eful to close the door tightly behind him.

He gave the number of his residence on Riverside Drive, and waited for
the connection. After some delay, Jason's voice answered him.

"Jason," said Jimmie Dale, in matter-of-fact tones, "I shall be out
of the city for another three or four days, possibly a week, and--" he
stopped abruptly, as a sort of gasp came to him over the wire.

"Thank God that's you, sir!" exclaimed the old butler wildly. "I've been
near mad, sir, all day!"

"Don't get excited, Jason!" said Jimmie Dale a little sharply. "The mere
matter of my absence for the last two days is nothing to cause you any
concern. And while I am on the subject, Jason, let me say now that I
shall be glad if you will bear that fact in mind in future."

"Yes, sir," stammered Jason. "But, sir, it ain't that--good Lord, Master
Jim, it ain't that, sir! It's--it's one of them letters."

Something like a galvanic shock seemed to jerk the disreputable,
loose-jointed frame of Larry the Bat suddenly erect--and a strained
whiteness crept over the dirty, unwashed face.

"Go on, Jason," said Jimmie Dale, without a quiver in his voice.

"It came this morning, sir--that shuffer with his automobile left it.
I had just time to say you weren't at home, sir, and he was gone. And
then, sir, there ain't been an hour gone by all through the day that a
woman, sir--a lady, begging your pardon, Master Jim--hasn't rung up
on the telephone, asking if you were back, and if I could get you, and
where you were, and half frantic, sir, half sobbing, sometimes, sir, and
saying there was a life hanging on it, Master Jim."

Larry the Bat, staring into the mouthpiece of the instrument,
subconsciously passed his hand across his forehead, and subconsciously
noted that his fingers, as he drew them away, were damp.

"Where is the letter now, Jason?" inquired Jimmie Dale coolly.

"Here on your desk, Master Jim. Shall I bring it to you?"

Bring it to him! How? When? Where? Bring it to him! The ghastly irony
of it! Jimmie Dale tried to think--prodding, spurring desperately that
keen, lightning brain of his that had never failed him yet. How bridge
the gulf between Larry the Bat and Jimmie Dale in Jason's eyes--not just
for the replenishing of funds now, but with a life at stake!

"No--I think not, Jason," said Jimmie Dale calmly. "Just leave it where
it is. And if she telephones again, say that you have told me--that will
be sufficient to satisfy any furth