fair for you to have it when I can't."

"Perhaps you need it less," he answered bitterly, "or perhaps no
disguise could be so effective as the one you have already."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Bright eyes, a pretty face, a clear complexion," he answered.

He spoke with an extreme energy and bitterness that she did not in
the least understand, and that quite took away from the words any
suspicion of intentional rudeness.

"If I have all that, I suppose it's natural and not a disguise,"
she remarked.

"My beard is natural too," he retorted.

"All the same, I wish you would cut it off," she answered. "I
should like to see what you look like."

She turned and walked away, and the more Dunn thought over this
conversation, the less he felt he understood it.

What had she meant by that strange start and look she had given him
when she had asked if she were to be the next? And when she
asserted so confidently that she knew what was in the packing-case,
was that true, or was she speaking under some mistaken impression,
or had she wished to deceive him?