Virginie looked up in quick alarm. "Who is that?" she cried, in a low voice, and then, recognizing the bell-boy she had seen so often at the hotel, she gazed at Patricia in amazed surprise. "How did you get here?" she suddenly asked her friend. So absorbed had she been in other matters, that the question had not occurred to her before. Patricia sketched to her in hurried whispers the history of the previous night and the assistance rendered by Chet, while the boy himself stood by uneasily, watching the house and the road. When she had finished, he added:

"I gotta tell you that I heard a good deal of what the little mam'selle was sayin' just now, 'cause I had crept back to warn you folks you'd have to be a bit quicker if we're goin' to get 173anything done, so I pretty well know the lay of the land. Now I got a plan in the back of my head. It's kind of risky, but I think we can swing it if we work quick. But first we must find out what this here little mam'selle is plannin' to do. Are you goin' to get her to break away from that shady gang an' beat it with us?"

"Oh, that's just what I want her to do—just what I've been thinking of myself!" cried Patricia. "Are you willing, Virginie dear?"

The girl looked at her in some bewilderment. American slang was something she had yet to become acquainted with, and Chet's last remarks were as incomprehensible to her as if they had been uttered in Choctaw.

"We want you to come with us," Patricia explained. "You must not stay any longer with these dreadful people, Virginie. We think we can get you away from them, and you will have a happy life and never, never be tormented by them again."

174But the girl shrank back in terror. "No, no!" she cried. "It must not be. I cannot do it, much as I long to. You must not ask it. My father!" whispered Virginie, brokenly, and she needed to say no more. Patricia understood. She had forgotten for a moment how deeply they held this helpless girl in their power. And after the many terrible tales she had heard of the enemy's cruelty, she had not the slightest doubt that they would carry out their threat. What could she say or do that would be of any avail in the face of this? She looked at Chet helplessly.

"Say," he declared at length, "this here's sure a bad lookout, but there must be some way out of it. You can't make me believe that in this here free country any bunch of Huns is goin' to get away with a come-on game like that. Why say, what's the matter with this? We'll bundle the little mam'selle into the car an' hustle back to the city an' get the police out here in a jiff' an' raid the whole place before 175they have time to turn around. We'd sure find that Crimson Patch somewhere in the ranch. An' they'd have the bunch all in the jug before they had time to do any telephonin' or send any messages or anything. What say?"

"No, no!" cried Virginie, who had somehow taken in his meaning in spite of his slang. "It would not do. You do not understand. They are not all here—in this house. Only Madame—and Melanie, her maid, and the chauffeur, Hermann Klausser (they call him Jacques Thierrot in public) are here. But there are many, many others in New York—everywhere. They are all in these plots. They would find out what had happened, and they would send the message. I am not safe though you were to shut up a dozen of them in jail at once. Do you not see?"

They did see. Chet scratched his head in perplexed thought and Patricia stared at them both helplessly. It seemed an almost impossible 176tangle. It was Chet who presently shrugged his shoulders and addressed them in words of firmness and determination, thus:

"Say, this here does certainly seem some little puzzle, but you want to think ahead of things a bit, an' reason out how things are likely to go on if they keep runnin' in the same groove. Have you thought of this, miss—er—mam'selle? If you keep on like this, just knucklin' down to 'em all the time, are things ever goin' to get any better? Ain't they goin' to force you to do worse an' worse all the time just as long as they can keep you under? That's the Hun of it. They believe in terrorizing, they do! They think they got you cold as long as they can scare the livin' wits out of you. An' that's where America put it all over 'em. They didn't scare for a cent. All the Yanks ever thought of was, 'Lead me to 'em! Just let me get my hands on one of them 'ere Huns. I'll give 'em a little dose of "frightfulness." An' they did, too; an' the Huns are turnin' tail 177an' beatin' it this very minute at Chateau Thierry an' thereabouts."

"That's the spirit to have. Don't let 'em put it over you. An' another thing maybe you haven't thought of, miss—mam'selle. Do you really believe everything they're tellin' you? I bet they'd as soon fool you as eat their dinner! How do you know this is all true about your father? He may be well an' safe this very minute—"

"Oh, no, no!" interrupted Virginie. "If that were so I would have heard from him in some way. I have heard nothing in all these three years. No, he is not safe. He is surely in their power."

"Well, that may be so," insisted Chet, ............