"
"I had promised you, and I kept my promise," faltered Jane, striving
for words to explain, though she had been unable to explain her actions
even to herself. "I think my heart trusted you all the time, even though
my head and eyes made me believe you were what you pretended to be. Even
when things looked blackest my heart persisted that you were true."
"God bless your heart for that," cried Frederic, as he took the little
packet from her hands and began breaking the seals. "Yesterday morning,
when old Otto's plans were ready, I foresaw the danger of the trip ahead
of me. I realized I might never come back alive. If they discovered who
I was a second too soon it would mean my death. I dared not, for my
country's sake, tell even you what I was doing. My honor was at stake. I
dared not drop the slightest hint nor write a single line. The only
thing I'd kept about me in the apartment that wasn't filthy German stuff
was what's in here."
Slowly he was unwrapping something rolled in tissue paper, as Jane,
eager-eyed, looked wonderingly on.
"But," he went on, "I couldn't go away from you without leaving some
token, some clue. If it happened that I never came back, I wanted you
to know--"
He stopped abruptly.
"To know what?" questioned the girl breathlessly.
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