now, instead, he was face to face with
the gravest and most dangerous problem that she had ever called upon him
to undertake!

Well, at least, the odds were not all in the Crime Club's favour. Where
they now certainly believed him to be entirely off his guard, he was
thoroughly on his guard; and where they might suspect him, watch him,
they would suspect and watch only the character, the person of Jimmie
Dale, and count not at all upon either Larry the Bat or--the Gray Seal.

A sort of savage elation fell upon Jimmie Dale. His brain, that had been
stagnant, confused, physically sick with pain and suffering, was working
now with its old-time vigour and ease, mapping, planning, scheming the
way ahead. To strike, and strike quickly--to strike FIRST! It must be
his move next--not theirs! And he must act to-night at once, the moment
he was given this pretence to liberty that they had in store for him,
before they had an opportunity of closing down around him with a network
of spies that he could not elude. By morning, Jimmie Dale would be Larry
the Bat, and inhabiting the Sanctuary again. And a tip to Jason, his
old butler, to the effect, say, that he had gone away for a trip,
would account for his disappearance satisfactorily enough; it would not
necessarily arouse their suspicions when they eventually discovered he
was gone, for against that was always the possible, and quite likely
presumption that, where they had succeeded in nothing else, they had
at least succeeded in frightening him thoroughly and to the extent of
imbuing him with a hasty desire to put a safe distance between himself
and them.

And now, with his mind made up to his course of action, an intense
impatience to put his plan into effect, an irritation at the useless
twistings and turnings of the car that had latterly become more
frequent, took hold upon him. How much longer was this to last! They
must have been fully an hour and a half on the road already, and--ah,
the car was stopping now!

He straightened up in his seat as the machine came to a halt--but the
man at his side laid a restraining hand upon him. The car door opened,
and one of the men got out. Jimmie Dale caught an indistinct murmur of
voices from without, then the man returned to his seat, and the car went
on again.

Another half hour passed, that, curbing his irritation and impatience,
was filled with the conjectures and questions that anew came crowding in
upon his mind. Why had the