Keralio looked anxious. "Is there any danger of them having shadowed you and followed you here?" "No--_mon cher, pas le mains du monde_. It took me three hours to come here from ze Pennsylvania station--such a crazy in and out route I gave ze chauffeur. If they succeed in following such a labyrinth as that, they deserve to get us." Keralio smiled and pointed to a bottle of brandy on the table. Approvingly, he said: "Good boy! There, take a drink and a cigar----" After the valet had refreshed himself, he again confronted his chief. "What else _a votre service_?" Keralio pointed carelessly to a seat. In a commanding tone, he said: "Yes--I have more work for you. Sit down. I will tell you." The valet took a chair and waited. Keralio looked at him meditatively for a moment. Then suddenly he asked: "When did you leave the house?" "This afternoon at three o'clock." "When did Mrs. Traynor return from Philadelphia?" "Yesterday--furious at the hoax played upon her? Miss Dorothy is perfectly well----" Keralio smiled. "Of course. I sent that telegram." The valet grinned. Admiringly, he exclaimed: "You are admirable! _Quel homme, mon dieu, quel homme_!" Paying no heed to the compliment, Keralio went on: "What did Handsome say?" "He is puzzled himself and can't understand. Everyone's up in the air. They think it is a discharged maid who did it for spite." "The next time Mrs. Traynor receives a sudden message about her baby it will not be a hoax." The valet looked up in surprise. "What do you mean?" Keralio did not answer the question immediately, but sat nervously twisting his fingers, a moody sullen look in his pale saturnine face. At last, breaking the heavy silence, he said: "That woman insulted me. You saw it. You were there----" The valet nodded. "You mean she put you out--ah, _oui_, she has a _diable_ of a temper when angry." Keralio nodded. "Yes--that I can never forgive. She shall ask my pardon on her knees. I will break her spirit, humiliate her pride. I have been taxing my brain how to do it. At last I have hit on a plan--one that cannot fail and you shall help me." "In what way _s'il vous plait_?" Bending forward, his black eyes flashing, Keralio said earnestly: "That woman is devoted to only two beings in this world--her husband and her baby. Sooner or later, perhaps only in a few days, she will discover that Handsome is an impostor. He is such a fool that exposure is inevitable. The blow will almost kill her. Above all, it will humiliate her pride to know that unwittingly she has allowed that drunken brute, that poor counterfeit of her husband, to caress and fondle her. Next in her affections comes her baby. If any danger threatened the child, she would stop at nothing, she would make any sacrifice to ward off the danger. I propose to bring about just that situation----"