"I want--Oh! so much, Senorita. But I know it is a vain hope. But
you are good and kind. If you could take zese papairs wiz you--and
manage to get zem to my father--he could tell you how to help him.
For it is all politics--he had committed no--what you call crime--not
a soul has he wronged. Oh, my poor father!"

"And these papers?" asked Cora. "'What are they?"

"I know not, Senorita. I am not versed in such zings. A fellow
patriot of my father gave them to me."

"Have you them with you?" asked Bess.

The girl started up in bed, and clutched at her breast. A wild look
came over her face.

"I had zem in New York--I bring zem away wiz me. Zat man--he is ze
enemy of my father and his party. He know I have zem, and he try to
entrap me. But I am too--what you call foxy, for him! I slip
through his fingernails. Ze papairs--in my valise--Oh, where is it?
I--when I faint--I have it at my feet--"

"It was on the porch!" exclaimed Mrs. Kimball. "I forgot all about
it in the excitement. It was full of lace--Oh, if some one has taken
it!"

"And my papairs--zat could free my father!" cried the girl.

A shout came from the front of the house.