n I followed the detective out into the
waiting-room, where Obermuller was pacing the floor. At the sight of
my smiling face he came rushing to me.

"Nance!" he cried.

"Orders are, Morris," came in a bellow from the Chief at his door,
"that no further communication be allowed between the prisoner and--"

Phew! All the pertness leaked out of me. Oh, Mag, I don't like that
word. It stings--it binds--it cuts.

I don't know what I looked like then; I wasn't thinking of me. I was
watching Obermuller's face. It seemed to grow old and thin and haggard
before my eyes, as the blood drained out of it. He turned with an
exclamation to the Chief and--

And just then there came a long ring at the telephone.

Why did I stand there? O Mag, when you're on your way to the place I
was bound for, when you know that before you'll set foot in this same
bright little room again, the hounds in half a dozen cities will have
scratched clean every hiding-place you've had, when your every act will
be known and--and--oh, then, you wait, Mag, you wait for
anything--anything in the world; even a telephone call that may only be
bringing in another wretch like yourself; bound, like yourself, for the
Tombs.

The Chief himself went to answer it.

"Yes--what?" he growled. "Well, tell Long Distance to get busy.
What's that? St. Francis--that's the jag ward, isn't it? Who is it?
Who? Ramsay!"

I caught Obermuller's hand.

"I don't hear you," the Chief roared. "Oh--yes? Yes, we've got the
thief, but the money--no, we haven't got the money. The deuce you say!
Took it yourself? Out of your wife's purse--yes.... Yes. But we've
got the--What? Don't remember where you--"

"Steady, Nance," whispered Obermuller, grabbing my other hand.

I tried to stand steady, but everything swayed and I couldn't hear the
rest of what the Chief was saying, though all my life seemed condensed
into a listening. But I did hear when he jammed the receiver on the
hook and faced us.

"Well, they've got the money. Ramsay took the purse himself, thinking
it wasn't safe there under the spread where any servant might be
tempted who chanced to uncover it. You'll admit the thing looked
shady. The reason Mrs. Ramsay didn't know of it is because the old
man's just come to his senses in a hospital and been notified that the
purse was missing."

"I want to apologize to you, Chief," I mumbled.

"For thinking me stupid? Oh, we were both--"

"No, for thi