searching her father's face, “that, after all, this is not some of Melun's work?”

“Why should it be?” returned her father.

“I don't know, I am sure,” said Kathleen, doubtfully, “except that I have a sort of feeling that it is.”

“Why?” asked her father.

Then, for the first time, Lady Kathleen told him of her meeting with Bagley in Hyde Park.

“Oh, my dear! my dear!” cried her father, taking her in his arms again.[Pg 117] “How many more sacrifices are you prepared to make for me? If I had not confided in you I do not know what I should have done. I assure you that it is only because I dread the awful consequences that would come if my secret were discovered that has prevented me from taking my life. But, as you know, the shedding of my blood would mean the shedding of blood all over the world. Sometimes I think the dread of it is driving me out of my mind.

[Pg 117]

“And there does not seem to be any hope of getting the thing back—no hope of it at all. By George! I wish we were back in the good old days. Then I could put that Melun on the rack. I'd get the secret out of him somehow.

“But he is too slippery. I even made arrangements to have him watched, but he beats our men all the time. He is here to-day and gone to-morrow. He appears and he vanishes—Heaven only knows how.

“And now, to add to our perplexities, we have got this red-haired giant, who seems to be even more unscrupulous than Melun. Certainly he is more bold. To my way of thinking, it was only a bold stroke to win your confidence that he dealt with Bagley as he did.”

“Oh, father!” cried Kathleen, “I cannot believe that.”

“Nonsense, my dear. Do you suppose that a man who is hand in glove with Melun comes across you and Bagley in the Park by accident? Why, it is one chance against a hundred million.”

“But still it is a chance,” urged Kathleen.

“My dear little girl,” said the Premier, gently, while he patted her cheek, “I am afraid that you are of a very trusting disposition, though that has certainly been to the advantage of your poor old father.

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