nikka's plan was simple enough.

"when i was a boy and traveled with the tribe," he said, "and we wished to cross a frontier without being bothered by the customs officers or the royal foresters, we divided into two parties and struck off for our destination by two different routes."

hugh nodded.

"i see. you split the scent."

"exactly. our trailers are experts, as i told you chaps they would be. if you will take my advice, you will adopt gypsy tactics against them. confuse them, string out their pursuit—and then, perhaps, we can baffle them."

"i think you're right," answered hugh. "what do you say, jack?"

"suits me," i agreed. "nikka obviously knows more about this kind of game than we do."

"i've had experience," replied nikka simply. "besides, it's in my blood. ever since we embarked on this expedition i have felt the old gypsy strain in me clamoring for the open road. toutou's gang are using gypsies. very well, let us use gypsies."

"but how can we?" interrupted hugh.

"my name still means something to my people," said nikka with that mediæval sang-froid which had amazed me once before. "my father's tribe will fight for me. but in the first place, this is what i suggest. instead of sailing for constantinople by the messageries maritime from marseilles, let us take the train to brindisi. our trailers will expect us either to sail on the messageries packet or else go by rail to belgrade and connect with the orient express for constantinople.

"by going to brindisi we shall surprise them, and perhaps disarrange their plans. mind you, i don't expect to throw them off; but they will be uncertain. at brindisi we can connect with a boat for piræus. when we board that boat they will begin to believe that they understand our plans, because at piræus one finds frequent sailings for constantinople. and we shall book passage from piræus for constantinople, as they expect. but after we have gone aboard with our baggage, jack and i will leave the boat by stealth."

"how are you going to manage all that?" i interrupted.

"you can always bribe a steward," returned nikka. "it will be for hugh and watkins to keep the enemy's attentions occupied. they can engage in conversations with us through the door of our stateroom, and that sort of thing."

"but what then?" demanded hugh. "you divide forces. that makes each party half as strong as we are now."

"there'll be no harm in that," nikka reassured him. "our shadows will soon find out that jack and i are not on the constantinople boat, and they won't venture to touch you and watkins until they have located us—which i assure you they won't be able to do."

"why not?"

"jack and i are going to take another boat for salonika, and from salonika we shall go by train to seres in the eastern tip of greek macedonia. at seres—and i don't expect them to be able to trail us there—jack and i will disappear. we shall cease to exist. there will be two additional members in the band of wasso mikali, my mother's brother, and that band will be traveling to constantinople with horses from the dobrudja to trade with officers of the allied detachments in the city."

"and watty and i?" questioned hugh.

"you go to the pera palace hotel. meet this miss king and her father, but don't let anybody suspect that you expected to meet them. remember, you will be watched all the time. your rooms and your baggage will be searched. i think they will investigate the kings, too. yes, that is likely. you must have miss king hide the copy of the instructions you sent her. not in her trunks—ah, i have it! let her place it in an envelope, addressed to herself, poste restante. she can go to the post office and collect it whenever we need it.

"you and watkins will not be in any danger. toutou's people will be too busy trying to find jack and me. they will be suspecting that you are simply bait to distract their attention—which will be quite correct. but you must be careful not to venture around the city without plenty of company. take an allied officer with you whenever you can. you might use the daylight hours to find the site of the bucoleon."

"professor king can help them there," i interrupted. "he knows old constantinople quite well."

"excellent," applauded nikka. "but remember, hugh, i said 'daylight hours.' don't venture around indiscriminately, and don't go anywhere, even in the daylight, without several other people. the larger your party, the safer you will be against accidents—and it is an accident, rather than a deliberate attack, you will have to guard against."

"but how are we going to get in touch with you?" asked hugh.

"leave that to us," replied nikka, with his quiet grin. "make it a custom to lounge in front of the pera palace every morning after breakfast for half an hour; and keep a watch out for gypsies. you'll be seeing them all the time, of course, but don't let on that you're interested in them. some morning two especially disreputable fellows will come by, and one of them will contrive to get a word with you. follow them."

"that's a corking plan," hugh approved warmly. "well, lads, we'll be in marseilles early in the morning. shall we nap a bit?"

if we were followed in marseilles, we didn't know it. we only left the railroad station to get breakfast and dispatch a telegram from nikka to his uncle—or, rather, to an address in seres which acted as a clearing-house for the operations of this particular gypsy band. then we took the train for milan, and stopped off over-night to secure some sleep. the italian railways were never very comfortable, and the war did not improve them.

we figured, too, that by stopping at milan we might additionally confuse our shadows, as the city was a natural point of departure for belgrade. but the first person i saw in the southern express restaurant-car was hélène de cespedes. she had discarded her black dress for a modish costume with furs, and sat by herself in dignified seclusion, looking at once smartly aristocratic and innocently lovely. she greeted me with a smile, and crooked her finger.

"don't you 'ave nothing to do with 'er, mister jack," breathed watkins explosively from the rear of our group. "that's 'er!"

"is that the pretty lady?" whispered hugh. "my word, watty, i'll forgive you! jack, you hound, introduce us. she looks better than she did the other night!"

i looked at nikka.

"it's a good plan to know your enemies," he said. "they already know us. it can't do any harm for us to know them."

hélène gave us a charming smile.

"i'm delighted to meet you boys," she said. "and dear old watkins! we're quite friends, aren't we, watkins?"

watkins mumbled something that i fear was scarcely courteous.

"you can introduce me as the countess de cespedes, if you like, mr. nash," she continued. "i wonder if you knew cespedes, mr. zaranko? he was a rotten old duffer, but he took me off the stage."

"i've heard of him," said nikka, smiling. "didn't he leave you anything to keep you going?"

she shrugged her shoulders.

"other girls had the pickings before i met him. there was nothing left for me but the name."

"is that the only one you use?" asked hugh.

"oh, come, now," she remonstrated. "there's a flag of truce up. really, though, if you mention our opposition, i ought to compliment you on your work so far. i believe you might elude any mob but ours."

"we'll leave the decision on that point to the future," smiled nikka. "by the way, how did you come to get into this game?"

she shrugged her shoulders again. she was an odd mixture of latin grace and american ease.

"it's the sort of thing i do best. my folks were wops of some kind. i was born in new york. i went with crooks after i left school. then i joined the follies, and a broker cottoned to me. he educated me, music, languages, all that stuff. i went to paris with him. when we broke off, i tried the stage there. it was just before the war. i was only a kid still, and cespedes fell for me. after he croaked i tried a bit of everything. for a while i worked for the austrians—"

"spy?" questioned nikka.

"sure. there's no harm in mentioning it now, and anyway, i was never caught. that was how i happened to meet serge and sandra; they were in toutou's mob. i needed money; he needed brains and a doll-baby face."

"you seem to have a grip on him," i said. "but i don't see how you can stand the beast. he gives me the creeps."

she eyed me curiously.

"i'm not afraid of him," she answered indifferently. "most women are attracted by him, you know. you haven't seen his other side."

"i don't want to."

"i hope you don't," she agreed. "say, did you know you made quite a hit with sandra, mr. nash?"

hugh and nikka laughed. i flushed.

"oh, you needn't flare up," she said. "i can see why you did. you boys are a good bunch of sports. i wish we didn't have to trim you."

"why do it, then?" asked hugh.

"i don't sell out," she answered curtly. "get that straight, lord chesby. since i was a kid, i've had to fight my own way. as near as i can make out, the kind of people who are called respectable and honest are only cleverer crooks than the rest of us. i'm out to make all i can in my own way, and i play according to the rules of my mob."

"you called us good sports," nikka pointed out.

it was her turn to flush.

"call it a woman's soft heart," she returned. "honestly, i get fed up on this life once in a while. if i could have married a decent wop back in new york, and had a few kids and worked my fingers off— well, i wouldn't have been able to get along without corsets and put it over you the way i did in the marseilles train the other night, lord chesby."

"that may be true," hugh agreed. "you are the first—ah—"

"crook," she flashed, with a show of white teeth.

"thanks for the word. you are the first of your species i've had the pleasure of meetin'. i don't quite see the attraction of the life for you."

"you wouldn't," she replied. "i'm what you english call a wrong 'un. maude hilyer thinks that if she and montey could cash in they would chuck this life and go straight. but i know she's dead wrong. if you're once wrong, you're always wrong. the best thing you can do is to play safe and steer clear of the cops. that's me."

"but i say!" hugh objected. "you say everybody is crooked, and next you say—"

"never mind what i say," she interrupted. "you aren't going to reform me. and i'm against you. and if i can trim you i'll do it, and if toutou wants to knife you, and it won't interfere with the game, why, i'll let him go ahead. and with it all, i like you. now, do you understand me?"

"yes," said hugh, smiling. "i once met a very gallant bavarian gentleman between two sets of barbed wire to arrange about burying some dead soldiers, and we found we liked each other very much. but afterward we tried hard to kill each other, and i am afraid i succeeded."

"you've got me," she assented. "well, you must be hungry, boys. you don't want to save a lot of trouble, and maybe your lives, by giving up that treasure secret, i suppose?"

"no, thanks, countess," laughed hugh. "we'll give you a bit of a run for your money yet."

she laughed back with that pleasant, well-bred trill of a carefree schoolgirl, and we bowed and left her.

the next time we saw her she was standing by the gangplank of the steamer at brindisi.

"aren't you going on with us?" i hailed her.

"no, mr. nash. i'm leaving you in competent hands. good lord, boy, you can't dodge us. we've got a system—well, the late well-known czar might have been proud to own it. be good, and give up before you get hurt."

"that goes for your people, too," i replied a trifle grimly, for i was growing tired of threats.

she waved her hand impatiently, and stepped over to my side. hugh and the others already were passing up the gangplank.

"say, boy, i don't want you to get hurt. neither does sandra. if anything goes wrong, watch your step. we'll do what we can, but—"

she pivotted on her heel and melted into the crowd. i climbed the gangplank with my chin on my shoulder, and was met with a shower of joshes by hugh and nikka.

"doin' a little missionary work?" inquired hugh.

"do you flatter yourself you're aroused the lady's disinterested affection?" asked nikka.

"no, to both of you," i retorted. "but she—what's the words the novelists use?—oh, yes, she intrigues me."

"she'll intrigue you out of everything you know, if you're not careful," nikka warned me.

"remember what she did to watty," cautioned hugh.

"the 'ussey!" grunted watkins, who could never bear to hear her mentioned.

hugh predicted that we would yet meet her on board, but a diligent search of the vessel failed to reveal anyone, in or out of trousers, who remotely resembled her, and we took account of several blonde northern peasants in our canvass. also, whoever she had delegated to watch us kept themselves severely in the background. we were not conscious of any espionage.

at piræus we had a choice of several steamers sailing for constantinople, none of them greek, however, as greece was at war with the kemalist government which had been set up in anatolia. nikka pitched upon a french boat that lay across the wharf from a greek liner plying to salonika and the greek islands of the ægean. the frenchman was sailing at dawn the next morning; the salonika boat was due to cast off several hours later.

we booked two cabins on the frenchman, and hired a clerk at the british consulate to reserve a cabin and passage for two on the salonika boat. this arrangement made, we mustered our scanty baggage, and boarded the frenchman just before dinnertime. we dined together ostentatiously in the saloon, having publicly concluded a treaty with the purser that we might spend the night on board and so avoid the inconvenience of an early morning start. and after dinner, with many yawns and protestations of weariness, we betook ourselves to bed.

our cabins were next to each other, and as a matter of fact, we played poker until long past midnight. then nikka and i said good-by to hugh and watty, and sneaked out into the companionway. several sleepy stewards eyed us, but there were no passengers about. the quartermaster on guard at the gangway we handed a napoleon, telling him we were obliged to land in order to dispose of some forgotten business. the watchman on the pier was conciliated in the same way. and finally, the deck-guard of the greek liner, once his fingers were greased and our tickets shown to him, offered no objection to escorting us to our cabin.

at dawn we were awakened by the whistling of the frenchman as he backed out from the pier, and from a porthole we watched him disappear in the mist of the harbor. at noon the epaminondas likewise cast off, and nikka and i thankfully abandoned our battles with the cockroaches that fought with us for possession of the bunks, and ascended to the deck.

nikka sniffed the air as we stepped from the saloon companionway.

"it's good to be out of that stink below," i remarked with feeling.

"i am trying to smell an enemy," he answered curtly.

"to smell—" i hastily checked my temptation to ridicule him, remembering that occasionally nikka was startlingly metamorphosed in to a creature of primordial instincts. "oh," i said lamely, "and—er—do you?"

"no," he said seriously. "it is as hugh said. we have split the scent. they are at fault."