"Hurry," she urged curtly; and, with her hand on Katherine's arm, forged ahead through the door, unceremoniously pushing aside everyone who interfered with her rapid exit. Once outside, she turned unhesitatingly toward a group blocking the sidewalk. A policeman's helmet loomed large above the heads of the crowd; and, as Belinda approached, the policeman's sturdy form forced a way through the circle. Following came Mademoiselle de Courcelles escorted by two men whose faces wore smiles of quiet satisfaction. Behind was a bewildered, hysterical group of girls, weeping, lamenting, protesting, entreating. Belinda stopped the procession. "There must be some mistake," she said falteringly. "What is wrong?" One of the keen-eyed men took off his hat respectfully. "Sorry, Miss; but it's French Liz, all right. We got the tip from Paris that she was working New York again, but we couldn't spot her till to-day." "B-b-but what has she done?" stammered Belinda, to whom twelve anguish-stricken girls were attempting to cling, while a mixed audience looked on appreciatively. "Cleverest shop-lifter in the graft," explained the detective. "She's got plenty of the goods on her right now; but I say"--and his glance wandered to the girls--"who'd a-thought of this lay except Liz? She's a bird, she is!" He turned to Mademoiselle de Courcelles with honest admiration in his eyes, and she smiled at him recklessly, with white lips. "You'd have been too late to-morrow. I was expecting a telegram calling me away to-night." All the hesitation was gone from her English. She spoke fluently, and a hard metallic ring had crept into the velvety voice. The detective looked at Belinda. "This other fellow is the shop-detective. We'll have to take her in here and see what swag she has beside the diamonds we saw her lift. I don't know as there's any use keeping the young ladies----" Evangeline Marie gave a smothered wail at the suggestion, and Laura May showed signs of fainting in Belinda's arms. "Boarding-school crowd, I see. Now, Miss, if you'll just give me the name of the school and the address, you can take the bunch along home. It isn't likely that any of those babes are in the game with Liz. She's just used them for a blind. Holy smoke! but that was a good idea. Turn a crowd of boarding-school girls loose at a counter, and their teacher could steal the clerks blind without their suspecting her. Lost anything in the school?" Belinda had a sudden vision of the disgraced Ellen's tearful face, and a thought of Laura May's pocket-book smote her, but she merely wrote the address on a card and handed it to the detective. "If you could keep the name of the school out of the scandal it would be worth your while," she said in a low voice. The detective nodded. "I'll try; but I guess the papers will get it one way or another. Don't let anyone touch Liz's trunks. I'll be up to go through them just as soon as I've finished here."