said Dick, “but easy now we know. I thought he would put it in a safe. But how are we going to get it?”

Yvette, who had been silent, interposed.

“I think the General’s house might unexpectedly catch fire,” she said quietly. “That will give Dick a chance to make a dash for the treaty in the confusion.”

“I don’t see any better plan,” Fédor agreed. “It can easily be managed. I have plenty of petrol here, and there is a small leaded window on the ground floor that can be pushed in without making too much noise.”

“Excellent!” exclaimed Dick. “I’ll manage that. I’ll see there’s plenty of confusion.”

“Very well, that is settled,” answered Fédor. “Now I will take Mademoiselle to your car and have everything ready for you to start. It will be touch and go. Here is the phonograph record, with the cinema film rolled up inside it. Take care of them; they are priceless. The film must be developed in Paris.”

Then Fédor produced a can of petrol and thoroughly soaked the room.

“This place is going up to-night,” he explained. “That police agent will know all about it and it will be searched at once. I can’t get my camera away and I don’t want it found.”

As he spoke Fédor was laying a long strip of fuse from the room to the ground floor. Striking a match he lit the end.

“In half an hour the place will be a furnace,” he said coolly.

What to do with the police agent was a problem.

“I can’t kill the fellow in cold blood,” remarked Fédor, “and I can’t leave him here to be burnt alive.”

Finally they dragged the man outside and left him lying in the darkest corner of the alley they could find.

“Some one will find him when the fire starts,” was Fédor’s conclusion.

But some one found him much earlier, and their clemency nearly cost them their lives!

Yvette and Fédor started for the Mohawk and Dick walked swiftly over to the General’s house. It was very late and not a soul was stirring in the now deserted streets. Without difficulty Dick found the leaded window and scarcely troubling about the slight noise he made, forced it partly in, 

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