A March day, sunny and cloudless, with fresh, bracing winds. Green

things pushed up from the soil; an eternal something was happening to

the tips of the tree branches; an eternal something was happening in

young hearts. A robin shook the dust of travel from his wings and bathed

publicly in a park basin.

Here and there under the ten thousand roofs of the great city poets were

busy with inkpots, trying to say an old thing in a new way. Woe to the

pinched soul that did not expand this day, for it was spring. Expansion!

Nature--perhaps she was relenting a little, perhaps she saw that

humanity was sliding down the scale, withering, and a bit of extra

sunshine would serve to check the descension and breed a little

optimism.

Cutty's study. The sunlight, thrown westward, turned windows and roofs

and towers into incomparable bijoux. The double reflection cast a white

light into the room, lifting out the blue and old-rose tints of the

Ispahan rug.

Cutty shifted the chrysoprase, irresolutely for him. A dozen problems,

and it was mighty hard to decide which to tackle first. Principally

there was Kitty. He had not seen her in four days, deeming it advisable

for her not to call for the present. The Bolshevik agent who had

followed him from the banker's might decide, without the aid of some

connecting episode, that he had wasted his time.

It did not matter that Kitty herself was no longer watched and followed

from her home to the office, from the office home. Was Karlov afraid

or had he some new trick up his sleeve? It was not possible that he

had given up Hawksley. He was probably planning an attack from some

unexpected angle. To be sure that Karlov would not find reason to

associate him with Kitty, Cutty had remained indoors during the daytime

and gone forth at night in his dungarees.

Problem Two was quite as formidable. The secret agent who had passed

as a negotiator for the drums of jeopardy had disappeared. That had

sinister significance. Karlov did not intend to sell the drums; merely

wanted precise information regarding the man who had advertised for

them. If the secret-service man weakened under torture, Cutty recognized

that his own usefulness would be at an end. He would have to step aside

and let the great currents sweep on without him. In that event these

fifty-two years would pile upon his head, full measure; for the only

thing that kept him vigorous was action, interest. Without some great

incentive he would shrivel up and blow away--like some exhumed mummy.

Problem Three. How the deuce was he going to fascinate Kitty if he

couldn't see her? But there was a bit of silver lining here. If

he couldn't see her, what chance had Hawksley? The whole sense and

prompting of this problem was to keep Kitty and Hawksley apart. How this

was accomplished was of no vital importance. Problem Three, then, hung

fire for the present. Funny, how this idea stuck in his head, that

Hawksley was a menace to Kitty. One of those fool ideas, probably, but

worth trying out.




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