picture received. First off I didn't think I 
 knew any such person, but when I looked at it some more I got
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 to reckoning that I'd seen him somewhere; and finally I remem- 
 bered a man who'd been to our place two or three years ago ask- 
 ing for old Judge Marbury, who's dead and gone ten years. He 
 had asked me about the judge, and I'd sent him to the judge's 
 son, who's practising law now in his dad's place. I was certain it was 
 the same man, so I ups and takes the picture over to young Boyd 
 Marbury he's only twenty-five now. Boon's I showed it to him 
 he says: "Yes, sir; I knew him." And that's all I could get out 
 of him for a while. But Boyd likes me, and bimeby he tells me 
 this seeing as how a regular detective wants the information, 
 only he made me swear that I wouldn't tell nobody else. The man 
 came here to ask about some property, says he, that he understood 
 that Cranshaw Belding (who was hung for murder thirty years 
 ago) had left behind him. Said he was distant kin to Belding. 
 He got mad when he found that it had all been sold for taxes 
 years ago, and done some cussing. Then he went away without 
 paying young Boyd a cent. Well, sir, Boyd and me we put our 
 heads together, and we (that is, I did) remembered that Cran 
 Belding had a son that was three or four years old when he was 
 hung, that he said he'd murdered at the same time he killed the 
 mother. And then I remembered a kind of a jerky way that the 
 stranger had had about him that was a whole lot like what I'd 
 seen Cran Belding do lots of times. So, I says to myself, I'll 
 bet a ceoky that Cran didn't kill his boy, and that the chap that 
 came here was that boy growed up. 
 
 That's all I know, Mr. Rushton, and it ain't much. You can 
 take it for what it's worth, if it's worth anything at all. He 
 don't look like Cran did, but he acts like him, and he's got a way 
 of jerking his head that's like him and I wouldn't wonder a 
 mite if it was him that is, if the man whose picture you sent to 
 me ain't Cran Belding's boy growed up. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 JASPER D. SEEI.OVBR, 
 
 Town Constable. 
 
 Although Carruthers read the letter through almost 
 without expression, his remarkable eyes were all aglow 
 when he lifted them to encounter Bing Harvard's gaze. 
 When he spoke it was in the same quiet tone that he 
 had used before, indicative of nothing. 
 
 "Mr. Rushton has done me a great service,'* he said ; 
 "he has done the department that I serve a greater 
 one. Cranshaw Belding, addressed as 'C. B.' by his in- 
 timates, is the name of the man I want, and without 
 doubt Conrad Belknap the initials are the same, you 
 observe is the man."
 
 BRAINARD, OF THE SECRET SERVICE 243 
 
 "I have heard him called C. B.," Bing said, "on one 
 occasion." 
 
 "That gives us added assurance. Julius overheard 
 the name Belding at the old mill. Belknap's informa- 
 tion in regard to my coming here was accurate; he 
 proved that to me to-night at the boat-house, when he 
 claimed to have met me before, without the scar, and 
 under the name of Brainard. His cheek and assur- 
 ance are phenomenal. He is a cool and capable 
 scoundrel. I am not at liberty at the moment to tell 
 exactly why Uncle Sam wants him, and has wanted him 
 for some time. But, with the information now at hand, 
 I shall not hesitate to arrest him as soon as he can 
 be found." 
 
 "Can you tell me why, in the devil's name, he came 
 to Myquest?" Harvard asked. 
 
 "I can only guess as to that, Mr. Harvard, and this 
 is too serious a matter to guess about. I will tell you 
 all this: if he did not leave Myquest till after eleven 
 o'clock, he did not go far. I am not alone on this 
 case." 
 
 When the conference and exchange of opinions came 
 to an end, Carruthers signified his intention of ac- 
 companying Rushton to his car. Harvard and Clancy 
 at once sought their respective beds. 
 
 "I was wonderin'," Rushton said to his companion as 
 soon as they were in the open, "if you was figurin' on 
 tellin' me anything more about that guy. I could see 
 that you wasn't ready to give it all up to Bing Har- 
 vard and Tom Clancy but me ! That's different, ain't 
 it?" 
 
 "Yes, Rushton. That is why I came outside with 
 you. This Cranshaw Belding (I have personally 
 known that Belknap is Belding, for a long time ; and 
 an acquaintance of mine has also known it, although
 
 244 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 neither of us were in a position to prove it) has a 
 long criminal record, and a bad one. It began when 
 he was a mere boy, and he is now, according to my best 
 information, thirty-four years old. He was born with 
 brains; he is superlatively intelligent, and he has cour- 
 age. I don't think that he knows what physical fear 
 is ; nor mental fear, either, for that matter. He has 
 good blood in him, too the best that Kentucky boasts, 
 on both sides of his ancestry. But he is unmoral; a 
 man who apparently was born without morals. The 
 combination creates a dangerous character to be at 
 large. He is utterly unscrupulous, save in one par- 
 ticular, and that one to which I refer is remarkable 
 because it is the one scruple that one would never ex- 
 pect in a man of his characteristics." 
 
 "Say, what is it that thing that you're talkin' 
 about?" Rushton asked. 
 
 "He respects, and is known to be fastidious in his re- 
 gard, for women. It is an anomaly in his general char- 
 acter, inherited, probably, from his mother's family. 
 At all events, he has it, as has been proved by his 
 acts, many times, to my personal information and be- 
 lief." 
 
 Rushton grunted. It was plain that he received that 
 statement with a large grain of salt; but the only re- 
 sponse he made was to put another question. 
 
 "Do you mind tellin' me what he's wanted for? Why 
 your department is after him?" he asked. 
 
 "Not at all. I have told you that his criminal 
 record began when he was a boy. It is, in fact, nearly 
 as old as he is. He was brought up, and trained, al- 
 most from babyhood, in the family of a man who was 
 probably the greatest, shrewdest, keenest, and ablest 
 criminal who ever defied the government authorities 
 the most expert bond-forger, bill-forger, and all-around
 
 BRAIXARD, OF THE SECRET SERVICE 245 
 
 counterfeiter of bond-plates, bill-plates, and of all sorts 
 of negotiable securities, that the world has ever 
 known." 
 
 "Say, Brainard, you don't happen to mean old 
 Brock " 
 
 "Yes. He is the man I refer to. He has been dead 
 some years, now; but " 
 
 "Eight or ten," Rushton interpolated. "Well, what 
 do you know about that !" 
 
 "The old man," Carruthers continued, "found in 
 the young one, an apt pupil, a venturesome one, and a 
 competent successor. After the death of the old man 
 the government believed that all of the counterfeit 
 plates with which he had carried on his business had 
 been rounded up and accounted for ; but ever since 
 then, at intervals and in widely separated localities 
 a counterfeited bond, or stock certificate, or a bill, 
 or something of that character, has made its appear- 
 ance. So, we have known, without being able to prove 
 it, that young Belding has been carrying on the work 
 of his teacher. 
 
 "I am giving you only a bare outline of things, 
 Rushton, and there are two more matters connected 
 with them which I want you to take into consideration. 
 The first one is (I am speaking officially now, not per- 
 sonally, please understand that) that the name Cran- 
 shaw Belding has always been regarded by the de- 
 partment as a sort of a myth. It was known that 
 there was said to be such a person, or actu- 
 ally was one, but no definite description of him 
 could be obtained. There were a dozen descriptions of 
 him, but each one was totally different from any of 
 the others, and not one of them could be relied upon as 
 authentic. The other matter to which I referred just 
 now, the second one. is this. Nearly two years ago an
 
 246 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 operative of the department sent in a report to the 
 chief in which he stated with emphasis that he had 
 succeeded in trailing Belding; that he knew him, and 
 was prepared to prove identity; that he was going 
 after his man as soon as he finished the report he 
 was writing; that he was positive that he would 'get' 
 him, and also many of the plates that were wanted; 
 and that he would have proof sufficient the following 
 day to send Belding away well, for keeps. That 
 night, Rushton, two men were killed. One of them was 
 the operative in question (whose name does not con- 
 cern us just now). The other one was a youngish 
 man whose pockets contained what appeared to be 
 unmistakable proofs that he was Cranshaw Belding. 
 The two had killed one another when the operative 
 went to arrest his man. 
 
 "It so happened that I, personally, was in a position 
 to know that the dead man was not Belding; but 
 I could not prove it. Also, it was a long and a dif- 
 ficult task to convince the department that I was 
 right. My source of information was such that I could 
 not use it nor could I reveal all of the facts about 
 it that I did know, because my informant was a per- 
 son whose name must not be mentioned, and whose 
 testimony, even if the name should be revealed, would 
 not be regarded by one of our judges as sufficient 
 proof. The things that I did know which I thor- 
 oughly believed that I knew were that the real Beld- 
 ing had, for several years, cloaked his identity behind 
 that of the dead man who had posed for him as Belding, 
 and that the real Belding had deliberately supplied the 
 operative who was killed with the information that had 
 taken him to his death. It probably was not within 
 his plans that his own impersonator should lose his 
 life, too; but it is reasonably certain that he coldly
 
 BRAINARD, OF THE SECRET SERVICE 247 
 
 planned the killing of the operative. So, you see, he 
 is actually responsible, and therefore guilty, of both 
 of those killings. 
 
 "That, Mr. Rushton, is all that I need to tell to 
 you now." 
 
 "Uhuh," Rushton rejoined. Then he added: "You 
 remarked while we were all chinning together in Har- 
 vard's room, that if Belknap didn't make his getaway 
 before 'leven o'clock, he wouldn't get very far, because 
 you are not alone on this case. I'd kinda like to know 
 just what you meant by that." 
 
 "When I came to Myquest, on Belknap's trail be- 
 ing convinced that he is the real fielding I was sure 
 in my own mind that he had reasons for being here 
 which were not connected with his past record; and I 
 had my own reasons for determining that he must not, 
 and should not escape me this time. So I asked that 
 certain of our men, whom I named, be assigned to as- 
 sist me. There are several of them in this neighbor- 
 hood. You can accept it as a fact that Belknap will 
 not be able to get past them, day or night, by train, 
 by automobile, on foot, or by any other means. He 
 would be seen and recognized, and would be stopped 
 before he could go very much farther." 
 
 "Suppose he does get through, just the same?" 
 
 "He won't. He can't." 
 
 "All the same, suppose that when to-morrow comes, 
 he's still missin', and that none of your outfit has 
 pinched him. What will you think about that?" 
 
 "I won't think about it; I will know." 
 
 "What '11 you know?" 
 
 "I'll know that while he has been here he has ar- 
 ranged a temporary getaway and hiding place within 
 the boundaries of Myquest say at the old mill that 
 Julius told about, or in an outbuilding, or in the ravine
 
 248 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 below the lake, or something of the sort to which he 
 has fled, and where he will stay in hiding as long as 
 he pleases, or until he is rooted out. And, Mr. Rush- 
 ton, believe me, no matter where that hiding place is, or 
 how skillfully he has arranged it, he will be rooted out 
 before long." 
 
 "Say, has it occurred to you that maybe somebody 
 might help him to hide, eh? He. might have a con- 
 federate among the help, in the house, or outside of it. 
 Guys like him don't usually work alone." 
 
 "He will be found, Rushton, never fear," was the 
 confident reply.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 BELKNAP'S DILEMMA 
 
 IN the meantime the object of so much interest had 
 been undergoing rather than enjoying, be it said 
 quite a variety of mental gymnastics. 
 
 Belknap, for once in his venturesome life, had had 
 "one put over on him." 
 
 He was loath to admit the fact, even to himself, at 
 first ; but before he had passed an hour in examining 
 his surroundings in the Nest, and in some rather force- 
 ful thinking, he was compelled to recognize the bald 
 fact of it. 
 
 Katherine's manner of leaving him the suddenness 
 of her going the swinging open of the door without 
 visible act on her part as she approached it the quick 
 and noiseless closing of it after she passed the thres- 
 hold and the very apparent fact that he would not be 
 able to open it in her absence, brought plainly home 
 to his understanding the fact that he was virtually a 
 prisoner. 
 
 He had walked deliberately, and with wide-open eyes, 
 into a trap that she had prepared for him a trap 
 that had closed around him as solidly as ever a wire 
 cage has snapped shut upon an unsuspecting rodent. 
 
 A very slight examination convinced Belknap that 
 he could not get outside of the Swiss chalet until the 
 chatelaine of it elected to let him out. 
 
 Who ever heard of a house that one could not get 
 out of? Not he, certainly. 
 
 249
 
 250 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Even prisons, with their locks and bars and guards 
 and surrounding walls, were negotiable of ttimes, by the 
 wiser ones among the desperate men who were confined 
 in them. 
 
 He very quickly discovered that there was no way 
 out, unless, in the event of his applying his brains to 
 the problem, he had the intelligence to find some of 
 those secret buttons and appliances which supplied the 
 open-sesame for doors and windows, and other things. 
 
 And Belknap had no notion of passively submitting 
 to imprisonment. 
 
 "I will have it out wi f h her the first time she comes to 
 see me," he told himself with one of his wolfish smiles ; 
 but even as he made the remark aloud, the smile 
 changed into a half-sheepish grin, for he remembered 
 how perfectly self-assurecl she had been; how secure 
 she had seemed from any possible attack; how totally 
 without fear her attitude had been. 
 
 But this the condition of his surroundings was 
 not at all what he had anticipated when he had de- 
 manded that she should hide him. 
 
 He had expected to be located so that he could give 
 his orders to Katherine as he pleased and what he 
 pleased and expect her to fulfill them ; instead, he was 
 as thoroughly a helpless prisoner as if he were al- 
 ready a convict in solitary confinement. 
 
 She could visit him when she pleased, or not at all if 
 she preferred. 
 
 He could not wait for her at the door and seize upon 
 her when she entered ; indeed, she had deftly warned 
 him against undertaking that very thing and there 
 was not the slightest doubt left in Belknap's mind that 
 there existed many other mechanical protectors around 
 and about him, over his head and under his feet, to 
 which she would have recourse if he "got fresh."
 
 BELKNAP'S DILEMMA 251 
 
 He had seen one opening in the floor into which he 
 might have been tumbled headlong, easily, had she so 
 willed ; he had been told, and did not doubt, that there 
 was another one at the entrance door ; and he began to 
 think that they might be anywhere, and that the 
 beautiful owner of the Swiss chalet could, with the lift- 
 ing of an eyelash, drop him through the floor at almost 
 any spot, or herself disappear before his eyes at will. 
 
 "What a woman ! By Jove, what a woman !" he ex- 
 claimed aloud, and with undoubted admiration and re- 
 spect. "She has got me dead to rights literally where 
 I can't help myself, unless unless I've got the brains 
 to study out and uncover some of secrets of this house 
 of mysteries ; and, by Jove, I think I have the wit to 
 do that very thing. Yes, I believe I have the brains 
 to do that. Anyhow" and he again smiled his un- 
 doubted admiration of the woman who had bested him 
 "she's got me where I am utterly helpless to carry 
 into execution any of the threats I have made. I 
 can't tell her father or mother about Roderick, for 
 the simple reason that I can't get to them to tell them ; 
 I can't cop any more coin at cards; but, more than 
 all, I can't get hold of the thing that I came here after, 
 unless I can induce her to let me loose some night 
 long enough to get it. I wonder if she could be pre- 
 vailed upon to do that? I wonder. I wonder! 
 
 "Lady Kate would be surprised if it occurred to her 
 that my chief reason in asking her to hide me was to 
 provide the opportunity, while I am supposed to be 
 miles away, to get my fingers onto that priceless gem ; 
 and now, by jingo, she has got me fixed so that I 
 can't do it. 
 
 "She would be still more surprised if she knew that 
 I don't even know that precious brother of hers by 
 sight, and that I could no more send him to prison than
 
 252 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 I could send her to one. I could let the authorities 
 know that he is alive, and I could give a hint that 
 
 would lead to his trail; but Oh, well, there is 
 
 one thing that I could do in that line, if I chose; and 
 sometimes I have thought that I would do it: I 
 could direct them to Roberta. She knows, confound 
 her! She knows who Roderick Maxwilton is, where 
 he lives, what name he uses, and how he earns his 
 bread and salt. But I could never make her tell me, 
 and I doubt if all the authorities in existence could 
 force her to tell them. Roberta is Roberta.'* 
 
 Katherine, it will be remembered, had left a few 
 of the electric lights switched on so that he could make 
 use of them; there was a reading light near one of the 
 easy chairs, and there were others quite sufficient for 
 his needs ; but all of them combined were far from pro- 
 viding what one might define as illumination. 
 
 Having, in a sense, thought himself out in conjectur- 
 ing, Belknap devoted nearly two hours to careful 
 search for concealed buttons and springs, for that one 
 beneath the little Japanese idol on the shelf had given 
 him an idea. 
 
 He searched with great care and method, but after 
 the two hours of utterly fruitless effort, he desisted. 
 
 "I'll sleep on it," he thought at last. "When I 
 wake up I'll begin where I leave off now." 
 
 Katherine, when she got to her room that night, was 
 quite content. She was smiling while she undressed 
 and went to bed. 
 
 She knew none better that she had "put one 
 over" on Belknap; and she had already decided that 
 she would give him a continuous forty-eight hours for 
 solitary meditation before she would visit him. 
 
 More than that, she had determined to keep him 
 exactly where he was until he was ready and willing
 
 BELKNAP'S DILEMMA 253 
 
 to reveal to her the whole plot that he had in mind 
 when he came to Myquest exactly what his real rea- 
 sons were for visiting Myquest at all and until he 
 told her all that he knew about Roderick. 
 
 She dropped asleep, still smiling. 
 
 The following morning, at midforenoon, Harvard, 
 who had been seeking Senorita Cervantez, came upon 
 her unexpectedly where she was seated with some em- 
 broidery, in the rose bower for Harvard had one 
 little incident up his sleeve which he had not talked 
 about at last night's conference. 
 
 "Senorita," he said, "I have here something that I 
 want to ask you to explain ; a matter of eighteen writ- 
 ten words which I believe you can explain. I saw you 
 drop this message to Mr. Belknap from your balcony 
 the other night. It reads : 'When every arm resists en- 
 tirely, we are then concerned how effort, done before 
 endeavor, will award rebellion's end.' It read like a 
 poor quotation, or like utter nonsense, until it occurred 
 to me that it might be an acrostic. When I thought of 
 that, I read the first letter of each word, and put them 
 together. I found : 'We are watched. Beware.' Will 
 you, senorita, be good enough to explain?" 
 
 The senorita started to her feet when Harvard be- 
 gan to speak to her. 
 
 It was plain in his manner of address that he was 
 gravely serious and then she saw and recognized the 
 slip of paper that he held in his hand. 
 
 Instantly she realized two things; that it had been 
 the Night Wind who had attacked Belknap under the 
 tree ; and that he had succeeded in deciphering the mes- 
 sage that she had dropped which he had taken from 
 the man for whom it had been intended. 
 
 But Roberta was, nevertheless, not at all afraid. 
 
 She had prepared herself for just such an emergency,
 
 254 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 because she had more than half believed that it would 
 happen ; and if the truth be known, she was, Jeep down 
 inside of her, glad that it had happened. 
 
 Before she could reply to him if, indeed, she in- 
 tended to make reply, for she hesitated while she asked 
 herself if she should resort to her tablet, or should ad- 
 mit by word of mouth that she was not without a voice 
 he added: 
 
 "I should say, perhaps, that I doubt your inability 
 to use your voice. I heard you, before you dropped this 
 message, call out to the person for whom it was intended 
 although you did make use of a sibilant whisper. But 
 it was sufficiently penetrating. I heard you call two 
 letters. I will pronounce them ; and when I have done 
 that, and while you are explaining things, I wish you 
 also to inform me what other name the two letters 
 stand for besides Conrad Belknap. They were 'S-e-e 
 B-e-e!' 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Harvard," she answered at once, but in 
 a tone so low that it was almost a whisper, "I have a 
 voice, and I can use it. I have deceived everybody. I 
 want to explain. I had brought myself nearly to the 
 point of doing so before you spoke just now." 
 
 "What wild and vicious plot is being concocted here 
 in my house under my nose?" he demanded sharply. 
 
 "Wait, please," she answered, still in that nearly in- 
 audible tone. 
 
 "Why wait, senorita?" 
 
 "Because the things that I have to tell you cannot 
 be told in a moment. Because there is much that I 
 should say in order to make you thoroughly under- 
 stand; and I do not think that this is just the right 
 place to say it." 
 
 "Perhaps not," he admitted. 
 
 "Can we not seek a place where we will be undis-
 
 BELKNAP'S DILEMMA 255 
 
 turbed where we can talk without the fear of inter- 
 ruption ?" 
 
 "Yes," he replied, "there is the lake. Come with 
 me. I will row you out to the middle of it. You can 
 talk there." 
 
 "No," she said, and shook her shapely head. "We 
 would be seen, and an observer would know that I was 
 talking. I ride well, and I have not been in the saddle 
 since I came here. Can we not ride? We would 
 be alone in that way." 
 
 Harvard made still another suggestion, however. 
 
 "If you will walk slowly to the gate at the lodge," 
 he said, "I will pass there soon in one of the roadsters. 
 I will invite you to go with me. Then we can talk." 
 
 She nodded, murmured a "Very good, Mr. Harvard," 
 and started away. 
 
 Ten minutes later he picked her up at the lodge 
 gate, and they drove away side by side. 
 
 Two small incidents happened as they did so: one 
 was that Roberta, believing that nobody was near, 
 spoke to Harvard in her natural voice as she climbed 
 into the seat beside him ; the other one was that 
 Katherine, who had entered the unused lodge for some 
 reason a few moments earlier, heard the car and her 
 husband's voice, and went quickly toward the door to 
 inquire where he was bound. She stepped into the open 
 doorway just as Roberta was in the act of getting into 
 the car, and at the very instant when she used her 
 sweetly melodious voice in addressing Bing. 
 
 Katherine stepped swiftly back again out of sight. 
 
 Utter amazement is the only adequate manner in 
 which to describe her sensations; not because Roberta 
 happened to be at the lodge gate when Harvard was 
 driving out, and that he should ask her to ride with 
 him, but that Roberta should speak to him in a per-
 
 256 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 fectly natural manner, inducing no surprise on his 
 part that she used her voice (she who was supposed to 
 be without voice) but precisely as if he had known from 
 the beginning of things that she could talk. 
 
 Katherine walked very slowly on her return to the 
 house. She had much to think about.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 WHAT ROBERTA HAD TO TELL 
 
 HARVARD did not speak again for some time after 
 Roberta was seated beside him. He drove the car in 
 silence, guiding it, at the first opportunity, out of the 
 main highway into less frequented thoroughfares. 
 After a time he slowed down until they made less than 
 ten miles an hour. 
 
 "Mr. Harvard," Roberta began, "there is so much 
 that I must tell to you, and so much also that I should 
 leave unsaid for others to inform you about, that I 
 shall ask you to hear me through to the end of what 
 I have to say, with as little interruption as is possible." 
 
 "I will interrupt you, senorita," he replied, "only 
 when a question that I regard as important seems nec- 
 essary." 
 
 "In that case," she said, "I will begin by making 
 a statement that will amaze you, perhaps, more than 
 anything else I will have to say." 
 
 "The entire situation is sufficiently amazing," he re- 
 plied. "But what is the statement you refer to?" 
 
 "This : the man whom you know as Conrad Belknap 
 is my husband. I have been his wife ten years. I was 
 married to him when I was seventeen. When I was 
 nineteen somewhat less than two years after our mar- 
 riage I left him, and hid myself away where I hoped 
 he would never find me. It was not until nearly five 
 years after that when he did find me. I was in the far 
 West in Idaho teaching school; and I had secured 
 
 257
 
 258 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 a divorce from him three years before he discovered 
 me." 
 
 "Then you are not his wife unless you remarried. 
 Did you?" 
 
 "No. I used the present tense in referring to the 
 subject for the sake of directness and to be explicit. 
 I have never been his wife since I left him more than 
 eight years ago, but I have been more or less closely 
 associated with him and his evil ways ever since he dis- 
 covered me in Idaho between three and four years 
 ago. He has compelled that has forced me to do 
 what I have done ; to seem to condone his criminalities ; 
 to associate with crooks and criminals; to sometimes 
 go the length of actual participation in his crookedness 
 (or of seeming to do so) he has compelled that much 
 of complacence on my part by holding over me a 
 threat which, until now, I have not had the courage to 
 defy." 
 
 "One moment, please. Why 'until now'?" 
 
 "I will reply to that question ambiguously, and ex- 
 plain more fully when I get to it. Something hap- 
 pened Saturday night which was established to my 
 satisfaction on Sunday, and which I became positively 
 assured of only last night, that has made it both pos- 
 sible and logical for me to defy the man you know as 
 Conrad Belknap." 
 
 "I see. You will explain that point later, you say. 
 But you have twice used the expression, 'the man I 
 know as Belknap.' Am I to understand that the per- 
 son's right name is not Conrad Belknap?'' 
 
 "Yes. His name is " 
 
 "Wait! Is it Cranshaw Belding?" 
 
 "What? You know?" Roberta exclaimed. 
 
 "Yes. I know," Harvard returned quietly. 
 
 "While I was in Idaho," Roberta continued slowly,
 
 WHAT ROBERTA HAD TO TELL 259 
 
 after a moment's contemplation of Harvard's face, "I 
 met, and learned to love, and was loved, by an- 
 other man. I had already secured my divorce, so 
 there was no obstacle of that character to our 
 marriage. But, there were two obstacles serious 
 ones, both nevertheless. One of them was occasioned 
 by his point of view; the other one was by my own. 
 He was living under a cloud, in disguise, and 
 was known by a name that was not his own; 
 and there were many reasons beside the actual 
 cloud to which I have referred why he should not re- 
 sume his own name and seek to prove as he believed he 
 could do his innocence of the act which had been 
 charged to him. He would not ask me to be his wife 
 until he could stand clear before the world, clothed in 
 his right name. But, Mr. Harvard, even so, I would 
 have prevailed upon him, and we would have fought 
 out our battles side by side but for the one great and 
 insurmountable objection that / had. 
 
 "It was this : I knew that if Cranshaw fielding should 
 find me, and know that I had married another man, he 
 would kill that other man, or have him murdered with- 
 out compunction. I knew Cranshaw fielding better than 
 he knew himself. I knew that my marriage to another 
 would be the death-warrant of that other. And now, 
 Mr. Harvard, I have another surprise for you. The 
 man whom I would have married in Idaho bore the 
 name (not his family name, remember) of Bruce Brain- 
 ard." 
 
 "Bruce Brainard? Carruthers? The Se " He 
 
 stopped. 
 
 "Yes," Roberta calmly replied. "The secret ser- 
 vice operative who is called Bruce Brainard, whom you 
 have received in your home at the solicitation of your 
 friend, Morton Saulsbury, under the name of Daniel
 
 260 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Carruthers, and whose real identity I know as well as 
 I know yours, is the man I love, and who loves me; is 
 the man who has been wrongly charged, in the past, 
 with a crime with which he had nothing to do; is the 
 man whose battles I have helped to fight, and who has 
 helped me to fight mine; is the man of all others whom 
 I have ever known who is the soul of honor and upright 
 manhood." 
 
 Harvard drove on in silence for a time. Presently: 
 
 "Have I permission to mention you to him?" Bing 
 asked. 
 
 "Yes. I want you to do so, please." 
 
 "Did you know that he was coming to Myquest be- 
 fore he actually appeared?" 
 
 "He told me Saturday night that Mr. Saulsbury 
 would bring him to call Sunday to ask you to receive 
 him the following day, under another name, as a guest. 
 He also told me that his chief was to arrive at Mr. 
 Saulsbury's home Sunday night at twelve o'clock, and 
 that he had decided to tell the entire story of his life 
 to his chief, in the presence of Mr. Saulsbury. Last 
 night I met him again by appointment after midnight. 
 He told me then that his chief had merely chuckled 
 when he heard Mr. Brainard's story, and had replied: 
 *Why, Brainy' that is what he is called by his inti- 
 mates in the service 'I have known the truth about 
 those matters two years; ever since six months after 
 you became one of us, in fact. It is part of my duty 
 to know, thoroughly, the men who work for me. The 
 man who was guilty of the things you were accused of 
 has been in the federal prison at Atlanta more than a 
 year. You are like some doctors that I have heard 
 about entirely efficient when another is ill, but ab- 
 solutely inefficient when they get sick themselves. 
 You aren't worth your salt when it comes to doctoring
 
 WHAT ROBERTA HAD TO TELL 261 
 
 yourself.* Then he added : *I have not mentioned this 
 to you because I preferred to let you tell me about it 
 yourself in your own good time after you had screwed 
 up the necessary moral courage to do it.' ' 
 
 "Senorita I will continue to address you so are 
 you willing to tell me who Bruce Brainard really is?" 
 
 "No, please. That is one of the subjects that I 
 referred to in the beginning when I told you that 
 there are things which I must leave unsaid, for others 
 to inform you about." 
 
 "Brainard himself, or others?" 
 
 "Brainard himself and others." 
 
 "Why did you pretend to be voiceless when you 
 came to Myquest?" 
 
 "Because I had spoken with Mrs. Harvard over the 
 telephone, and did not know until she greeted me that 
 day that she was the person with whom I had talked." 
 
 "Wait. Was your talk with her that you refer to 
 in the middle of the night?" 
 
 "Yes. Before I was summoned to come to you as a 
 pianiste." 
 
 "Well, well," Harvard said, under his breath, recall- 
 ing the disturbance he had felt because of his knowledge 
 that Katherine had used the telephone one midnight 
 and another night. "You talked with her more than 
 once, didn't you?" 
 
 "Twice; both times after twelve at night." 
 
 "Correct. I'm glad you told me that." 
 
 "C. B. planned my coming to Myquest," she said. 
 "I did not want to come I had my own reasons for 
 not wanting to do so but he made me do it." 
 
 "He has made a catspaw of you." 
 
 "Literally that, Mr. Harvard." 
 
 "Tell me for you must know why Belknap elected 
 to visit Myquest at all."
 
 262 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "I can't tell you that because I do not know." 
 "Is that statement literally true, geiiorita?" 
 *'It is literally true, Mr. Harvard. I thought I 
 knew, at the beginning, but I was mistaken. I have 
 conjectured about it since, only to find myself again 
 mistaken. His ways are past finding out. He is an 
 accomplished scoundrel who compels others to do his 
 bidding. Beyond cheating at cards, he considers him- 
 self above actual outlawry; he forces others to com- 
 mit his crimes for him. If he should determine to rob 
 your bank in New York, he would, himself, be a thou- 
 sand miles away when it was done. If he should at- 
 tempt to blackmail you, his own hand would not be 
 visible in the consummation of it. If he sought Mme. 
 Savage's jewels, he might locate them, but he would 
 take no part in securing them. If he desired the death 
 of Bruce Brainard, the murder would be committed, 
 but there would be nothing to connect him witli 
 the crime. I can conjecture a score of reasons why 
 he is at Myquest, and yet not hit upon the right one." 
 
 "That reminds me," Harvard said quickly. "Did 
 you know that he is no longer at Myquest?" 
 
 "No," she replied calmly; "but I suspected that he 
 was making ready to disappear, because of his defiance 
 of Mr. Brainard, at the boat-house, last evening. 
 Doubtless you have been told about that." 
 
 "Yes; Carruthers that is, Brainard told me." 
 "I ought to warn you, Mr. Harvard, that C. B. is 
 more dangerous when absent than when present. If 
 he has gone, as you say, he has not gone far. Rest as- 
 sured that he is making preparations for the final 
 coup that brought him here." 
 
 "H-m ! Perhaps there is something in what you say. 
 It is in line with Brainard's assertions. Will you
 
 WHAT ROBERTA HAD TO TELL 263 
 
 tell me now why you dropped that acrostic warning to 
 him from your balcony ?" 
 
 "Certainly. I did it wholly on my own account, to 
 put an obstacle in the way of his seeking conversations 
 with me. I neither knew that we were watched nor 
 cared if we were, but I did wish to startle him into leav- 
 ing me alone." 
 
 "I see. Can you tell me anything about that at- 
 tempted burglary the other night?" 
 
 "I can only guess as to that, but I think it will be a 
 good guess." 
 
 "Let me hear what it is, then." 
 
 "I have told you that he has underlings who do his 
 dirty work for him. My guess is this: that he has 
 promised them some pickings from the plate and jewels 
 and other valuables to be obtained in your home, and 
 that one of their number, who is also a leader, and 
 jealous of C. B,, has worked upon their impatience of 
 restraint, and prevailed upon them not to await his 
 pleasure. It is unimportant. Nothing happened. 
 What did happen could have had no connection with 
 the actual reason for C. B.'s presence." 
 
 "Here is another point," Harvard said, after a mo- 
 ment of thought. "Cranshaw Belding is the name of 
 the man whom Brainard is actually seeking. The de- 
 partment he serves has been held at bay because there 
 was no proof of connection between Belknap and Beld- 
 ing. Yet for more than ten years you have known that 
 the two were identical ; and for half that time, at least, 
 Brainard has known it. Why, then " 
 
 "Please wait. I know what you would ask. Mr. 
 Brainard's unsupported testimony would not be proof 
 of the fact ; my additional testimony would be regarded 
 as biased and insufficient. C. B. would have slipped 
 out of the law's grasp. More; Mr. Brainard has not
 
 264 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 been willing that my association with C. B. should be 
 disclosed. He has insisted that other means could 
 and would be found to establish the identities." 
 
 There was silence after that which endured for many 
 minutes. Then Harvard, with a measure of restraint in 
 his voice, said: 
 
 "I must ask you something more in regard to Bel- 
 knap's possible motive, or motives, for coming to My- 
 quest." 
 
 "Please don't, Mr. Harvard. Ask Mr. Brainard, if 
 you will. His opinion and it would be merely an 
 opinion is vastly better than mine." 
 
 "Very well, then. But I shall ask one certain thing 
 of you, nevertheless." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 "It is that when we return, or as soon thereafter 
 as possible, you will relate to Mrs. Harvard precisely 
 what you have told to me; and that you will tell her 
 that you have told me. Will you Dromise me to do 
 that?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Thank you. I wish to discuss the subject with 
 her, but I prefer that you should tell your story to her 
 first."
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 THE DEVOTION OF JULIUS 
 
 WHEN Bing and Roberta got back, luncheon had 
 just been announced, and the guests were already as- 
 sembling for the midday meal. Belknap's absence had 
 not been generally noticed until then. 
 
 After it there was some discussion of the subject, and 
 Harvard considerably to Katherine's astonishment 
 allayed the curiosity of all by saying casually : 
 
 "Mr. Belknap was called away suddenly in the night. 
 He took only a bag with him, so it is not unlikely that 
 he will return at almost any time.'* 
 
 Katherine, watching her opportunity, withdrew from 
 the group on the veranda silently and unnoticed. 
 
 She had determined that she would not visit Belknap 
 at the Nest before the day to follow, which would have 
 given him from twenty-four to thirty-six hours to ac- 
 custom himself to the fact that he was a prisoner; 
 but there was one subject which filled her with im- 
 patience of restraint of any sort, and she was eager 
 to question the man. The subject was her brother 
 Roderick. 
 
 "Why wait?" she asked herself as she stepped back- 
 ward through an open window and glided swiftly away. 
 "No matter how angry he may be at finding himself 
 helpless, I need have no fear of him there. I will be 
 amply protected by a hundred devices that he is 
 ignorant of." 
 
 So she did not seek her room. 
 265
 
 266 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 She passed through the house and left it at the rear, 
 and she followed the longest route that she could have 
 taken to bring her to the Nest. 
 
 Nevertheless, as she approached it at last, through 
 the wood, and when she was nearly to the point where 
 she manipulated the mechanism of the first stairs, she 
 came, quite unexpectedly, upon Black Julius, who had 
 been leaning his back against a tree, but who started 
 forward eagerly as she drew near. 
 
 "Why, what are you doing here, Julius?" she asked 
 him quickly. 
 
 "I was waitin' fo' you, Mis' Kitten," was the as- 
 tonishing reply, given with the freedom of his class 
 when devotion to their "home-folks" is the incentive. 
 
 "Waiting for me? Here?" his mistress demanded 
 with a show of impatience. 
 
 "Yes, Mis' Kitten; waitin' just the same as I uster 
 wait, when you was a little wee mite of a girl, only so 
 high, every time that I thought you had somethin' on 
 youah mind that you'd like to tell Julius about. I knew 
 that you'd come along past heah sooner 'r later, 
 an' an' you mustn't be mad at me, Mis' Kitten, please 
 I reckoned that mebby you'd let me help." 
 
 Poor Julius was terribly disturbed. He had passed 
 the last half of the preceding night, and all of that 
 day thus far, in a state of mental torture. Particu- 
 larly had he suffered since the revelations at the con- 
 ference in Harvard's den, and at the risk of mortally 
 offending his beloved mistress, he had made up his mind 
 to speak. 
 
 "You must tell me, quite plainly, what you are talk- 
 ing about, Julius," Katherine said. 
 
 "Mis' Kitten, I suspect mebby you'll never fo'give 
 me, but I was watchin' that Belknap white trash last 
 night. I'd been watchin' him all day, too. I had
 
 THE DEVOTION OF JULIUS 267 
 
 seen enough to know that he was crooked. I 
 suspected that he was a thief. But it don't make any 
 difference what he was or is, I was watchin', and I 
 knew when he left the house. Then I lost sight of him 
 fo' a while, but I found him again, hidin' out heah be- 
 hind a tree, an' waitin' fo' somebody. I suspected that 
 the somebody was another white trash like himself, an* 
 that mebby they was goin' to rob the house ; but I saw 
 you meet him please, please fo'give Black Julius, Mis' 
 Kitten an' I saw you lead him away, goin' toward the 
 Nest. But I couldn't believe that you would take him 
 there, where nobody but youah own self has ever 
 been an* I didn't believe it till last night, when I 
 found out that that Oh, Mis' Kitten, there is some- 
 thing else that I found out last night, too, that I jes* 
 must tell you about as soon as I get through with this." 
 
 Katherine, with her eyes steadily upon the black, 
 listened without motion or expression, too greatly as- 
 tonished and too profoundly moved to speak before 
 she had heard all that Julius had to tell. 
 
 "I didn't believe that you had taken that man to 
 the Nest last night until I found out that there is a lot 
 of men hangin' around Myquest to gobble him up if he 
 tries to get away ; and then I knew that you must 
 have done it. And I knew that you would be going 
 there sometime to-day to see him again ; so I waited 
 right heah." 
 
 "Why? To tell me that you had been spying upon 
 your mistress?" Katherine asked coldly. 
 
 "Mis' Kitten, I ain't been spyin' on you; I've been 
 spyin' on him, and I just happened to see you. And I 
 waited because I wanted to ask you if you please, please, 
 would let ole Black Julius help you in whatever it is 
 that you're doin'." 
 
 There was suspicious moisture in Katherine's eyes as
 
 268 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 she took a step forward and rested one hand on Julius's 
 arm. 
 
 She understood the depth of his devotion. She knew, 
 without asking, that he had told nobody of what he had 
 seen. 
 
 "Yes, Julius," she said softly, "I will let you help 
 me. I am glad that you saw, and that you found the 
 courage to speak. You shall help me but not just 
 now. Go to your cottage and wait there for me. 
 Sometime this afternoon, or evening, I will seek you, 
 and then I will tell you what you can do. Wait, 
 Julius !" as he started away obediently. "What was 
 the 'something else' that you found out about last 
 night which you 'just must tell me about'?" 
 
 "Mis' Kitten, it is something that's mighty im- 
 portant; but but will you please wait till you come 
 to the cabin to see me, an' let me tell you then? 
 Please?" 
 
 Katherine nodded, and smiled, and passed on. Julius 
 stood quite still, watching after her ; and as he watched 
 he murmured to himself softly: 
 
 "Bless her sweet heart! I wonder what she'll say 
 when I tell her that Mister Roddie is right heah at 
 Myquest, without her knowin' a word about it?" 
 
 When Katherine stepped upon the threshold of the 
 door that had mechanically opened to admit her to the 
 Nest, she saw Belknap standing beside the big oak 
 table, with one hand resting lightly upon it, regarding 
 her with a half-quizzical smile which, for once, was 
 without its wonted wolfishness of expression. 
 
 Between them, close to the open door, yawned an 
 oblong hole in the floor as she had warned him might 
 happen which was silently filled while she waited, al- 
 though he could not discover any act of hers that 
 operated the mechanism of closing it.
 
 THE DEVOTION OF JULIUS 269 
 
 When she passed inside, the door closed auto- 
 matically behind her. As soon as that happened, Bel- 
 linap spoke. 
 
 "Please wait a moment where you are, Mrs. Har- 
 vard," he said. "I want to ask you a question." 
 
 "Yes?" she replied, pausing. 
 
 "What is there to prevent me from leaping forward, 
 now, upon you, and seizing you, if I were so disposed?" 
 
 "Tell me first why you ask the question; then per- 
 haps I will reply to it," she answered him. 
 
 "I ask it because I have discovered that I am a 
 prisoner here; that I cannot get out of this house 
 save at your own good pleasure unless I seize you 
 and compel you to let me out. What is there to pre- 
 vent me from doing that very thing? For if I should 
 seize you, I could make you do it. You know that." 
 
 "Are you very curious about the answer to your first 
 question?" she asked, and gave him an inscrutable 
 smile. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "There is nothing to prevent you from attempting 
 it, Mr. Belknap. There is something to keep you from 
 accomplishing it. If you doubt me, try it. I am here ; 
 you are there at a distance of about three yards. 
 Spring, if you like; seize me, if you can. If you suc- 
 ceed if you can get close enough to me to touch me 
 with the ends of your fingers, I will promise to let 
 you out of this house whenever you have the desire to 
 go, day or night. Try it," she repeated, mockingly. 
 
 "By Jove !" he exclaimed, "I have the will to try it." 
 
 "Do so; only, be warned. You will sincerely regret 
 the act." 
 
 For a moment he regarded her steadily, and she 
 realized that he was actually on the point of making
 
 270 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 the attempt. But he hesitated; and hesitating, sur- 
 rendered. 
 
 "You win," he said, and grinned, as if it was an 
 actual pleasure to him to be bested. "I don't know 
 whether you are bluffing or not. If you are, you're the 
 champion bluffer of the continent. Anyhow, I won't 
 call you this time." 
 
 "Thank you," she replied. "Now, will you be so 
 good as to seat yourself in the armchair behind you? 
 When you have done that I will pass around to the 
 chair at the opposite side of the table." 
 
 "Huh!" he exclaimed, half jestingly. "How do I 
 know that it isn't a trick-chair, and that it will fly 
 through the ceiling or disappear through the floor the 
 minute I touch it?" 
 
 "You don't know; that is the crux of all the mys- 
 teries of this house. You don't know them. I do." 
 
 "Mrs. Harvard," he said, "you're a wonder!" and 
 he dropped upon the chair. 
 
 Katherine passed quickly to the opposite side of the 
 table. 
 
 She pulled open a drawer in it, and closed it again. 
 She moved some of the magazines and books that were 
 upon it. She dropped her handkerchief to the floor 
 and stooped to regain it, and as she straightened again 
 she heard a sharp and angry expletive from Belknap; 
 it was not really an oath, although very near to one. 
 
 Katherine was smiling when her eyes encountered 
 Belknap's angry gaze. 
 
 "You are not uncomfortable, are you?" she asked. 
 "That steel arm doesn't pinch too closely, does it? You 
 see, I thought it wise to teach you a lesson. One of 
 my workmen procured me the model of that chair 
 in the ancient city of Nuremberg. History will tell
 
 THE DEVOTION OF JULIUS 271 
 
 you of others, somewhat like it, although this one is an 
 improvement." 
 
 Katherine, in one of her motions at or behind the 
 table, had loosened the mechanism of the Nuremberg" 
 chair. A steel arm which ordinarily looked to be 
 merely a part of its back, had been released, and had 
 swung around to the front, a foot above Belknap's 
 waist, and had locked itself fast, with the result that 
 while he was entirely free to use his arms and hands 
 and legs and feet, he could not rise from the chair, or 
 get out of it; and he had already made the discovery 
 that he could not, for he had tried. 
 
 "Will you be good if I will release you?" she asked 
 him. 
 
 "You'd better wait a little till I recover my temper," 
 he said with a grim smile. 
 
 "When you wish to be freed, tell me." 
 
 "You should have lived in the middle ages," he said, 
 half crossly, half admiringly. 
 
 "No ; I would not then have had the aid of elec- 
 tricity and hydraulics." 
 
 "Well, anyhow " 
 
 "There is something that I want to ask you about, 
 Mr. Belknap. Perhaps I had better keep you where 
 you are until I do that. You may be more amenable." 
 
 "Possibly. What is it?" 
 
 "I want you to tell me everything that you know 
 about my brother Roderick. That is why I have 
 come to you to-day. Otherwise I should have left you 
 entirely to yourself until to-morrow." 
 
 "H-m!" he said. 
 
 "Are you willing to tell me all that you can tell me ?" 
 she asked. 
 
 "I don't know, Mrs. Harvard. Possibly we can bar- 
 gain about it."
 
 272 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Bargain about it?" she asked. 
 
 "Exactly that," he rejoined. 
 
 "What is it that you would want me to do in re- 
 turn for such information as you can give me about 
 my brother?" 
 
 Belknap hesitated a moment, in deep thought. Then 
 he replied: 
 
 "To-day is Tuesday. I will want you, to-morrow 
 night or the night following and I will decide that 
 point when I see you to-morrow to come here to me, 
 say a little before two o'clock in the morning. I will 
 want you, then, to let me go outside. I will be pre- 
 pared and ready to go as soon as you arrive. I will 
 want you to remain here, waiting for me, until I re- 
 turn which will be an hour; possibly two hours. If 
 you will definitely agree to all of those stipulations, I 
 will, right now, tell you all that I know about your 
 brother." 
 
 "I wonder," she replied, musingly, "if you are in the 
 habit of keeping your promises." 
 
 "No," he frankly admitted, "I am not. But I will 
 keep that one." 
 
 "Would you also keep the other one to return 
 here within two hours?" 
 
 "I will do that, save in one event. You see, I am 
 quite frank with you." 
 
 "You appear to be so." 
 
 "If that event occurs and I believe it very likely 
 that it will I will not return ; I will go elsewhere ; dis- 
 appear; will have ceased to annoy you by my presence 
 at Myquest. Surely that would please you more than 
 to have me back here, a burden on your hands." 
 
 She nodded without replying. He went on : 
 
 "If we agree to this bargain if I do go outside to- 
 morrow night or the one following, and have not re-
 
 THE DEVOTION OF JULIUS 273 
 
 turned by four o'clock, you will know that I will not 
 come, and that you are well rid of me." 
 
 Katherine shook her head negatively. 
 
 "I don't think that I can agree to that, Mr. Bel- 
 knap, even at the tempting price you offer informa- 
 tion about my brother," she said. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "There are several reasons. For one thing, I am 
 beginning to suspect that your knowledge of him 
 doesn't amount to much ; I have begun to doubt if 
 there is anything that you can tell me about him that 
 is worth while. Still, I might nevertheless bargain 
 with you, and hear what you might tell me, if it were 
 not for another consideration." 
 
 "Tell me what that one is," he asked her. "But 
 first, let me out of this chair." 
 
 She nodded, and passed around behind him. Al- 
 though he turned his head and tried his best to observe 
 her every act, he had not the least notion when and 
 how she again worked the mechanism of the Nurem- 
 berg chair. But the steel arm that held him fast was 
 released; it flew back to its former position as if it 
 were one of the braces at the back of the chair, and as 
 he got upon his feet, Katherine returned quickly to the 
 opposite side of the table. From there she replied 
 to his last question. 
 
 "The other consideration and I have decided that 
 I cannot believe any promise that you might make in the 
 negative about it is this: the use you would make 
 of your two hours of liberty. You might seek my 
 father and mother, and betray to them the fact that my 
 brother lives although I do not really think you 
 would do that ; you would have no good reason for do- 
 ing it. You might help yourself to all the jewels of
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 my guests while I waited here and passively permitted 
 it. You might " 
 
 "One moment, please," he interrupted. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "If I will tell you exactly what brought me to My- 
 quest at this time, exactly why I am here at all if I 
 tell you precisely what my errand outside will be 
 will you give me your word (I know that you will keep 
 it if you make the promise) that you will not speak or 
 write or otherwise convey any warning whatsoever of 
 my intention?" 
 
 "I will consider it," she replied with a slow smile. 
 "You had better act upon that much of a promise 
 from me, for otherwise you cannot get out until I 
 choose to let you out." 
 
 "All right," he answered instantly. "I'll tell you."
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 BELKNAP SHOWS HIS HAND 
 
 "SHALL, I tell you about your brother first?" Bel- 
 knap began, "or shall I " 
 
 "Yes, please," Katherine interrupted him. 
 
 With pronounced deliberation he selected another 
 chair and drew it forward. Smilingly he seated him- 
 self upon it. In a mocking tone he said: 
 
 "But, no. That will keep. I perceive that you are 
 more concerned with that subject than by the fear 
 that some of your guests might be robbed. It is quite 
 natural, I agree. But it is good bargaining when one 
 holds back the highest price for the last bid." 
 
 Katherine shrugged, and did not reply. 
 
 "Xow, listen, please," he went on, "for what I will 
 tell you is the truth and I have the feeling that you 
 will believe me, in part, if not in whole." 
 
 Katherine made no response, even in gesture. 
 
 "I am a man of strange complexities," he continued. 
 "Frequently the variety of them amazes me. I am a 
 many-sided individual. I was born without compas- 
 sion, without morals, and without physical fear. Also 
 I inherited (I assume that I did) a passion for precious 
 stones. As I grew older I began to make a collection 
 of rare and priceless gems. I became, literally, a col- 
 lector in other words, a madman on that subject. 
 
 "I made one rule for myself when I began the col- 
 lection, which, by the way, now contains the pick and 
 
 275
 
 276 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 choice of the world. That rule was that I would never 
 pay one dollar for a gem or jewel that I coveted." 
 
 "Do you mean," Katherine asked, "that unless the 
 jewel came into your possession by theft it would have 
 no value in your eyes?" 
 
 "Precisely, Mrs. Harvard." He bent forward in the 
 chair and fixed his eyes upon hers. "Have you ever 
 heard of a certain wonderful stone two jewels in one, 
 in fact that is called 'Nadja's Eye'?" he asked her 
 with an intensity of utterance that assured her of his 
 entire earnestness. 
 
 "Yes," she replied calmly, although he could see that 
 she gave an involuntary shudder. "I have seen it. It 
 is a baleful thing." 
 
 "It is a ruby of the size and shape of a pigeon's 
 egg," he went on, as if he had not heard her; only she 
 was presently to know that he did. "Imbedded in the 
 center of it is an emerald of two or three karats. It 
 is claimed that nature could not have put it there; 
 that the two jewels are too foreign to each other for 
 such a thing to have resulted from natural causes ; that 
 the art of some ancient and skilled lapidary must have 
 accomplished it. But the fact remains that it is there. 
 Very well." He caught his breath sharply and was 
 very pale. "You say that you have seen it?" 
 
 Katherine nodded. 
 
 "Then, in that case, you know that it is here, at 
 Myquest, now, don't you?" 
 
 "No," she replied. "In fact I am almost sure that it 
 is not." 
 
 "You know that it is the property of Mme. Savage, 
 don't you?" 
 
 "Yes; but I also know that she keeps it in one of 
 her safe deposit " 
 
 "You are mistaken, Mrs. Harvard. She does not.
 
 BELKNAP SHOWS HIS HAND 277 
 
 It is never out of her possession. She carries it with 
 her wherever she goes just as she carries always with 
 her that other rare gem that she owns which has so 
 often been described in the newspapers. But for that, 
 barring its value in cash, I would not give a flip of a 
 coin." 
 
 He got up from the chair and began to pace the 
 floor at the opposite side of the table from Katherine. 
 
 "Let me tell you, Lady Kate, that I would barter 
 my soul if I have one to possess the 'Eye of Nadja,' 
 as it is named in Hindustanee. Twice I have had her 
 home in the city searched by men in my pay, and un- 
 der my direction. Twice I have engaged women-crooks 
 to drug Mme. Savage and search her. For more than 
 a year I have kept at least one and sometimes three 
 women in her home, as maids, to spy out the hiding 
 place of the wonderful jewel. They have seen it, but 
 they have never been able to discover where and how 
 she hides it; but they have been able to convince me 
 that she takes it with her wherever she goes, and that 
 it is never far out of her reach. So I knew, when I 
 discovered that she was coming down here, that she 
 would bring it with her. 
 
 "Very well. I came to Myquest primarily to get the 
 Eye of Nadja. I believed that because of the threat 
 I could hold over you, I could compel you to aid me in 
 securing it; but I speedily changed my mind about 
 that. But I came here also to keep an eye on the 
 madame to be close to her where I could watch her 
 to study her, and to determine because of that close 
 observation, what her method and means of concealing 
 the jewel might be. I am an expert at that sort of 
 thing. It has been a life-study. If a man who carries 
 a large sum of money in one of his pockets is under my
 
 278 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 observation ten minutes, I can tell you in which pocket 
 he carries it. It is a science that I have mastered. 
 
 "I know now, therefore I am convinced that I know 
 where to find the Eye of Nadja; I know what Mme. 
 Savage does with it when she stays at a place like My- 
 quest. I am sure that I can get my hands on it, and 
 get away with it within two hours after you let me 
 out of this place to-morrow night, or the following 
 one. 
 
 "There you have it, Lady Kate and I have your 
 promise that you will impart no warning whatever of / 
 my purpose." 
 
 "Will you tell me," Katherine asked coolly, "why 
 you have waited until now to take the jewel, if you have 
 been so sure of how to take it?" 
 
 "I waited because I had to wait because I was 
 stupid because it was not until you had succeeded 
 in locking me fast in this chalet of yours, where I have 
 been in absolute solitude, that I have had the sense 
 and the wit to apply all of my brain power to the prob- 
 lem. It was not until after I was imprisoned by you 
 that I was able to deduce the truth from my study of 
 Mme. Savage." 
 
 "Are you satisfied, now, that you know how and 
 where to find the ruby?" 
 
 "I am sure of it." 
 
 "If I should consent to grant you the two hours' 
 liberty you desire, would the theft of the Eye of Nadja 
 be all that you would attempt whether you succeed 
 in securing it or should not succeed?" 
 
 ''Yes. I will promise that and I will keep the 
 promise." 
 
 "I place little value upon your promises, Mr. Bel- 
 knap; you have assured me that they are of little 
 value."
 
 BELKNAP SHOWS HIS HAND 279 
 
 "I will keep that one." 
 
 "Does Mme. Savage conceal the jewel on her per- 
 son?" 
 
 "No. I don't think that she ever does that; nor in 
 the room where she sleeps. I am so certain about 
 that that I am willing to agree not to go to her room 
 when you set me at liberty, unless you are considering 
 the project of conveying some sort of message to her 
 about it." 
 
 "I have already given my promise as to that, Mr. 
 Belknap in case I consent to your proposition. I 
 will not even mention the name of the jewel to any- 
 body in that case." 
 
 "Well, then?" 
 
 "Is your covetousness of Nadja's Eye your only 
 object in being at Myquest?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What about card-cheating, and your suggestions 
 of blackmail?" 
 
 "Merely by-products, Lady Kate. Pastime." 
 
 "I can believe that. What is Senorita Cervantez to 
 you?" 
 
 Belknap was startled by the sudden question, and 
 showed it ; but he replied without hesitation : 
 
 "She is no; she was, once, my wife." 
 
 "Your wife?" 
 
 It was Katherine's turn to be startled. 
 
 "Yes," he replied. "We were married ten years ago, 
 when she was seventeen and I was twenty-four. She 
 left me within two years when she found out that I 
 was a crook and secured a divorce. I am telling you 
 the literal truth, Lady Kate. It is my one weakness 
 that she is the only woman I have ever er cared for. 
 I succeeded in finding her again something less than 
 three years ago. She had learned to love another man
 
 280 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 in the meantime chiefly, I suppose, because she had 
 never loved me, really. She had not married the other 
 man, notwithstanding her divorce from me, because 
 she believed that I would have procured his death if 
 she did so as I unquestionably would have done as, 
 without much doubt, I would have done anyhow, if I 
 had been able, ever, to find him; to be sure of his 
 identity. I have only known of him ; I have never, 
 knowingly, seen him. All that I know about him is his 
 name his real name, which he does not use." 
 
 "But " Katherine hesitated, and then went on: 
 
 "but she returned to you!" 
 
 "She returned with me; not to me, Mrs. Harvard. 
 A moment ago I mentioned my one weakness. I was 
 not accurate; I have another which I have had oc- 
 casion, many times, greatly to regret. It is, doubtless 
 inherited from my mother's side. I carry about with 
 me, always, a compelling respect and sentinel-like re- 
 gard for good womanhood. To my shame, in the light 
 of my other characteristics, I admit it. I forced Ro- 
 berta that is her given name to become a part of my 
 life, but it was always an extrinsic part. I have made 
 her condone my criminalities even to play a part in 
 them, at times. But she is as good and pure as I am 
 the opposite." 
 
 "But " 
 
 "I have controlled her, up to a certain point, by 
 holding a threat over her and she has dreaded its 
 fulfillment more than she has feared anything else in 
 the world." 
 
 "A threat! You coerced her by the same method 
 that you used to try to work your will with me." 
 
 "Precisely; and my threat against her had to do 
 with the same person as with you."
 
 BELKNAP SHOWS HIS HAND 281 
 
 "Why, what can you mean by that statement, Mr. 
 Belknap?" Katherine demanded, puzzled. 
 
 "Lady Kate," Belknap said, evenly, "the name of 
 the man whose life I threatened in Roberta's case, and 
 whose liberty I threatened in yours, is the same. His 
 name is Roderick Maxwilton."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 THE JINEE ON GUARD 
 
 KATHERINE started to her feet, white to the lips. 
 
 "My brother !" she cried out, almost with a gasp. 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. Harvard; your brother," Belknap re- 
 sponded coolly. 
 
 "Where is he now?" she demanded. 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "You have admitted that you do not even know 
 him by sight ; that you would not recognize him if you 
 should see him." 
 
 "I would not." 
 
 "Then your threats in regard to him were idle ones." 
 
 "In part yes. I could have searched him out long 
 ago if I had determined upon doing it. If I had done 
 it, I would have killed him, or have had him killed. I 
 tell you that frankly. I did not do it, or attempt it, 
 simply because I knew that I would cut off the limb 
 between me and the tree if I did so. If I had injured 
 him, Roberta would have killed me and she possessed 
 the means to do it. She might even have gone to the 
 length of sacrificing herself to me in order to secure 
 the needed opportunity, had it become necessary. I 
 have determined upon doing it a thousand times, and 
 as often changed my mind. I have hoped against hope 
 that Roderick Maxwilton might die a natural death ; 
 for, in that case, upon my promise to abandon my 
 manner of life, Roberta might have turned to me again. 
 
 282
 
 THE JINEE ON GUARD 283 
 
 Since an interview I had with her recently, in her 
 room, here at Myquest, I have given up even that 
 thought. He was here your brother that same 
 night. She met him outside " 
 
 "Then I saw him!" Katherine exclaimed in a half 
 whisper. 
 
 "Possibly," he rejoined coolly. "But you would not 
 recognize him. He possesses a hundred disguises so 
 she has assured me, and I believe her. If I did not 
 know the impossibility of his entering the secret service 
 because of the crime that is charged against him (and 
 which I happen to know he did not commit) I would 
 have thought that Carruthers, whom you heard me 
 defy, might be he. But that is absurd. He could not 
 get into that department without a clean record." 
 
 Belknap had been pacing up and down and stopping 
 and pacing again. Katherine had resumed her chair. 
 Now, she sat with clasped hands, staring straight in 
 front of her. He noticed the fact and passed around 
 to her side of the table until he stood beside her chair, 
 within reach of her. 
 
 "You see," he said, "that I could seize you now, 
 if I were so disposed. You have been off your guard." 
 
 She raised her eyes to his and smiled wanly, without 
 changing her attitude. 
 
 "Possibly," she said; "but I do not think that you 
 will attempt it." 
 
 He shrugged, with a measure of contempt in the 
 gesture. He had taken that position with that very 
 purpose in view in case she should deny his last plea 
 the one he was about to make. If she guessed his 
 purpose, she gave no sign of the fact. 
 
 "Mrs. Harvard," he said, "I have thrown dpwn 
 every card I possess, face up, on the table. I would 
 commit murder a dozen times over, with no regard for
 
 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 the victim, if by doing so I could possess the Eye of 
 Nadja. I would sacrifice Roberta for it; and I cannot 
 make a stronger statement than that. Are you giving 
 heed to what I say?" 
 
 "Yes. I might follow you better if you should stand 
 a little farther away say against the table behind 
 you. You can as easily seize me from there as where 
 you are, if you have the mind to do it." 
 
 He moved backward a step until his weight was 
 against the big table, and stood with his hands resting 
 lightly upon it at the sides. He said : 
 
 "The jewel is of no value to anybody save a col- 
 lector. If it were stolen, nobody would dare to buy it. 
 Mme. Savage does not appreciate it. It is a great care 
 to her, and there is not a doubt that she would be glad 
 to be well rid of it. If you will let me out of here to- 
 morrow night at two, or the night following, at the 
 same hour I will decide upon which one to employ 
 and if you will, yourself, remain here, waiting, until 
 four o'clock, I will promise you this : whether I succeed 
 in obtaining the jewel or not, I will, after the attempt 
 to get it, go away. I will disappear. I will not give 
 up hope of securing the ruby, sometime, but I will 
 never cross your path again nor Roberta's. Nor 
 your brother's. I will leave them free to marry when 
 they will. I will not put so much as a straw in their 
 way, before or after it. I will do more. This : I will, 
 within a few days, send you documentary proof of your 
 brother's entire innocence of the charges that lie against 
 him with the government. Such is the price that I am 
 willing and eager to pay for the opportunity I seek. 
 Will you pay it?" 
 
 "Wait a moment," she replied in a low tone, as if 
 deeply impressed by what he had said ; and as she spoke 
 she got slowly upon her feet.
 
 THE JINEE ON GUARD 285 
 
 Her entire manner was if she were utterly absorbed 
 in the contemplation of his offer and, as had been the 
 case with her a moment before, Belknap was this time 
 taken off his guard. 
 
 She arose directly in front of her chair and stood 
 there with bowed head during a full minute while he 
 watched her narrowly and expectantly. 
 
 His whole mind was centered upon the possession of 
 the coveted ruby. 
 
 After another moment she moved slowly nearer to 
 him, until, in fact, she stood nearly beside him ; within, 
 say, twice the length of his arm. 
 
 Then he heard a sharp click. He saw her leap back- 
 ward, away from the table. The table itself dropped 
 like a plummet through the floor, and, because he 
 was leaning against it, carried him with it. An in- 
 stant later he found himself in utter darkness, for the 
 aperture above the table, in the floor over his head, 
 had closed. 
 
 He cursed aloud ; and then he ceased to swear. The 
 floor above him slid open again. 
 
 "The jinee was on guard, Mr. Belknap," he heard 
 Katherine say. "Stand still and I will bring you back. 
 Then I will leave you. But I will tell you now that I 
 have decided to accept your proposition, and your 
 promises. You shall have your opportunity and I 
 will keep to my promise in regard to it." 
 
 Katherine went straightway in search of Roberta, 
 and not discovering her among the guests who were 
 scattered about the grounds, sought her in her room. 
 The door was quickly opened in response to her sum- 
 mons, and she stepped inside, closed the door behind 
 her, and turned the key. 
 
 "I have come," she said abruptly, "to ask you about 
 my brother Roderick. You may speak out; there is
 
 286 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 no longer any necessity for voicelessness. I have 
 known, almost since the hour of your arrival, that you 
 are Roberta of the telephone talks with me." 
 
 Roberta gasped. Katherine continued: 
 
 "I know still more no matter how; for example, 
 that you were once the wife of Conrad Belknap; and 
 that you are now willing and eager to become my sis- 
 ter-in-law; but " 
 
 "A moment, please, Mrs. Harvard," Roberta said 
 quickly when Katherine hesitated because she was sud- 
 denly conscious of the severity of her tone, and realized 
 that she had not intended that it should be so. 
 
 "Well?" Katherine questioned her. 
 
 "I have never been the wife of Conrad Belknap," 
 Roberta replied in her natural voice, and smiling, 
 "because, as far as I know, there is no such person. 
 The right name of the man I married ten years ago, 
 and whom you know as Conrad Belknap, is one that is 
 remembered in the neighborhood of your Kentucky 
 home. I had supposed that Mr. Harvard would men- 
 tion it when he told you the rest of my story, although 
 he did say that he intended not to talk with you about 
 it until after I had done so." 
 
 "Mr. Harvard has not talked with me about you at 
 all," Katherine said. 
 
 "Then, how " 
 
 "No matter how. We will leave discussion of your 
 personal connection with things that have been hap- 
 pening at Myquest until later. Just now I want you 
 to tell me, and at once, how I can communicate with 
 my brother. I know that you can tell me; I know 
 that you must tell me. I know that you met him in the 
 middle of Saturday night, under the box-elder by the 
 lake. I saw you there together. I saw his face, after-
 
 THE JINEE ON GUARD 287 
 
 ward, and did not recognize it. I assume that he was 
 disguised." 
 
 "Mrs. Harvard, I " 
 
 "Please reply to my question. Where is my brother, 
 and how can I communicate with him?" 
 
 "He is not far away, Ka Mrs. Harvard. He is, 
 in a sense, watching over you, even now; but I beg 
 you to believe me when I state positively that I am 
 acting under his positive and imperative instructions 
 when I reply to the first part of your question by say- 
 ing that I cannot tell you exactly where he may be 
 found, without first obtaining his consent. You would 
 not have me break my solemn word to him?" 
 
 "No, but " 
 
 "But you can communicate with him, if you will. 
 I can get any message to him that you wish." 
 
 "Thank you," Katherine replied, somewhat coldly. 
 "Please inform him that he must make himself known 
 to me, and let me speak with him, alone, at once; be- 
 fore the dinner hour to-morrow, certainly. Can you 
 do that? Can you communicate with him before you 
 sleep to-night?" 
 
 "I think so. I will try. He he loves you very 
 dearly, I know. He has only thought that for the sake 
 of all concerned you should not know of his nearness 
 until until he believed the hour to be propitious." 
 
 Katherine melted. 
 
 Suddenly without warning of her intention she 
 opened her arms and folded them around Roberta, who 
 started back, or would have done so if she could, be- 
 cause of her surprise; for Katherine, quite uninten- 
 tionally, but because of the intensity of her feelings, 
 had thus far spoken, and preserved a demeanor, of 
 hauteur, reserve, and qoldness. 
 
 "I know part of your story, Roberta," Katherine
 
 288 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 said in a more kindly tone, while she held her in that 
 close embrace. "You shall tell me the rest of it your 
 own side of it another time. But, I know that you 
 love Roderick; I know that you have not hesitated to 
 make great sacrifices to protect him from your common 
 enemy. More still, although I have been aware from 
 the beginning that you were associated with Conrad 
 Belknap in some inexplicable way, I have been drawn 
 to you, I have believed in you, and I have grown to 
 love you." 
 
 Thus, we will leave them together ; for Roberta would 
 not have it that the story she had to tell should wait. 
 
 Everything that she had told to Bingham Harvard 
 she repeated to Katherine in a much more intimate way 
 and she added much to it, of a personal nature, 
 which there had been neither time, inclination, nor 
 necessity to relate to him. 
 
 Katherine, in all respects save one, gave confidence 
 for confidence. She admitted that the knowledge she 
 already possessed of Roberta's past had been told to 
 her by Belknap, and she confessed that she had assisted 
 him to make his escape. But she went no farther than 
 that. She said nothing about the Nest, nor did she 
 admit that she knew aught of Belknap's intentions or 
 plans after his departure. 
 
 At the Nest, Belknap had not entirely lost his equi- 
 librium when the table against which he leaned, and 
 the floor under it, sank beneath him! but it had hap- 
 pened so suddenly, and with such entire unexpected- 
 ness, that he had been obliged to clutch the edge of the 
 table madly with his fingers, and so to steady himself, 
 in order to keep his upright position. 
 
 One thinks quickly under such circumstances, and 
 bis first thought had been that Katherine had but
 
 THE JINEE ON GUARD 289 
 
 played upon his rapt eagerness concerning the jewel, 
 in order to get the best of him and then to repudiate 
 his offer and him. 
 
 His amazement when she called down to him that she 
 would accept his proposition and would keep to her 
 promises in regard to it, was intense. 
 
 He would have replied to her if she had given him 
 time; but at once the table, and the two or three feet 
 of flooring around it, began to rise toward its former 
 position, so he decided to wait until he was once more 
 face to face with her. When, however, his head was 
 again above the level of the floor, he saw that she had 
 gone, that the doorway to the outside world was closed, 
 and that he was again alone. 
 
 "What a woman !" he muttered for perhaps the hun- 
 dredth time since he had been in the chalet; and then 
 again, "What a woman !" 
 
 How fervently he wished that he knew the secrets 
 of that mysterious house or some of them at least. 
 But he had already convinced himself of the utter 
 fruitlessness of searching for them. 
 
 He had passed hours and hours at that task, with 
 absolutely no result ; the mysteries of the marvelous 
 mechanism concealed within the Swiss chalet, defied 
 him. 
 
 "But," he told himself, "I have her promise; and 
 she will keep it." 
 
 He selected a book and tried to read, but having so 
 recently dwelt at length, and in words, upon his pas- 
 sionate longing to possess the Eye of Nadja, it ab- 
 sorbed him, and he could not take his mind off of it. 
 
 With a sudden loss of temper (which he sometimes 
 indulged, when alone) he flung the book angrily from 
 him without regard to where, or what, it migfci strike;
 
 290 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 and at the moment he bent forward and buried his 
 face in his hands to think. 
 
 When, ten minutes later, he lifted his head, he ut- 
 tered a sharp exclamation of astonishment, and sprang 
 to his feet and stared. 
 
 Straight ahead of him, at the far end of the big 
 room, and just above a platform that extended at the 
 top of a short flight of steps, the afternoon sun was 
 streaming into the chalet through a wide expanse of 
 plate-glass window from over which the steel shutters 
 had been magically withdrawn. 
 
 He knew what had happened. The book that he had 
 thrown and he had no idea where it had struck 
 had hit against and operated the mechanism of that 
 shutter. 
 
 With an exclamation of joy he started toward the 
 uncovered window.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 THE WISDOM OF LADY KATE 
 
 THE window out of which Belknap gazed when he 
 had mounted to the platform, overlooked the lake, and 
 was directly above it in fact, projected over it. 
 Beneath him to the surface of the water he judged the 
 distance to be all of eighty feet or more. 
 
 The window, as it happened, was Katherine's favor- 
 ite eery; she loved to sit there to read and enjoy the 
 view. 
 
 But it was not the view that Belknap appreciated 
 just then. 
 
 The entire shore of the lake was spread out before 
 him. Across it he could see the boat- and bath-houses. 
 Beyond them, through vistas which have already been 
 described, the great house, much of its veranda, and 
 many of the pathways that approached it, were visible. 
 
 While he looked he saw Carruthers step out upon the 
 platform of the boat-house, and behind him came Har- 
 vard; and he also saw that Carruthers, as if he had 
 already observed the unshuttered window of the chalet, 
 made some remark to Harvard which called his atten- 
 tion to it. 
 
 Belknap dodged, and he harbored just a little doubt 
 in his mind about having made the move quick enough 
 to escape the sharp eyes of the secret service operative. 
 
 "Damn !" he exclaimed, as he descended the few steps 
 to the floor of the chalet. 
 
 291
 
 292 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 He heartily wished that his chance shot with the 
 book had not found the mark it had or that he had 
 watched the flight of the book when he cast it from him 
 so that he might search more understandingly for the 
 hidden spring. 
 
 But, regrets were unavailing; they were bitter re- 
 grets, too, for he began to feel quite sure that he had 
 been seen at the window seen anyhow, whether he 
 had been recognized or not. 
 
 Presently, after deep thought, he told himself, aloud : 
 
 "If a book, thrown in anger, can find out one of the 
 secrets of this infernal nest of mysteries, I, with brains 
 and forethought and system, and with care and cool- 
 ness, must surely be able to find others." 
 
 He decided then and there that he would begin the 
 search anew, and that he would not abandon it until 
 he had made discoveries, or was interrupted; and he 
 began by drawing plans of the interior of the room on 
 paper; a plan of the floor, others for each wall-surface 
 by which it was inclosed, and still another one to show 
 the position of each article of furniture. 
 
 Those he divided into squares, and each one of the 
 squares into smaller ones; and he systematically num- 
 bered each of the large squares, and lettered the small 
 ones inside of them. 
 
 That done, he began the search, checking off each 
 lettered square as he progressed, and obliterating each 
 large square as he finished with it. 
 
 "It's some task," he told himself, "and it will take 
 time; but I believe that it is bound to win.** 
 
 Whether it did or not, remains to be seen. 
 
 Carruthers did catch a glimpse of a face at the win- 
 dow of the chalet, but he was unable to recognize it. 
 Like the other guests at Myquest, he was under the
 
 THE WISDOM OF LADY KATE 293 
 
 impression that the Swiss chalet at the top of the bluff 
 was tightly closed and was rarely, if ever, used. 
 
 But he was a secret service operative, and he was 
 hot on the trail of a man who, as he confidently be- 
 lieved, was in hiding somewhere near. The uncovered 
 window which he remembered had been shuttered 
 closely the last time he saw it interested him in- 
 stantly. 
 
 "What better place," he asked himself, "could field- 
 ing find in which to hide, always provided that he 
 could get inside of it." Carruthers had already in- 
 vestigated the surroundings and approaches and the 
 exterior of the chalet sufficiently to convince him that 
 it was practically inaccessible. 
 
 He had been discussing with Harvard the possible 
 hiding places that Belknap might have found upon the 
 estate, when he made the discovery of the open window. 
 At once he called Bing's attention to it. But he said 
 nothing about his momentary glimpse of a face be- 
 yond it. 
 
 "I was under the impression that the little building 
 on the bluff was not in use," was what he said. "Some- 
 body has been there since this morning, however. 
 Look." 
 
 Harvard was already looking while Carruthers 
 talked. He was also surprised to see the unshuttered 
 window, for Katherine was always careful to keep 
 everything tightly closed at the Nest, whenever there 
 were guegts at Myquest ; and Katherine, as he hap- 
 pened to know, was not then at the Nest. He had seen 
 her enter the house when she went to Roberta's room. 
 
 "Wait a moment. I will be back presently," he said 
 to Carruthers ; and he went into the boat-house, to one 
 of the house-telephone extensions, where he asked that 
 Mrs. Harvard be summoned to the phone at once.
 
 294 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Katherine had just left Roberta and gone into her 
 own room when the telephone rang. 
 
 "Have you been at the Nest this afternoon?" Bing 
 asked her. 
 
 "Yes. Why do you ask?" she answered. 
 
 "You have left a window uncovered. It is attracting 
 attention. Carruthers has just seen it. You had 
 better go back and close it. That is all," he told her, 
 and hung up. 
 
 Katherine was just a trifle pale when she replaced 
 the receiver. 
 
 She knew that she had not opened the shutter, and 
 that therefore Belknap must have discovered the spring 
 that operated it wherefore, if he could do that much, 
 it was possible, even probable, that he could accomplish 
 still more. 
 
 Her first impulse was to return to the Nest at once ; 
 but she considered. 
 
 "Why do that?" she asked herself. "The window 
 has already been seen. To close it again now would 
 be to add more to the suspicion, if any, that has al- 
 ready been suggested. 
 
 Then it was that she made another decision: she 
 would go back to Belknap in the evening, as soon as 
 she could escape from her guests after dinner, and she 
 would tell him that he should have his liberty to un- 
 dertake the theft of the Eye of Nadja and she smiled 
 at the thought that same night or not at all. 
 
 The decision made, she lost no time in seeking Mme. 
 Savage, who, she knew, would have lately awakened 
 from her daily afternoon nap. 
 
 Katherine had promised Belknap that she would 
 give no sort of warning to anybody of his intentions, 
 and also that she would not mention or write the name 
 of the coveted jewel. But she had formed a plan,
 
 THE WISDOM OF LADY KATE 295 
 
 nevertheless, before she gave her consent to his wild 
 scheme, by which she believed she could defeat him at his 
 own game, and prevent the theft. 
 
 "Madame" she said, when she had been admitted 
 to the old lady's room, "I read a story long ago that 
 was called 'The Jewel Worshiper.' It has given me an 
 idea for the entertainment of my guests. I want to 
 reproduce the scheme of that story in a tableau, and 
 I can do so if you will help me out you, and Miriam 
 Saulsbury, and two or three of the others. Will you do 
 it?" 
 
 "Surely, my dear. What is it that you want?" 
 madame replied. 
 
 "I want your jewels all of them. The most beauti- 
 ful ones, and the rarest one you possess, particularly ; 
 and Mrs. Saulsbury's pear-shaped diamonds ; and 
 Betty Clancy's wonderful pearls; and and all that I 
 can get hold of." 
 
 "Why, of course. But what in the world are you 
 going to do with them, my dear?" 
 
 "You won't tell?" Katherine asked, demurely. 
 
 "Certainly not." 
 
 "I will be the jewel-worshiper, myself. I will be seen 
 in a cabinet that is lined with black velvet which will 
 be ablaze with the jewels, on my knees, worshiping 
 them. That is all I can tell you now. But I may 
 have them?" 
 
 "Surely. Come and get them whenever you want 
 them, dear." 
 
 "But I want them now. Let me see ; there is the one 
 you thought the burglars tried to get the other night ; 
 
 and there is " She paused a moment, then added : 
 
 "But I don't suppose you would care to let me use 
 that one." 
 
 "Do you mean the "
 
 296 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 "Yes, yes," Katherine interrupted quickly. "We 
 need not name it. It always gives me shudders when- 
 ever I think of it." 
 
 Mme. Savage laughed. 
 
 "Of course you can have that, too," she said. "Bend 
 nearer, my dear, and let me whisper while I tell you 
 where it is. You will be surprised, but I always hide 
 it in outlandish places where nobody would ever think 
 of looking for it. It is " she whispered close to 
 Katherine's ear "inside of that scrubby old cane that 
 I always carry when I go for a walk, and put away in 
 the corner of the music-room behind the piano when I 
 return. Bring the cane to me, dear, and I'll show you 
 how to open it. What do you think of that for a hiding 
 place? Eh, my dear?" 
 
 Katherine brought the cane hurriedly, with a large, 
 round knob at its top. 
 
 Mme. Savage first loosened the ferrule of the cane 
 by unscrewing it; then she turned it end for end and 
 lifted off the knob which she opened by touching a 
 spring at the bottom which had been concealed inside 
 of the cane. From the hollow space she took an ob- 
 ject that was wrapped in foil and tissue paper. That, 
 she placed in Katherine's hand. 
 
 "There it is, dear," she said. "Take it. Keep it 
 as long as you please, only be careful where you put 
 it after you show it in the tableau. Stand the cane 
 over there in the corner," she added as she readjusted 
 it. 
 
 "Oh, no," Katherine replied, smiling. "I will put it 
 back in the music-room where I found it."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 EODERICK AND JULIUS 
 
 BELKNAP'S systematic effort to discover some of the 
 secrets of the Nest was not without results. Many of 
 the hidden buttons and concealed springs and levers, 
 practicable screws, nail-heads, ornamental-work, and 
 what-not of all descriptions, could not defy the inch- 
 by-inch search for them that he made and the very 
 fact that Katherine delayed her visit to him after the 
 discovery of the opened shutter afforded him oppor- 
 tunity. Also, he worked in haste, although thor- 
 oughly, fearing that the discovered window would bring 
 her quickly to the Nest. 
 
 By the time that he was hungry, and felt the neces- 
 sity of preparing something to eat, he had accom- 
 plished much although it must be admitted that his 
 discoveries did not take him as deeply into the mys- 
 teries of the strange house as he could have wished. 
 
 There were mechanisms that he sought which he 
 could not find ; and he found several that he had not 
 sought. He was as much in the dark as ever concern- 
 ing the openings in the floor, and the operation of the 
 door of entrance; but he did know the secret of the 
 Nuremberg chair. 
 
 He decided that, when she came to him again, if she 
 were inclined to be fractious, as he expressed it to him- 
 self, he might induce her to sit upon the chair, or push 
 her into it, and so catch her as he had been caught. 
 Then well, then he could make his own terms. 
 
 297
 
 298 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 He was no wiser than before in regard to getting out 
 of the house, unless, indeed, he should decide to smash 
 the plate-glass observation window and make the leap 
 of eighty feet or more to the water under it. 
 
 But that was a matter for future consideration if 
 it should become necessary. 
 
 Meantime, as soon as he had eaten, he returned to 
 the search, hoping and believing that he would uncover 
 more secrets before Katherine appeared. 
 
 Black Julius became more at ease after his talk with 
 Katherine in the wood. 
 
 His discovery that she was not only cognizant of 
 Belknap's escape from the house, but had actually 
 given the man her personal assistance, had troubled him 
 so profoundly that it had almost (though not quite) 
 obliterated the immeasurable joy of another one (which 
 had seemed unbelievable and impossible), that he had 
 made that same night. 
 
 It was when he was brought face to face with Car- 
 ruthers in Bingham Harvard's den at the time of the 
 conference. 
 
 The instincts of the negro amounted to a sixth sense. 
 
 He might, from a little distance, have looked upon 
 Carruthers's face, watched his motions, and otherwise 
 have observed him, without interest; but, brought into 
 actual contact with him, touching his hand, and thus 
 the point where he could "feel" his presence, he had 
 sensed rather than seen through the shell of disguise 
 that Carruthers wore. 
 
 Black Julius's instinct was like the scent of a favor- 
 ite dog. It knew. 
 
 He had "toted" Roderick Maxwilton, and petted 
 him and played with him from the time he was born into 
 the world, just as he had served Katherine; and he
 
 RODERICK AND JULIUS 299 
 
 had been almost as devoted to him, until little Kath- 
 erine came. His positive recognition of Roderick Max- 
 wilton in the person of Carruthers of the secret service, 
 was therefore instantaneous. 
 
 Nobody save Roderick himself had noticed the agi- 
 tation of Julius at the time; but he had known as 
 he had also believed would be the case when they were 
 brought face to face that Julius recognized him. 
 
 Thus it happened that as soon as it was both pos- 
 sible and convenient, Roderick, otherwise Carruthers 
 (and otherwise also, Brainard) went to Julius's cot- 
 tage near the garage to see him and talk with him. 
 That happened soon after his discovery of the un- 
 shuttered window of the chalet. 
 
 Julius did not return to his cottage at once to wait 
 for Katherine, as she had directed. There were duties 
 that he had to perform first, and so it was a little more 
 than an hour afterward when he entered it, and there 
 discovered Roderick awaiting him. 
 
 Roderick (we will call him so for the purposes of 
 this interview) left the chair whereon he had been 
 seated and waiting, the instant Julius appeared. 
 
 For the moment he was the boy again; he was the 
 lad, and Julius was the faithful servant of his house 
 whom he loved and trusted. And to Black Julius the 
 impulse was precisely the same, although reversed. 
 
 Roderick took a step forward and stretched out 
 both hands. Julius grasped them with his own, and 
 for a time the two were speechless before one another, 
 and, oddly enough, it seemed as if Roderick was the 
 more greatly moved of the two. 
 
 It was Julius who spoke first. 
 
 "Mr. Roddy ! Mr. Roddy ! Why, Mis-tuh Rod-dy, 
 it don't seem mo'n the day befo' yisterday since I was 
 totin' yo' 'roun' with these old han's uh mine; it sut-
 
 300 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 tinly don't, Mr. Roddy." Julius always lapsed into 
 the soft dialect of his youth when he was greatly 
 moved. 
 
 "Dear old Julius !" Roderick replied. "You knew 
 me the moment you saw me last night, didn't you?" 
 
 "I suttinly did, Mr. Roddy." 
 
 "Then you never believed that I was dead and 
 buried, did you?" 
 
 "I know'd you wasn't, suh. Mis' Kitten told me." 
 
 "But, Julius, even Mis' Kitten didn't know me. How 
 was it that you did?" 
 
 "I dunno, suh. I reckon mebby I smelt you, jes' 
 like a houn'-dog would do it. I didn't see no scar, or 
 no growed-up man, when I looked at yo' las' night. 
 I didn't see anything at all but jes' the little boy 
 Roddy. Uhuh! 'Twouldn't made no difference about 
 it, neither, if I hadn't been told that the scar wasn't 
 real. If it had been real sure enough, I'd 'a' know'd 
 you just the same." 
 
 He stopped, and when he spoke again his voice had 
 a note of stern displeasure in it, as if he were, in real- 
 ity, speaking to the lad of years agone, and chiding 
 him. 
 
 "Why haven't you told Mis' Kitten about your- 
 self, sir? Don't you know that she's been eatin' her 
 poor little heart out for you all these yeahs? Why, 
 sir, only just a little minute ago I was talkin' to her, 
 and it was all I could do to keep myself from blurtin* 
 it all out. Why ain't you done told her, Mr. Roddy, 
 befo' now?" 
 
 "Never mind about that, Julius. I shall tell her 
 very soon." 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Now, Julius, I want to question you on another 
 matter."
 
 RODERICK AND JULIUS 301 
 
 "Yes, sir." Julius was instantly on his guard, for 
 he guessed what the next question might be, and he 
 had no idea of betraying Katherine's confidence, even 
 to her brother. 
 
 "That fellow Belknap must be hiding somewhere 
 within the bounds of the estate," Roderick continued. 
 "I know that he could not slip through the meshes of 
 the net that I have spread for him, and escape. There- 
 fore, he is somewhere near here. Now, you know the 
 place probably as well as you know the old place at 
 home, so I want you to think hard, and then tell me 
 of all the possible hiding places near us that you can 
 remember." 
 
 "Well, sir," Julius replied thoughtfully, and his 
 face was like a mask, "I can't just say that I do know 
 of a place where he could hide an' keep hid. I sut- 
 tinly don't." 
 
 "I have been searching, Julius, and my men have 
 been searching, all day all the time since Belknap 
 disappeared. They have not been able to obtain a 
 trace of the man." 
 
 "No, sir, I reckon they ain't." 
 
 "But I think that I have." 
 
 "Yes, sir. Mebby so." 
 
 "I have got a notion, Julius, that he has found a 
 way to get inside of that little house on the bluff 
 at the end of the dam. What do you think about 
 that?" 
 
 "I don't think anything about it, sir." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " 'Cause they can't nobody get inside of that house 
 on the bluff 'lessen Mis' Kitten lets 'em in. That's her 
 own 'special nest, Mr. Roddy, an' nobody ever goes 
 into it but jest her own self. He couldn't get into it 
 unless she let him in, an' Mis' Kitten wouldn't do that,
 
 302 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 would she 'specially when she wouldn't let me into it, 
 or Phemie, or even Mr. Harvard himself? No, sir!" 
 
 "One of the windows has been uncovered within the 
 last half hour, Julius, and I saw somebody peering out 
 of it." 
 
 "Then you saw your own sister, Mr. Roddy." 
 
 "No, Julius, I know better than that. It's my pro- 
 fession to know things." 
 
 "Then you saw double, that's all. You just thought 
 mebby he might be there, an' so you thought you saw 
 him there," Julius insisted. 
 
 "Possibly," Roderick replied; but he was more than 
 ever convinced that he was correct about it.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 FULFILLING THE COMPACT 
 
 THERE was yet another person who was both puzzled 
 and troubled in regard to the Nest, and that person 
 was Bingham Harvard, one time alias the Night Wind. 
 
 For Bing had seen the face at the window the in- 
 stant he stepped his foot upon the boat-house plat- 
 form, and he knew that the face was not Katherine's. 
 
 True, he had not seen it plainly enough to recog- 
 nize it, but there was nevertheless not the slightest 
 doubt in his mind concerning the identity of it. 
 
 It had been Belknap's face, of course, and Belknap 
 could not have found entry to the Nest without the 
 personal assistance of Katherine, therefore she was 
 hiding him. 
 
 It was with the greatest difficulty that he succeeded 
 in controlling himself so that his companion, Car- 
 ruthers, might not see the shock he had received, and 
 he found that he faced even a greater difficulty when 
 he attempted to reason out to his own satisfaction why 
 Katherine should have consented to such an act. 
 
 Try as he might, he could find only one possible 
 solution of the problem, and that was that Belknap 
 had succeeded in so working upon Katherine's sym- 
 pathies that she had been prevailed upon to help him 
 to escape. That Katherine his wife Lady Kate of 
 the Police peerless and fearless Katherine was 
 afraid of the man, and had been forced through fear 
 of him to do what she had done, Harvard did not for 
 
 303
 
 304 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 a moment believe. "And," he told himself, "in her own 
 good time she will tell me all about it." 
 
 So, in a sense, he shrugged his shoulders and dis- 
 missed the thought of it ; or tried to do so. 
 
 But, just the same, he did not intend that Conrad 
 Belknap should get away, even if it were Katherine's 
 wish that he should, and so he set himself to watch. 
 
 Not to watch Katherine ! Do not for a moment 
 suppose that ! But to watch for Belknap's appearance 
 when he should be let out of the Nest by Katherine, to 
 make his getaway from the vicinity of Myquest; and 
 to see to it that he did not make his escape. Not to 
 lay hands upon the man himself, but to dog him, 
 and follow him, and keep him within reach, until he 
 should fall into the hands of one or more of the watch- 
 ing sleuths who were on his trail. 
 
 Katherine he would permit to go and come, as she 
 pleased, and he would not let her know what he knew 
 until she got ready to tell him all about it ; but all the 
 same he would not stand passively near and permit 
 that crook of a thousand crimes to impose upon her 
 sympathies, and thus escape the consequences of his 
 errors. 
 
 That being settled in his mind, he felt better; quite 
 at ease, in fact. 
 
 Katherine was quite the life of the party at the din- 
 ner table that evening; so much so that her husband 
 regarded her with well-concealed astonishment, and 
 Carruthers, who had arrived at not unsimilar conclu- 
 sions, with interest. Both men, husband and brother, 
 were at fault in their reasonings yet Katherine had 
 her own reasons for her gaiety. 
 
 Why should she not have been gay? 
 
 She had obtained possession of the Eye of Nadja, 
 And had concealed it, without breaking any of her
 
 FULFILLING THE COMPACT 305 
 
 promises to Belknap in any sense of the word. She 
 had restored the "scrubby old cane" to its accustomed 
 place behind the piano in the music-room, and the bulb 
 at its top was not empty, either; it contained a nice 
 round pebble, wrapped in the same foil and tissue that 
 had contained the wonderful ruby with an emerald 
 buried in the middle of it. Belknap might find the cane 
 if he chose, for she did not doubt that Belknap had 
 worked out the secret of the ruby's hiding place by 
 some mysterious process of his thieving intelligence 
 he might make his escape, if he could, and take the old 
 and worthless cane with him. She would set him free 
 that very night, and she would be well rid of him. 
 
 True, when he found that he had been fooled, he 
 might forget his promise to send her the documentary 
 evidence that would establish her brother's innocence, 
 but, if such evidence was in existence, there would be 
 other ways to find it. She would, later, consult Mr. 
 Carruthers on that point, for she had taken a great 
 and unaccountable liking to that same Carruthers who 
 somehow reminded her of something, or somebody, or 
 she knew that she liked him, and believed that she 
 could trust him; and he was an expert operative of the 
 secret service who were the best detectives in the world. 
 
 That evening was not a pleasant one outside, after 
 dinner. Fog had blown in from the ocean, and a gentle 
 rain, without wind, was falling. The guests remained 
 indoors. The absence of Belknap was commented on, 
 and regretted. The atmosphere, even within the house, 
 was surcharged with unrest, and the members of the 
 party, one after another, discovered that they had let- 
 ters to write, or books to read, or complained of head- 
 aches, or otherwise found excuses to seek their several 
 rooms very early.
 
 806 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 Bing was himself among the first to find one, and go, 
 and he took Clancy with him. Carruthers disappeared 
 soon after dinner. Betty yawned several times with- 
 out concealment, and departed, and so on, until Kath- 
 erine, a little past ten, found herself alone with Ro- 
 berta and the trouble was that Roberta seemed in- 
 clined to more confidences; seemed eager for another 
 heart-to-heart talk with Katherine. But Katherine 
 found a way to avoid even that. 
 
 "Roberta," she said, when they were alone, "I wish 
 very much that you would take the daguerreotype of 
 Mrs. Clancy's great-grandmother that you still have 
 in your possession, to my father. You will find him in 
 the library, reading. I want you to ask him to help 
 you to work out the puzzle of your likeness to her. He 
 can do it." 
 
 Thus Katherine was free to go to the Nest when- 
 ever she chose and she decided to go at once. 
 
 Would she have been disturbed, do you suppose, if 
 she had guessed that her husband, having taken Tom 
 Clancy into his confidence and secured his aid, had 
 taken Tom with him, and gone already to a post of 
 observation from whence any person who entered or 
 departed from the Nest could be seen? 
 
 Would she have been disturbed if she had known 
 that Carruthers and several of his men had drawn a 
 cordon around the house and grounds of Myquest 
 through which, as they confidently believed, no person 
 could penetrate? 
 
 It is to be doubted if she would have cared a hang 
 about them if she had known both circumstances. They 
 were not there because of any betrayal by her. It 
 could not matter, and she did not care, what might 
 happen to Belknap after he left the Nest. That was
 
 FULFILLING THE COMPACT 307 
 
 up to him. More than likely she would have gone on 
 her way unconcerned even if a thousand pairs of eyes 
 had been watching, and she had known the fact. 
 
 It has been said that because of the opened shutter 
 at the Nest, Katherine was on her guard lest Belknap, 
 having discovered that secret, had likewise uncovered 
 others ; so, when she did approach the chalet, she was 
 ready for any emergency for there were some ap- 
 pliances there which she knew he could not find. 
 
 But she was in no wise prepared for what she saw 
 when she got there. Her extreme caution in approach- 
 ing and entering had been entirely unnecessary; and, 
 after she was safely inside and the door was closed, she 
 may be forgiven for laughter. 
 
 Belknap had discovered another one of the mys- 
 teries of the Nest, for, over against the great stone 
 fireplace, within a network of steel wires that extended 
 from beneath the granite shelf straight out over him 
 and down in front of, and at either side of him, he was 
 as securely caged and helpless as ever any wild beast 
 in a menagerie has been. 
 
 And the joke of it was, the steel network of wires 
 had never been intended for a trap! It was no more 
 and no less than a fire-screen; but, like almost every 
 mechanical contrivance in the chalet, it was operated 
 by touching a button. And that particular button 
 could be easily found, for it was exactly like the one 
 that Katherine had shown to him at the opposite end 
 of the shelf beneath the little idol. 
 
 Belknap was more crestfallen than angry. He was 
 too glad of Katherine's arrival to be angry. 
 
 "You have got yourself into a nice fix," she told 
 him. "You should have stood beyond the end of the 
 shelf when you touched the button which lowers the
 
 308 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 screen ; not at the middle of it. Did it hit you on the 
 head and hurt you when it shot out and dropped into 
 place?" 
 
 "It did," he replied. "Will you kindly let me out?" 
 
 "In a moment. I have something to propose to you 
 first." 
 
 "I think that I'll agree to almost anything after this 
 experience," he said with a grin. "Anything save 
 abandoning Nadja's Eye." 
 
 "Will you accept your liberty to-night, instead of 
 waiting longer?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "It is storming outside, and everybody at the house 
 has retired. Will you go earlier than two o'clock?" 
 
 "I will go now, if you like, if it is true that all the 
 guests have gone to their rooms," he replied. 
 
 Katherine was thoughtful for a moment, then she 
 said: 
 
 "It is only fair that I should warn you of something, 
 Mr. Belknap. I am convinced that Myquest is 
 watched." 
 
 "As to that" he snapped his fingers "so am I. I 
 will take care of that part of it." 
 
 "Very good." She stepped to the end of the shelf 
 and released him. 
 
 As he stepped free she moved swiftly across the 
 room, and, as if by magic, the door swung open while 
 she walked, and he was not able to see how she did it. 
 At the opposite side of the room she stopped and 
 faced him. 
 
 "Go," she said. "The way is open. I have kept 
 all of my promises to you ; I expect that you are still 
 man enough to keep yours to me." 
 
 "I will," he said. "May I "
 
 FULFILLING THE COMPACT 309 
 
 "No. You may do nothing more. You may not 
 address me again ; otherwise, I will relent. Go." 
 
 He went. 
 
 Katherine relapsed upon a chair as soon as the 
 doorway had closed after him.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 BELKNAP'S PKEPABED GETAWAY 
 
 IT was exactly twelve minutes, according to Bingham 
 Harvard's watch, after Katherine entered the Nest, 
 when Conrad Belknap came out of it. 
 
 He descended the first steps swiftly, was lost sight 
 of along the winding path among the boulders, could be 
 seen again in his descent of the second stairs, and then 
 to the astonishment of those who watched he 
 started rapidly toward the house. 
 
 They followed and therefore they did not see 
 Katherine when she came out from the Nest ten minutes 
 later, and at the bottom of the stairs directed her 
 course through the wood toward Julius's cottage. She 
 knew that Julius would be awaiting her, because she had 
 told him to wait. 
 
 Belknap ascended the steps to the veranda boldly. 
 The hour was still early. If he should encounter 
 one of the guests well, he had just returned; that 
 would be all. He knew the methods of secret service 
 men, and did not believe that Carruthers's errand at 
 Myquest was generally known. 
 
 He encountered nobody. The house had not been 
 closed up, nor the lights extinguished. He entered 
 the music-room at one of the windows. 
 
 As directly as the needle of a compass points north, 
 he went to the corner behind the piano and secured the 
 "scrubby old cane." 
 
 310
 
 BELKNAP'S PREPARED GETAWAY 311 
 
 He lifted it, examined it attentively, worked at the 
 knob on top, found it secure, tried the ferrule, and 
 loosened it as far as it would unscrew. Then he tried 
 the knob again, and opened it. 
 
 He turned white to the lips when he discovered the 
 object wrapped in foil and tissue inside. He extracted 
 it. He held it worshipfully in the hollow of one hand 
 and stared at it. His other hand moved as if to un- 
 wind the wrappings, and stopped. He put the object 
 that was wrapped in foil and tissue into his pocket. 
 
 After that he appeared to be considering his next 
 move; he was, if the watchers had but known it. He 
 was thinking that he would like to have one more 
 interview with Roberta before he went away; but he 
 decided against it. 
 
 He went out of the music-room like a flash. It was 
 wonderful how quickly he could move when he wanted 
 to like a cat, or any other predatory animal 
 naturally. 
 
 The two watchers lost sight of him then, and could 
 not follow. They had thought that he would leave the 
 house by the way he entered it but Cranshaw fielding, 
 otherwise Conrad Belknap, was far too wise for that 
 sort of thing. 
 
 "We have lost him," Tom Clancy said. 
 
 "Go around to the rear, Tom," Bing replied, and 
 darted away without imparting his own intention. 
 
 Harvard, as it happened, having so often been in 
 the position of fugitive himself, presaged Belknap's 
 movements by what he would have done himself under 
 like circumstances, and his ideas were well assumed. 
 He went to the rose bower, from which he could watch 
 the side entrance. 
 
 Belknap appeared at last, moving cautiously. He 
 darted among the shrubbery, and kept himself amid the
 
 312 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 deepest shadows; but Harvard had seen him lift his 
 head and point, as a hunting-dog points, in the di- 
 rection of his course. 
 
 Harvard caught sight of him again as he went out 
 upon the platform at the boat-house. 
 
 Belknap secured a paddle and lifted a canoe into 
 the water. He got into it and paddled out upon the 
 lake, making his way directly toward the dam. If it 
 had been possible to approach the Nest by that route, 
 Harvard would have thought that he was returning 
 to the chalet. 
 
 He was not. He paddled directly to the dam at the 
 opposite end from the Nest, and Harvard, running 
 like a hare, followed along the shore of the lake. But 
 when Bing Harvard got near enough to the dam he 
 could see only an empty canoe that was hugged against 
 it. 
 
 "What the dickens " he began to ask himself, 
 
 but before he completed the self-asked question he had 
 thrown off his coat, vest, and shoes, and was in the 
 water. 
 
 He swam quickly to the canoe where it was hugged 
 against the dam and then he discovered that three big 
 spikes had been driven securely into a block of wood 
 which, in its turn, had been ingeniously wedged into 
 the masonry of the dam itself ; and that a hemp rope no 
 larger than a clothes-line was knotted around the 
 spikes a knotted rope, to facilitate descent, Bing had 
 no doubt. 
 
 It was Belknap's prepared getaway, made on the 
 sly; but it was a daring method. The fall from the 
 top of the dam to the jagged rocks below was sixty 
 feet, as Harvard well knew. 
 
 "By Jove," Bing muttered to himself, "the fellow
 
 BELKNAP'S PREPARED GETAWAY 313 
 
 deserves to get away! And he will, if he reaches the 
 bottom in " 
 
 He stopped, fascinated by what he saw. 
 
 The block of wood into which the spikes had been 
 driven, that had been wedged into the masonry of the 
 dam, trembled ; it was coming loose. 
 
 Harvard reached out for it frantically. He would 
 have grasped and held it if he could, and saved the 
 life of the man he had been pursuing. 
 
 But he was not quick enough. 
 
 The block of wood came entirely loose before he 
 could seize upon it, and disappeared across the top of 
 the dam. During an instant, which seemed an eternity, 
 Harvard listened ; but no cry came up to him from the 
 depths below; only a dull thud, a subdued crash, and 
 silence. 
 
 They found Belknap half an hour later. It was ap- 
 parent that he had been killed instantly. His neck 
 was broken, and there was a jagged wound above 
 his right temple besides. While. . . . 
 
 Unmindful of what was going on, the guests at My- 
 quest slept peacefully. 
 
 Within the larger garage, to which the body of 
 Belknap was carried, a group of people was gathered. 
 There were several strangers there who went outside, 
 presently, at the request of Carruthers, for they were 
 the men who had been assisting him. Rodney Rushton 
 was there, and Tom Clancy, and Julius. Roberta was 
 there, clinging close to Katherine. Senator Maxwil- 
 ton was there, he having still been deep in the discus- 
 sion of genealogy with Roberta when Katherine sum- 
 moned her. Bing Harvard was there, very silent and 
 very still. 
 
 When Carruthers sent his men away, he closed the 
 door and turned to face those who remained; but
 
 314 LADY OF THE NIGHT WIND 
 
 As he made the turn he swept one hand across his 
 face. 
 
 As if by magic the hideous scar that had so distorted 
 and changed his every feature, was torn away, and 
 he stood revealed to all as Roderick Maxwilton. 
 
 Katherine, who had been a long time in consultation 
 with Julius, was, in a half measure, prepared for it; 
 nevertheless she started forward with a quick cry of 
 joy and threw her arms around her brother's neck, to 
 the utter amazement of Bing. 
 
 It was the Senator (who, oddly, seemed not sur- 
 prised at all) who stepped to Bing's side quickly and 
 uttered the three words that explained the situation. 
 
 "It is Roderick," he said; then, after a moment, he 
 added : "I knew yesterday, Bingham. He took me aside 
 and told me. Then, to-night, after dinner, we went to- 
 gether to his mother; and Bingham she is as happy 
 now as she was on that day, years ago, when she 
 brought him into the world." 
 
 "Roberta," the Senator went on, "come here. Then : 
 "Katherine, Roberta is a Maxwilton. She is a cousin, 
 many times removed. She is even closer kin to your 
 wife, Tom," he added, turning to Clancy. "They had 
 the same great-grandmother. She is, I am proud to 
 state, a Maxwilton." 
 
 "You bet she is !" Roderick announced, reaching 
 out and clasping one of her hands. "And she is going 
 to be a Maxwilton by name as well as by nativity." 
 
 "This is not a moment nor a place for rejoicing," 
 Katherine announced, "so, although it is late, I Want 
 you all to come with me to the library. I have some- 
 thing of interest to tell." 
 
 "One moment," said Roderick. "Before we leave 
 the silent member of this party, I have something to 
 tell. He has been as bad as bad could be, but there
 
 BELKNAP'S PREPARED GETAWAY 315 
 
 was an explanation for it, if not an excuse. He is 
 dead, now. In his possession, when his clothing was 
 searched, we found quite an assortment of papers. 
 Some of them related to the hiding places of certain 
 engraved plates which the United States government 
 will now secure, and destroy. Others referred to mat- 
 ters connected with me, and are proof sufficient of my 
 innocence of certain acts with which I was once 
 charged, if, happily, it were not the fact that I have 
 already been acquitted of it by my own department. 
 So I shall suggest that no further reference be made 
 to his misdeeds, and in making that proposal I know 
 that I will have the approval of my chief. He is dead. 
 Let him rest." 
 
 "And he died without knowing that he did not pos- 
 sess the Eye of Nadja," Katherine exclaimed. "I am 
 very glad of that. Yes, I am glad of it." 
 
 And, until she told her story in the library, they 
 did not know what she meant. 
 
 THE END
 
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