"Do you suppose I shall allow my own social position to weigh with me, if by risking it I can save her?"
"No, I don't think you will. But now let me detail my scheme as I have thought it out. In the first place I have ascertained that the van leaves the prison at a definite hour every day. It drives down, takes the prisoners up, and drives back again. This being so, it is certain, as I have said before, that it must be stopped on its way from the prison to the court, and in such a way that it cannot go on again for at least half an hour. In the meantime another van must drive down equipped in every way like the real one. This one will take up the prisoner and drive off. Once out of sight of the station it will drive into the yard of an empty house, a conveyance will then be in waiting in the other street, her ladyship passes through the house, gets into that and drives off to a railway station; there a Pullman must be in readiness to take her to the seaside, whence a yacht will convey her to some place where we can have the Lone Star to meet her. I shall cable to Patterson to set off and be in readiness to pick us up directly we have decided where that place shall be."
"But how will you cable to him without exciting suspicion?"
"You need have no fear on that score; we have a means of communicating of our own, which I would explain now only it would be waste of time. What do you think of my scheme?"
"It sounds all right, but is it workable?"
"I really think so! However, we will discuss it, item by item, and try and arrive at a conclusion that way. To begin with, money must be considered no
