In an instant she was seized with a paroxysm of fear. If her grandfather found her there, what would he do? The footsteps sounded nearer. Hastily flinging in the bag and closing the trap-door, Gertie, hardly knowing what she did, crept up into a corner behind a box near the door, which was ajar. She was covered with dust from kneeling on the floor, and her face was so hot and flushed she feared to meet her grandfather. She hoped he was corning in with some one and would go out again directly. From her corner she could peep through the crack of the door. She saw a gentleman, who looked like a foreigner, enter first, closely followed by her grandfather, and then another gentleman with a dark face and a hook nose. Lying close and trembling in every limb, she was obliged to listen to their conversation. ‘Gertie,’ said her grandfather. There was no answer. ‘All right,’ said the old man; ‘she’s gone out for a minute, I expect. Shut the door and then she can’t come in.’ The foreign gentleman, who had a black silk cap on, but who spoke very good English, closed the door, and then, addressing the other two, appeared to be giving them instructions. Gertie didn’t hear quite all they said, but she caught the name of Marston spoken by her grandfather, and she instantly made up her mind it was Marston who was being talked about. She listened eagerly. The chance of serving Miss Adrian had come sooner than she could have hoped. Sometimes the three men spoke so low she could hardly make out what they said, but she heard something about the police, and that to-morrow some one, whom she presumed to be Marston, was to be met by one of them after he had come from the bank with the money for a cheque. ‘They’ll search his lodgings, of course,’ said the foreign gentleman; ‘and we must take care something’s found there. Who’ll do it?’ ‘I’ll manage it,’ answered the dark gentleman with the hook nose. ‘I shall go with the ‘tecs, and shall give the information. Leave the case to me; I’ll make it straight enough. If you want him put out of the way for a bit, you can reckon it done.’ Gertie heard this, and more, and she instantly concluded the gentleman in whom Miss Adrian took so much interest was in danger. Child as she was, she had been bred amid surroundings which inculcated habits of self-dependence and fertility of resource. Lying there, half-dead with fear, she had still enough sense left to plan out her course of action. She would go to Miss Adrian’s at once and warn her. When the three men had agreed together what they were to do, the dark gentleman with the hook nose went out and left Heckett and the foreigner together. ‘That big affair I spoke to you about is ripening, Heckett,’ said the foreigner. ‘We shall rely on you.’ ‘I’ll be in it,’ growled the dog-fancier; ‘but I shall want my fair share.’