It was a magnificent bluff and carried with deadly aim. The girl stopped him passionately: "We must not stop to talk about that now--there isn't time. We must hurry, dear, and get away before auntie finds out and comes after me." "Do you think she'll come here?" he asked slowly, while his forehead wrinkled. "I am afraid Sadie will tell her!" "Sadie--your cousin? H'm." He made no effort to conceal that he was thinking rapidly. "Perhaps you'd rather postpone it after all, Travers?" she said quickly, while the color rushed to her cheeks and her lips trembled. "If you only thought it best I'd like to tell auntie what I'm going to do." "No"; he retorted. "We can't do that--we've gone over all this before. It must be this way, or not at all. Which is it to be?" "I've given you my word, you know," she said under her breath. "That's my brave little girl!" he cried with a burst of feeling, reaching out his arm to embrace her. Crash! Bang! Biff! Slam! Bam! There burst into the room Officer 666, entangled in the lid and straps of an empty trunk. It was a steamer trunk and not very heavy, but Travers Gladwin was far from adept in baggage smashing. He had wasted so much time in hunting for the trunk that he had sought to make up for the delay by executing what resembled an aëroplane descent. At the final twist of the staircase the trunk had mastered him and charged with him into the room. As he lay sprawled on the floor with a foolish grin on his face, the discomfited lover turned on him with a voice of fury. "Officer, what the deuce is the matter with you?" The intense savagery of his tone made the girl shrink away from him and turn pale. He managed to cover his break so quickly with a forced laugh and an effort to assist Gladwin to his feet that her fear was only momentary. In the last stage of his downward flight Gladwin glimpsed that he had dropped in barely in time to spoil another touching scene. With a grin of sheer delight, he asked: "Where'll I put the trunk, sorr?" "Put it there." The self-styled Gladwin pointed to the right of the chest and set to work to gather up his few hundred thousand dollars' worth of pelf. He was about to place the flat packages in the trunk when he turned to Helen and asked: "Do you see any others that you'd like me to take, dear?" "Oh, you know best," she replied. "Only I should think that you would take some of the miniatures." "The miniatures?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Yes," said the girl. "They are the loveliest I've ever seen and they'll hardly take up any room at all. If we are going to be away such a long time I think it would be safer to take them." It was palpable to Travers Gladwin that the big chap had received a psychic jolt, for his hand trembled a little as he laid down the canvases on the top of the chest and addressed the girl: "I didn't know you'd seen the miniatures." "Oh, yes, when I was here this afternoon."