was almost perfectly planned. It looked so innocent—you could reach it just by stepping through the gaming room, or you could arrive there by the secret entrance—and any secrecy, any precautions were easily explained by the gaming going on in the next room.
Idly, as these thoughts passed through her mind, she drew a finger across the marble of the mantelpiece. Alfred saw and misinterpreted the action.
“You won’t find no dirt, not to speak of,” he said. “ Mr. Mosgorovsky, he ordered the place to be swept out this morning, and I did it while he waited.”
“Oh!” said Bundle, thinking very hard. “This morning, eh?”
“Has to be done sometimes,” said Alfred. “Though the room’s never what you might call used.”
Next minute he received a shock.
“Alfred,” said Bundle, “you’ve got to find me a place in this room where I can hide.”
Alfred looked at her in dismay.
“But it’s impossible, my lady. You’ll get me into trouble and I’ll lose my job.”
“You’ll lose it anyway when you go to prison,” said Bundle unkindly. “But as a matter of fact, you needn’t worry, nobody will know anything about it.”
“And there ain’t no place,” wailed Alfred. “Look round for yourself, your ladyship, if you don’t believe me.”
Bundle was forced to admit that there was something in this argument. But she had the true spirit of one undertaking adventures.