Maybe you'll find things there you don't understand. That don't matter.
Maybe you can figger them out between you."

Then he turned to Keeko and his steady eyes regarded her seriously under
the disfiguring mask.

"Get a look at it all, my dear. All. But say, as you value your
life--and Marcel's and my peace of mind--don't shift that mask a hair's
breadth, no matter how you feel--looking around. When you come out you
can tell me about things."

He set the door ajar, and leading the girl by the hand Marcel passed
into the house of death.

* * * * *

Steve stood guard. He listened with straining ears. There came the faint
sound of muffled voices from within, and the sound of movement. The
moments dragged slowly. Once he thought he heard a series of sharp
exclamations. But he could not be sure. He expected them. That was all.

After awhile the voices ceased, and there only remained the shuffling of
feet whose sound drew nearer. The visit was short, as he expected it
would be. He understood. A moment later he felt pressure against the
door.

He opened it, and Keeko and Marcel returned to the open air. Without a
word Steve re-fastened the door. Marcel dragged the mask from his
troubled face and Keeko followed his example.

Steve turned from the door and stood confronting them. His eyes were
hard. They were almost fierce as he looked into the startled faces
before him.

"Well?" he demanded. Then his gaze rested on the girl. "You saw--it?"

Keeko inclined her head. She hesitated. A curious parching of throat and
tongue left her striving to moisten her trembling lips.

"Yes," she said, at last.

"And it was--Nicol?"

"Yes."

Quite suddenly Steve laughed. It was a mere expression of relief, but it
succeeded in robbing his eyes of a light which so rarely found place in
them. He pointed at the closed door.

"He came here in the night," he said. "I don't know how he came. I never
saw a sign of his outfit. Maybe they left him, as he didn't get back."

He shrugged indifference.

"It don't matter anyway. I was at work. Same as I'd been at work nights.
I'd a lamp burning. Maybe he saw me through the window. I guess that was
so. The door was shut, but unfastened. I didn't dare keep it fast,
working in there. Well, I heard a sound. The door was pushed wide and he
jumped in on me with a loaded gun at my vitals. He'd got me plumb set.
Sure. But the dope. It didn't give him a chance. It g