Then she stared in astonishment as the man shook out yards and yards of costly, filmy lace. "You didn't know what was in it--eh?" "No, sir," said Jane. "Where did you get it, miss?" "The lady I am traveling with asked me to carry it for her," faltered Jane. "Oh, but I mustn't lose it. You must give it to me directly. I am sure it looks very valuable." "You're right it does," said the man grimly. "I guess you'll have to come with me, young woman, and we'll see what else you're carrying for the lady." "Oh, I've nothing else!" protested Jane, "and Mrs. Markle is waiting for me; I see her now." "Where?" demanded the official, keenly alert. "Point her out to me!" "The large lady yonder with the long cloak--. Oh, she is looking at me now! I am afraid she will be displeased about the lace. But of course, I had to tell you when you asked me." "Of course!" echoed the man, with a sneer, "the ladies are always careful to tell me everything of the sort. Now, you'll go with this woman; she'll look into your case. And I'll just step across and speak to Mrs. Markle." The next hour in Jane Blythe's history is best passed over in pitying silence. At the end of it a pallid, tremulous girl was confronting a stern-faced official to whom she related in detail the circumstances of her short acquaintance with Mrs. Markle. "She asked you to leave your hat and jacket in her cabin, did she?" he interrupted sharply, at one point in the narrative. "She said it was too thin for the sea," Jane told him. "She was very kind and loaned me a warm cloak lined with fur." "Did you notice anything peculiar about your own jacket when you put it on to leave the ship?" "No, sir," said Jane; "I was too much taken up with having reached America to notice that it was thicker and lumpy in spots." "It was very neatly done," put in the female inspector, whose name was Forbes. "The woman had ample time during the voyage to quilt thousands of dollars' worth of laces between the lining and the outside. It is evidently an old game successfully played before this." Then she stepped to one side to make room for a second inspector who entered from the rear accompanied by Mrs. Markle herself, unbending and majestic. "I s'all complain of zis outra--a--ge! You s'all be arrest, _bêtes_, animals--all!" announced Mrs. Markle in a shrill, high-pitched voice. "Zere was nossing dutiable in my luggage--I was alright _aussi_--_n'est-ce pas?_" The woman inspector shrugged her shoulders. "I found nothing," she agreed. "But--" She glanced expressively at Jane who had fixed her clear hazel eyes reproachfully upon Mrs. Markle. "Is this the person in whose employ you crossed from England?" demanded the presiding official of Jane. "Yes, sir, this is Mrs. Markle," replied Jane politely.