“I don’t mind,” Julia Denton shrugged. “But we mustn’t stay too late, Molly dear, because you know we promised to visit my Cousin Elsie before the afternoon is over.”

“Don’t be such a fussbudget. Come along now.”

I now unlocked the double doors of the Snuggery and let them go ahead of me. Swiftly I bolted the outer door, then closed the inner one, and now both girls were trapped… Molly Bashe knowingly, but Julia Denton unwittingly.

“What lovely thick Persian carpets, don’t you think, Julia?” the brunette turned to her sandy-haired friend.

“Oh, they’re all right,” Julia Denton diffidently agreed. “It’s most quiet in here, I will say that. And after all the noise of the street, I imagine this would be a welcome retreat. But didn’t you say, Molly, that this is Mr. Jack’s exercise room?”

“Indeed it is.” I took up the cue. “If you will make yourself comfortable in that green armchair, Miss Denton, I will show you just how I use it. It’s better than a club or a gymnasium in many ways.”

Molly Bashe averted her eyes, and I suspect that she too had some difficulty in keeping her nominal composure so as not to give away the secret. Julia Denton, I observed out of the corner of my eye, wandered over to the comfortable armchair and seated herself with a little sigh of comfort. The first trap was sprung!

“Now then, Miss Molly,” I blandly continued, “you will notice the wristlets of those pulleys. You fasten them around your wrists and then grasp the rope with your hand, thus dividing your weight between wrist and hand, instead of all of it coming on the fingers as on a trapeze.”

“Oh, yes, I do remember now. Let me try it.”

Molly approached the pulleys, while I followed with a congenial smile. I fastened the ropes to her wrist, and she at once began to swing herself slowly and gently backward and forward.