mation, sometimes, as
well; and of those few, not one but was of the underworld itself. And
it was that fact which held his muscles strained and rigid now under the
miserable rags that covered them, and it was that which kept the keen,
quick brain alert and active, every faculty keyed up and tense. If it
were the police, he had little to fear, for they could not force
their way in without warning; but if it were the underworld, he was in
imminent peril, and had done little better than run himself into a trap
from which there was no escape.

"DEATH TO THE GRAY SEAL!"--he had heard that whispered more than once in
this very place. Who knew at what moment the role of Larry the Bat would
be uncovered, and the underworld, where now he held so high a place,
would be at his throat like a pack of snarling wolves! Who had been
shadowing him during the last hour?

Whisperings! Nothing tangible! He could catch no words. Only the
never-ending whisperings of gathered groups here and there--and
sometimes the clink of coin where some game was in progress.

The curtain before his bunk was drawn suddenly aside--and Larry
the Bat's fingers, where his hand was carelessly hidden by his body
tightened upon his automatic.

"Smokee some more?"

The fingers relaxed. It was only Sam Wah, one of the attendants.

"Nix!" said Larry the Bat, in a slightly muddled tone. "Got enough."

The curtain fell into place again. Larry the Bat's lips set in a thin
smile. Ultimately it made little difference whether it was the police or
the underworld! The smile grew thinner. It was the flip of a coin, that
was all! With one there was the death house at Sing Sing for the Gray
Seal; with the other--well, there were many ways, from a shot or a knife
thrust in the open street, to his murder in some hidden dive like
this of Chang Foo's, for instance, where he now was--the Gray Seal was
responsible for the occupancy of too many penitentiary cells by those of
the underworld to look for any other fate!

He raised himself up sharply on his elbow. A shrill, high note, like
the scream of a parrakeet, rang out a second time. He tore the curtain
aside, and jumped to his feet. All around him, in the twinkling of an
eye, Chinamen in fluttering blouses, chattering like magpies, mingled
with snarling, cursing whites, were running madly. A voice, prefaced
with an oath, bawled out behind him, as he sprang forward and joined the
rush:

"Beat it! De cops! Beat it!"

T