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38 of his arrival in Quebec, and detailed his scheme to enter the United States secretly—as he puts it, by way of northern Maine—and promised to advise by telegraph as soon as he reached Moosehead Lake. He should have wired me ere this. Frankly, I am anxious about the boy!"

"And I!" the girl exclaimed pitifully. "To think that he should be brought into such peril through me!"

"You can tell me nothing?"

"Nothing—as yet. I did not dream that the message of the rose was known to any but Alan and myself. I cannot understand!"

"I may tell you that your father maintains a very efficient corps of secret agents."

"You think he spied upon me?"

"I know he did. In the service of my employer I, too, employ agents of my own. Your father sent you to Europe for the sole purpose of having you meet Alan."

"Oh!" she protested. "But what earthly motive"

"That Alan might be won back to America through you—and"

There was no need to finish. The girl was visibly mustering her wits to cope with this emergency.

"I may depend on you," Mr. Digby suggested, "to advise me if?"