IN WHICH THEY BOTH WIN

Mr. Grimm dropped into a chair with his teeth clenched, and his face like chalk.  For a minute or more he sat there turning it all over in his mind.  Truly the triumph had been robbed of its splendor when the blow fell here—­here upon a woman he loved.

“There’s no shame in the confession of one who is fairly beaten,” Isabel went on softly, after a little.  “There are many things that you don’t understand.  I came to Washington with an authority from my sovereign higher even than that vested in the ambassador; I came as I did and compelled Count di Rosini to obtain an invitation to the state ball for me in order that I might meet a representative of Russia there that night and receive an answer as to whether or not they would join the compact.  I received that answer; its substance is of no consequence now.

“And you remember where I first met you?  It was while you were investigating the shooting of Senor Alvarez in the German embassy.  That shooting, as you know, was done by Prince d’Abruzzi, so almost from the beginning my plans went wrong because of the assumption of authority by the prince.  The paper he took from Senor Alvarez after the shooting was supposed to bear vitally upon Mexico’s attitude toward our plan, but, as it developed, it was about another matter entirely.”

“Yes, I know,” said Mr. Grimm.

“The event of that night which you did not learn was that Germany agreed to join the compact upon conditions.  Mr. Rankin, who was attached to the German embassy in an advisory capacity, delivered the answer to me, and I pretended to faint in order that I might reasonably avoid you.”

“I surmised that much,” remarked Mr. Grimm.

“The telegraphing I did with my fan was as much to distract your attention as anything else, and at the same time to identify myself to Mr. Rankin, whom I had never met.  You knew him, of course; I didn’t.”

She was silent a while as her eyes steadily met those of Mr. Grimm.  Finally she went on: 

“When next I met you it was in the Venezuelan legation; you were investigating the theft of the fifty thousand dollars in gold from the safe.  I thrust myself into that case, because I was afraid of you; and mercilessly destroyed a woman’s name in your eyes to further my plans.  I made you believe that Senorita Rodriguez stole that fifty thousand dollars, and I returned it to you, presumably, while we stood in her room that night.  Only it was not her room—­it was mine! I stole the fifty thousand dollars!  All the details, even to her trip to see Mr. Griswold in Baltimore in company with Mr. Cadwallader, had been carefully worked out; and she did bring me the combination of the safe from Mr. Griswold on the strength of a forged letter.  But she didn’t know it.  There was no theft, of course.  I had no intention of keeping the money.  It was necessary to take it to distract attention from the thing I did do—­break a lock inside the safe to get a sealed packet that contained Venezuela’s answer to our plan.  I sealed that packet again, and there was never a suspicion that it had been opened.”