“Who is she?” whispered again the dreadful Rackbird.

“Come, come!” shouted the coachman from his seat, “we must move on.”

“Quick!  Who is she?” hissed Banker.

“She?” replied the quaking negro.  “She is the captain’s wife.  She is—­” But he could say no more, for a policeman was ordering the carriage to move on, for it stopped the way, and the coachman was calling impatiently.  Banker could not afford to meet a policeman.  He released his hold on Cheditafa and retired unnoticed.  An instant afterward he entered the Bon Marche.

Cheditafa climbed up to the side of the driver, but he missed his foothold several times, and came near falling to the ground.  In all Paris there was no footman on a carriage who looked less upright, less sedate, and less respectable than this poor, frightened black man.

Through the corridors and passageways of the vast establishment went Banker.  But he did not have to go far.  He saw at a counter a little green feather in the back of a bonnet.  Quietly he approached that counter, and no sooner had the attendant turned aside to get something that had been asked for than Banker stepped close to the side of the lady, and leaning forward, said in a very low but polite voice: 

“I am so glad to find the captain’s wife.  I have been looking for her.”

He was almost certain, from her appearance, that she was an American, and so he spoke in English.

Edna turned with a start.  She saw beside her a man with his hat off, a rough-looking man, but a polite one, and a man who looked like a sailor.

“The captain!” she stammered.  “Have you—­do you bring me anything!  A letter?”

“Yes, madam,” said he.  “I have a letter and a message for you.”

“Give them to me quickly!” said she, her face burning.

“I cannot,” he said.  “I cannot give them to you here.  I have much to say to you, and much to tell you, and I was ordered to say it in private.”

Edna was astounded.  Her heart sank.  Captain Horn must be in trouble, else why such secrecy?  But she must know everything, and quickly.  Where could she meet the man?  He divined her thought.

“The Gardens of the Tuileries,” said he.  “Go there now, please.  I will meet you, no matter in what part of it you are.”  And so saying, he slipped away unnoticed.

When the salesman came to her, Edna did not remember what she had asked to see, but whatever he brought she did not want, and going out, she had her carriage called, and ordered her coachman to take her to the Gardens of the Tuileries.  She was so excited that she did not wait for Cheditafa to get down, but opened the door herself, and stepped in quickly, even before the porter of the establishment could attend to her.

When she reached the Gardens, and Cheditafa opened the carriage door for her, she thought he must have a fit of chills and fever.  But she had no time to consider this, and merely told him that she was going to walk in the Gardens, and the carriage must wait.