's got your room ready while you're readin' your
letter."

The man left the room.

Jimmie Dale sat up on the couch, and tore the envelope open. The note,
scrawled in pencil, began abruptly:

"You were quite a problem. I couldn't take you HOME--could I? I couldn't
take you to what you call the Sanctuary could I? I couldn't take you to
a hospital, nor call in a doctor--the stain you use wouldn't stand it.
But, thank God! I know it's only a flesh wound, and you are all right
where you are for the day or two that you must keep quiet and take care
of yourself. By the time you read this the paper will be on the way to
the proper hands, and by morning the four where they should be. There
were a few articles in your clothes I thought it better to take charge
of in case--well, in case of ACCIDENT."

Jimmie Dale tore the note up, and smiled wryly at the door. He felt
in his pockets. Mask, revolver, burglar's tools, and the thin metal
insignia case were gone.

"And I had the sublime optimism," murmured Jimmie Dale, "to spend months
trying to find her as Larry the Bat!"

CHAPTER IX

TWO CROOKS AND A KNAVE

The bullet wound along the side of his head and just above his ear would
have been a very awkward thing indeed, in more ways than one, for Jimmie
Dale, the millionaire, to have explained at his club, in his social set,
or even to his servants, and of these latter to Jason the Solicitous
in particular; but for Jimmie Dale as Larry the Bat it was a matter of
little moment. There was none to question Larry the Bat, save in a most
casual and indifferent way; and a bandage of any description, primarily
and above all one that he could arrange himself, with only himself to
take note of the incongruous hues of skin where the stain, the grease
paint, and the make-up was washed off, would excite little attention
in that world where daily affrays were common-place happenings, and a
wound, for whatever reason, had long since lost the tang of novelty. Why
then should it arouse even a passing interest if Larry the Bat, credited
as the most confirmed of dope fiends, should have fallen down the
dark, rickety stairs of the tenement in one of his orgies, and, in the
expressive language of the Bad Lands, cracked his bean!

And so Jimmie Dale had been forced to maintain the role of Larry the Bat
for a far longer period than he had anticipated when, ten days before,
he had assumed it for the night's work that had so nearly result