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With deft fingers, Larenz helped her take off her own very pretty dress. As Elaine slipped the soft gown over her head, with her head and arms engaged in its multitudinous folds, Madame Larenz, a powerful woman, seized her. Elaine was effectually gagged and bound in the gown itself. Instantly, Del Mar flung himself from the closet, disguising his voice.
Near Del Mar's bungalow might have been seen again the mysterious naturalist, walking along the road with a butterfly net in his hand and what appeared to be a leather specimen case, perhaps six inches long, under his other arm. As Madame Larenz whizzed past in her car, he looked up keenly in spite of his seeming near-sightedness and huge smoked glasses.
Together, they wrapped the dress about Elaine even more tightly to prevent her screaming. Madame 'Larenz seized a blanket and threw that over Elaine's head, also, while Del Mar ran to the window. There were his men in the car, waiting below. "Are you ready?" he called softly to them. They looked about carefully. There was no one on that side of the hotel just at the moment.
Among the many fashionable people at the watering-place, however, she attracted no great attention and in the forenoon she quietly went out in her motor for a ride. It was Madame Larenz, one of Del Mar's secret agents who, up to this time, had been engaged in spying on wealthy and impressionable American manufacturers.
"Ready," responded one. "Quick!" Together, Del Mar and Madame Larenz passed Elaine, ineffectually struggling, out of the window. The men seized her and placed her in the bottom of the car, which was covered. Then they shot away, taking a back road up the hill. Hurriedly the naturalist went through the lobby in the direction Elaine had gone, and a moment later reached the corridor above.
As she entered, quickly she selected one of the trunks whose contents were more smart than the rest and laid the gowns out most fetchingly about the room. In the office of the hotel a few moments later, the naturalist entered. He looked around curiously, then went to the desk and glanced over the register. At the name "Mme Larenz, Paris, Room 22," he paused. For some seconds he stood thinking.
Outside, at the same time, according to his carefully concocted plans, Del Mar's car had driven up and stopped close to the side of the hotel, which was on a slight hill that brought the street level here not so far below the second story windows. Three of his most trusted men were in the car. Madame Larenz opened the door. "Oh, I'm so glad you came," she rattled on to Elaine.
Germain, Madame Larenz entered and passed through the rotunda of the hotel, followed by many admiring glances of the men. Up in her room stood several large trunks, open. From them had been taken a number of gowns which were scattered about or hung up for exhibition.
Del Mar at home?" inquired Madame Larenz, as the valet ushered her into the library. "No ma'am," he returned. "Mr. Del Mar is out. But he left word that if you came before he got back, you were to leave word." The woman sat down at the desk and wrote hastily. When she had finished the short note, she read it over and folded it up. "Tell Mr.
Elaine paused in serving the ball and the woman handed her a card from her delicate gold mesh bag. It read simply: Mme. Larenz Paris Gowns Elaine looked at the card a moment while the woman repeated what she had already told Aunt Josephine. "You have them here, then?" queried Elaine, interested. "Yes, I have some very exclusive models which I am showing at my suite in the St. Germain."
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