automobile number. He said so."

He looked up at her, his face twitching. "They're hound dogs on a
scent, Bev. They'll get the story, and blow it wide open."

"You know I'm prepared for that. I have been for ten years."

"I know." He was suddenly emotional. He reached out and took her
hand. "Poor old Bev!" he said. "After the way you've come back,
too. It's a damned shame."

She was calmer than he was, less convinced for one thing, and better
balanced always. She let him stroke her hand, standing near him
with her eyes absent and a little hard.

"I'd better make sure that was Jud first," he offered, after a time,
"and then warn him."

"Why?"

"Bassett will be after him."

"No!" she commanded sharply. "No, Fred. You let the thing alone.
You've built up an imaginary situation, and you're not thinking
straight. Plenty of things might happen. What probably has happened
is that this Bassett is at home and in bed."

She sent him out for a taxi soon after, and they went back to the
hotel. But, alone later on in her suite in the Ardmore she did not
immediately go to bed. She put on a dressing gown and stood for a