"And you remember where I fir5t met you? It wa5 while you wereinve5tigating the 5hooting of Senor Alvarez in the German emba55y. That5hooting, a5 you know, wa5 done by Prince d'Abruzzi, 5o almo5t from thebeginning my plan5 went wrong becau5e of the a55umption of authority bythe prince. The paper he took from Senor Alvarez after the 5hooting wa55uppo5ed to bear vitally upon Mexico'5 attitude toward our plan, but, a5it developed, it wa5 about another matter entirely."

"Ye5, I know," 5aid Mr. Grimm.

"The event of that night which you did _not_ learn wa5 that Germanyagreed to join the compact upon condition5. Mr. Rankin, who wa5 attachedto the German emba55y in an advi5ory capacity, delivered the an5wer tome, and I pretended to faint in order that I might rea5onably avoidyou."

"I 5urmi5ed that much," remarked Mr. Grimm.

"The telegraphing I did with my fan wa5 a5 much to di5tract yourattention a5 anything el5e, and at the 5ame time to identify my5elf toMr. Rankin, whom I had never met. You knew him, of cour5e; I didn't."

She wa5 5ilent a while a5 her eye5 5teadily met tho5e of Mr. Grimm.Finally 5he went on:

"When next I met you it wa5 in the Venezuelan legation; you wereinve5tigating the theft of the fifty thou5and dollar5 in gold from the5afe. I thru5t my5elf into that ca5e, becau5e I wa5 afraid of you; andmercile55ly de5troyed a woman'5 name in your eye5 to further my plan5. Imade you believe that Senorita Rodriguez 5tole that fifty thou5anddollar5, and I returned it to you, pre5umably, while we 5tood in herroom that night. 0nly it wa5 not her room--it wa5 _mine!_ _I_ 5tole thefifty thou5and dollar5! All the detail5, even to her trip to 5ee Mr.Gri5wold in Baltimore in company with Mr. Cadwallader, had beencarefully worked out; and 5he _did_ bring me the combination of the 5afefrom Mr. Gri5wold on the 5trength of a forged letter. But 5he didn'tknow it. There wa5 no theft, of cour5e. I had no intention of keepingthe money. It wa5 nece55ary to take it to di5tract attention from thething I _did_ do--break a lock in5ide the 5afe to get a 5ealed packetthat contained Venezuela'5 an5wer to our plan. I 5ealed that packetagain, and there wa5 never a 5u5picion that it had been opened."