Miss Vedant hesitated a moment, then gave a slight shrug, as though to signify that it was a matter of indifference to her. Troubled and shaken as she was, she was in no mood to protest against any arrangement they might have made, and, anyway, it was too late now to draw back without seeming ungracious, for the major, by this time, was conducting her out through the tall, pillared entrance of the station, and she saw, a few steps away across the plaza, Mrs. Schilder waiting for them in the automobile. Mrs. Schilder, modishly gowned, and undeniably beautiful, in a dark, foreign style, greeted the girl with just the proper touch of sympathetic restraint to put Meredith at her ease. “I don’t want you to think me unduly urgent in this matter, my dear,” she said, “but I could not help feeling that if I were in your place I should want to be among friends who understood the situation. You must not regard yourself as a guest with us, either; you are to consider yourself at home, and do in all things just as you choose. At any rate,” she added, with a reassuring pressure of the hand, “give me the happiness of having you with me until your father is restored, which must certainly be within a few hours.” Meredith glanced up eagerly. “You believe that?” she exclaimed, then turned as if for corroboration to Major Appleby, who sat with them in the tonneau. The major cleared his throat. “We are at least very close on the trail of the Japanese spies who are undoubtedly responsible for the outrage,” he assented guardedly, “For a time we were at sea, thinking they had fled the city, but through a hint astutely obtained by Mrs. Schilder”--he bowed pompously toward that lady--“from her butler, who is also a Japanese, we are now confident that they are still in Brantford, and, therefore, with the efforts we are making, must be run to earth in very short time.” “Japanese spies?” Meredith repeated. “So that is what is back of the affair? Remember, I know nothing except what was contained in your telegram. Please tell me all the circumstances,” she pleaded. The major started to comply, with a labored, heavy account, but Mrs. Schilder tactfully interposed, and, taking the recital into her own hands, told in a few words the story of the occurrences at the foundry the night before. “But why are Japanese spies suspected?” The girl’s brows wrinkled into a little frown. “I see nothing in all this to indicate such a theory. Did Captain Grail see any Japanese around?” “He did not say so,” stiffly responded the major. “To tell you the truth, my dear, Captain Grail, beyond giving a bare account of the incident, declined to commit himself in any way, or even to confer with the other officers of the post over measures looking toward your father’s recovery.”