DIANA REVOLTS

Charlie Mershone had no difficulty in securing his release when Parker
came on duty at six o'clock. He called up a cab and went at once to his
rooms at the Bruxtelle; and Fogerty followed him.

While he discarded his dress-coat, took a bath and donned his walking
suit Mershone was in a brown study. Hours ago Louise had been safely
landed at the East Orange house and placed in the care of old Madame
Cerise, who would guard her like an ogre. There was no immediate need of
his hastening after her, and his arrest and the discovery of half his
plot had seriously disturbed him. This young man was no novice in
intrigue, nor even in crime. Arguing from his own stand-point he
realized that the friends of Louise were by this time using every
endeavor to locate her. They would not succeed in this, he was positive.
His plot had been so audacious and all clews so cleverly destroyed or
covered up that the most skillful detective, knowing he had abducted the
girl; would be completely baffled in an attempt to find her.

The thought of detectives, in this connection, led him to decide that he
was likely to be shadowed. That was the most natural thing for his
opponents to do. They could not prove Mershone's complicity in the
disappearance of Louise Merrick, but they might easily suspect him,
after that little affair of Weldon's arrest. Therefore if he went to the
girl now he was likely to lead others to her. Better be cautious and
wait until he had thrown the sleuths off his track.

Having considered this matter thoroughly, Mershone decided to remain
quiet. By eight o'clock he was breakfasting in the grill room, and