"There is no danger to me if I can only clear myself," Steel replied. "If
you could only tell me where those bank-notes came from! When I think of
that part of the business I am filled with shame. And yet if you only
knew how fond I am of my home.... At the same time, when I found that I
was called upon to help ladies in distress I should have refused all
offers of reward. If I had done so I should have had no need of your
pity. And yet--and yet it is very sweet to me."

He pressed the hand in his, and the pressure was returned. David forget
all about his troubles for the time; and it was very cool and pleasant
and quiet there.

"I am afraid that those notes were forced upon us," she said. "Though I
frankly believe that the enemy does not know what we have learnt to do
from you. And as to the cigar-case: would it not be easy to settle that
matter by asking a few questions?"

"My dear young lady, I have done so. And the more questions I ask the
worse it is for me. The cigar-case I claimed came from Walen's, beyond
all question, and was purchased by the mysterious individual now in the
hospital. I understood that the cigar-case was the very one I admired at
Lockhart's some time ago, and--"

"If you inquire at Lockhart's you will find such to be the case."

David looked up with a puzzled expression. Ruth spoke so seriously, and
with such an air of firm conviction, that he was absolutely staggered.

"So I did," he said. "And was informed in the most positive way by the
junior partner that the case I admired had been purchased by an American