Hawley hesitated. “Well, I don’t know about that. There would be some danger, and I don’t feel like letting you run any risk. Of course,” he added wistfully, “the danger wouldn’t be so very great. No matter how the venture should turn out, I don’t think they would dare to harm you. The fact that you are a woman, and the daughter of the United States minister, ought to be----” “Never mind the danger,” the plucky girl broke in impatiently. “As I told you yesterday, nothing could please me more than to have a chance to help my unhappy friends, Señora Felix and her husband. I’d gladly make any sacrifice for them. I shall hold you to your promise, Mr. Hawley. As a man of your word, you’ve got to take me with you.” Hawley laughed. “I don’t think I quite promised; I merely said that I would consider your application, Miss Throgmorton. However, I guess I’ve got to take advantage of your kind offer. I’ve got to have an assistant, and, while a man might do, a woman partner would add greatly to the chances of success--especially when she is beautiful enough to----” Virginia stopped him with a gesture of disapproval. “This is no time for frivolous compliments, Mr. Hawley,” she said severely, a faint tinge of pink making itself evident beneath her fair skin. “There is too much at stake for that.” “I assure you that I had no intention of being frivolous, Miss Throgmorton--or of paying you compliments, either,” the Camera Chap explained hastily. “It is a fact that I am counting a great deal on your good looks as an asset in this venture.” Virginia appeared somewhat mollified by this explanation. “Tell me your plan, Mr. Hawley,” she requested. “Now that it is settled that I am to have a part in it, isn’t it only fair that you should take me into your confidence as to what you’re going to do?” “It surely is,” Hawley agreed. “I was going to tell you all about it, anyway, only I deemed it advisable to keep the details to myself until I was ready to carry it out. “It is very simple,” he continued, his face lighting up. “In fact, I can’t understand why the idea didn’t hit me long ago. The inspiration came to me like a flash, the other day, as I was cruising in the motor boat in the vicinity of El Torro, watching the sentry pacing up and down outside the window of Felix’s cell, and tying bowknots in my brain trying to conceive of a way of getting rid of him. That’s been the big problem all along, of course--how to get past the sentry. If I could devise a way of luring him from his post for a few minutes, it would be a simple matter to get my snapshot of Felix in his cell.” “And you have found a way of doing that?” the girl asked eagerly. “I believe I have. All that we’ve got to do is to take a tip from the New York underworld.” Virginia looked at him in bewilderment, but when she heard the plan he unfolded, she uttered an exclamation of delight. “It does sound good!” she declared. “You are absolutely the most ingenious man I have ever met.”