snatched a veil and a soft hat, and putting these on as she went, she
flew out of the house without putting out the lights or locking the
door.

It was a dark windy night, slightly cool for August, and a fine misty
rain was blowing. Bessy's footsteps pattered softly as she ran block
after block, and she did not slacken her pace till she reached the
house where Daren Lane had his room. In answer to her ring a woman
appeared, who told her Mr. Lane was out.

This was a severe disappointment to Bessy, and left her an alternative
that required more than courage, but she did not vacillate. She sped
swiftly on in the dark, for the electric lights were few and far
between, until the black of the gloomy building, where the boys had
their club, loomed up. On the corner Bessy saw a man standing with his
back to a telegraph pole. This occasioned her much concern; perhaps he
might be watching the building. But he had not seen her, of that she
was certain. The possibility that he might be a spy made her task all
the harder.

Bessy returned the way she come, crossed at the next corner, hurried
round the block and up to the outside stairway that was her objective
point.

By feeling along the brick wall she brought up, with a sudden bump, at
the back of the stairway. Then she deliberated. If she went around to
the front so as to get access to the steps, she might pass in range of
the loiterer whom she mistrusted. That risk she would not incur.
Examining the wall that enclosed the box-like stairway as best she
could in the dark, she found it rickety, full of holes and cracks, and
she decided she would climb it. A sheer perpendicular board wall, some
twelve or fifteen feet high, shrouded in pitchy darkness and
apparently within earshot of a police spy, did not daunt Bessy Bell.
Slipping her strong fingers in crevices and her slim toes in cracks,
she climbed up and up, till she got hold of the railing post on the
first platform. Here she had great difficulty to keep from falling,
but lifting and squirming her supple body, by a desperate effort she
got her knees on the platform, and then pulled herself to safety. Once
on the stairs she ran up the remaining few steps to the landing, where
she rested panting and triumphant.

As she was about to go on she heard footsteps, which froze her. A man
was crossing the street. He came from the direction of the corner
where she had seen the supposed spy. Presently she saw him stop under
one of