The Ordway new era., 1920-04-30
CHAPTER xV-contInued.

ID
Billy charged monsieur's confession
to a private account that was growing
large. Personally | felt I liked the
man the better for it-I read 1t as the
effort to shield the girl and minimize
her pnrt In the affair. And In that
was right; Billy looked at It differ
entity. "Concelted cuss I" he later con-
ided. "Wanted to take the whole
credit to himself"
"Oui, madame" monsieur went on.
and all the while / felt him searching
my fnce for sign OF what had nc
complIshcd with Mrs. Delario. Nos
sing cnn be safer-I argue-zan a
fancy slipper. II Is not worn on re
steamer In re cold Of winter, and mad
anne have no assure me zat her bag
gnge. because of her so good cousin.
In pass wisout difficulty. And who
would accuse madame of"-he gave
me knowing look md finished ambig-
uously-"of to smuggle zoze valuable
papers zat do not concern herr All,
not would be Incredible wlsout to
see zem-and we have take care zat
zey are not scent And to accomplish
zlA we have put zem where zey are al
most but not quite seen. / have ex-
plain all zls to Clnlre and she have
understand pnrfaltement. Oul."
The sInugness with which he dellv-
cred himself of this was really anus
Ing. and couldn't help smile, which
encouraged him to ndd-at the same
time looking plerclngly at me-wlth II
deprccntlng shrug:
"And just at re moment of beautiful
completion madame carries or one Of
zoze sllppers-we know not which"
All OF us laughed and the tension
thnt had been quite plainly felt In our
little company broke.
Claire went on to tell us how. in
Antwerp. she had occupied room
communicating with Mrs. Delario's the
dny before they smiled, and how papa
lind taken Mrs. Delarlo out to see the
great Rubens In the cathedral and
-Clnire-pleading headache, had
remained behind and had gone through
Mrs. Delnrlo's things so she could tell
her father what there was they could
use hnd discovered the slippers and
had taken them to her room and shown
them to her father that night md he
said they would do admirably" and
she had got them back while Mrs. Del
ario was asleep.
But 1t wasn't easy to put the box
into the slipper when 1t came to the
point. Mrs. Delnrio keenly felt the
obligations of her charge and proved
far too devoted chnperon. At last
the chance arrived and the box was
slowed. What, then, was the poor
child's Consideration to hear me twit-
ting Mrs. Delnrlo into wearing the
slippersl
"She nearly had me thenl" Claire
confided with noticeable glee mt her
own ability to cope with the situation
~ got the box out just one minute be
fore she came into our stateroom
But this fright made me so Ill
couldn't stay at table that night"
~ should think so," said Billy. and
gave a SLY glance In my direction that
said, 81 take back all l said about heI
last night-she wasn't really in 1t at
all. II was nll the old scoundrel OF q
'mossoo.'"
Claire seemed ready to end here. bu
wasn't ready to have her. What wa,
to tell monsieur? My turn was com
Ing In minute, and what was l t,
say2 l kept on with Claire "Then s,
far us you know. the box came through
the customs house in one of those slip
pers2 And what were you to do afte
thnt?"
The words We're hardly out of IN.
mouth when the front bell rang an,
George handed In telegram addressed
to monsieur.
Monsieur tore open the yellow enve
Top and rapidly scanned the message
frowned; hesitnted. started to spcn
and stopped; looked at me inquir
ipgly; asked II there was II TELEGRAPH
Office near and when told him whcr
II was excused himself from our con
pany to ''send an immediate and III
gent reply" and instructed Claire t
answer every question nigh, care I
put and with that he hurried or wit
the curt ceremony of one who expect
to he bnck on the Qunrter-hour stroke
There was. however, but little NOR
I needed to discover from Claire; sti
there was one thing, and l asked he
bluntly, "Your father came over ahea
Of us ON n faster steamer? He was o
the wharf in disguise when we ~
rived?"
She blushed furlously and stan
mered. "Y-yes-he was there" an
added hastily: ''But I didn't know h
wus there. He told me there would b
komeone-to take charge-when gav
the signal that everything was a
right"
"Oh, there was n slgnal!"
"Of course. I had TO let the othe
enc know who had the box"
"You mean you had 10 let your II