The Evening Herald

ANNE IVES Mascot
By H. M. EGBERT
Illustrations by O. I. IRWIN MYERS
(Copyright 1913 by W. G. Chadman)
(Continued from Saturday)

The pale and studious face of little Mr. Spratt stood out before my eyes with startling clearness.

"Then let us proceed to the vaults," said Magniff, and we all rose and followed him.

The functionaries closed in around us in a significant manner almost as though we were prisoners, I thought, and as though the vaults were destined to be our dungeon.

We proceeded by a subterranean stone stairway into the depths of the earth, emerging through an iron door way into a huge room, lighted by electric light, around which innumerable safety compartments were arranged.

Nobody else was there, except a janitor who stood at a door at the far end, which communicated by a flight of steps with the street outside. Magniff led us to the safe and handed the key to me.

"It has not been opened for thirty years," he said. "You may find the hinges stiffened. Nevertheless the Code Napoleon prescribes that you yourself shall open it. If it is beyond your power, doubtless, the chevalier will hold your fingers. But he must not unlock the safe."

I made no answer, but stepped forward and fitted the key into the lock, turning it until I obtained the combination. The functionaries, apparently inspired by intense interest, drew close, one on each side of me.

The heavy door swung open easily. Inside the safe I saw a bundle of papers. My hand shook so, from excitement, that I could barely lay hold of them.

"Observe! Her hand trembles, Gaston!" I heard one of the officials say to the other in a stage whisper.

I drew the papers from their resting place and handed them to Magniff.

"Pray examine these, and, if you find that they are made out correctly, complete the contract," I said.

"You again claim, before these gentlemen," said the banker, "that these are your own Panama bonds?"

"Indubitably," I answered.

Magniff signaled to the officials, and they came up to me. He glanced at the papers and began to shuffle them rapidly. One sheet became detached and fluttered to the ground. It was a doubled piece of notepaper, such as used anywhere for correspondence, and it was covered with minute writing. Suddenly Charles darted forward.

"The treaty!" he exclaimed, and grasped for it.

One of the officials stooped; his hands met those of my fiance.

As they rose I heard something click.

The chevalier was handcuffed!

The second man stepped up to him and touched him on the shoulder.

"Charles Victor Sebastian, Chevalier d'Yves," he said. "I arrest you for espionage and theft of a secret government document."

Charles was too stupefied to attempt resistance, even if the thought had entered his head.

I stared from one to the other of the group, still mystified. I had not yet fully comprehended.

Magniff whispered to the second man and he came to my side.

"Mademoiselle Anne Ives," he said, "I arrest you for complicity in the theft of a government document, and also for attempting to obtain money by the sale of worthless forged bonds."

Magniff nodded his head.

"A very clumsy forgery," he said.

He turned to me.

"It grieves me, mademoiselle, to have to place you under arrest," he continued. "I hoped that at the last moment you would not have the audacity to carry out this scheme. Remember, pray, that I warned you upon the occasion of our former interview, what would be the inevitable consequences should you persist in this attempt of yours to extort money from me. Had I alone been concerned," he concluded, "I should have permitted you to go unscathed. But I have my duty as Frenchman. When I discovered that this trick of yours was part of a wider scheme to defraud and betray France, that you had actually concealed the stolen document in this safe of yours, thinking to hide it when you removed the forged bonds, then my patriotism arose and forced me into action."