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Rh "My participation with Annis!" Hereford cried again. "Do you believe that?"

She smiled rather tremulously. "No."

Hereford saw that their positions had been reversed. It had been he that had had the upper hand in their last interview; now that position was—or she was making it seem—hers. Events, whose nature and extent were unknown to him, had moved forward while he slept.

"At least," he said, after a long pause, "some explanation from me is due you now."

"I hardly think an explanation is necessary now, Mr. Hereford," she returned. "It is quite plain now, is it not, that you believed Mr. Annis had the stone? That because of that you protected him—through collusion, he says. He is not telling the truth in that, I think. But at any rate you