"Of what are you thinking?" he asked when he concluded that the pause had been long enough.
"Ah, Olga, why the deuce must you go and fall in love with a bundle of ashes like myself? Ashes, and bitter ashes, too. Sometimes I regret. But the regretting only seems to make me all the more savage. What opium and dope are to other men, danger and excitement are to me. It is not written that I shall die in bed. I have told you that already. There is no other woman--now. And I do love you after a fashion, as a man loves a comrade. Wait till this dancing bout is over and I may talk otherwise. And now I am going to shake hands and hobnob with the elite--beautiful word! And while I bow and smirk and crack witticisms, I and the devil will be chuckling in our sleeves. But this I'll tell you, while there's a drop of blood in my veins, a breath in my body, I'll stick to this fight if only to prove that I'm not a quitter."
He caught her suddenly in his arms, kissed her, ran lightly to the door, and was gone before she could recover from her astonishment.
The affair went smoothly, without a hitch. Norton and his men gained the house through the tunnel without attracting the least attention. The Black Hundred, watching the front and rear of the house, never dreamed that there existed another mode of entrance or that there was a secret cabinet room.
Half an hour later the head of the secret service, accompanied by his men, together with "Spider" Beggs, who was in high feather over his success, arrived, demanded admittance, and went at the front of the business at once.
The butler nodded, though his face evinced no little bewilderment at the appearance of these men.
"I am from the secret service and I have it from a pretty good source that there is counterfeit money hidden in this house. More than that, I can put my hand on the very place it is hidden."
"That is impossible, sir," declared Jones indignantly.
"I am an old hand, Mr. Jones. It will not do you a bit of good to put on that bold front."
Beggs smiled. How was he to know that this was a comedy set especially for his benefit?
"I should like to see that money," said Jones, not quite so bravely.
"Come with me," said the secret service man. "Where's the library?"