and the muffling rain-coat saved him.

Reaching the street, he did not attempt to walk to the Temple Court.
Instead, he crept around to a garage near the hotel and hired a
two-seated road-car. Quite naturally, the garage-keeper wanted to send
his own driver, and Blount counted it as an unavoidable misfortune that
he was obliged to give his name, and to hear the motor-liveryman say:
"Oh, sure! I didn't recognize you, Mr. Blount. I reckon Senator Dave's
son can have anything o' mine that he wants."

Blount drove the road-car all the way around the Capitol grounds to come
into his office street inconspicuously. Across from the Temple Court the
fire ruins were still smouldering, and there was an acrid odor of stale
smoke in the air. For a full third of the block the street was littered
with debris. Blount stopped his machine at the nearest corner and got
out to reconnoitre the office-building entrance. In the vestibule he
glanced up at the face of the illuminated wall-clock, making a hasty
calculation based upon the leaving time of the east-bound Overland.
There were fifty minutes to spare, and when he reached his office, and
had turned on the desk-light and dropped heavily into his chair, he
called up the railroad station to inquire about the train. The Overland
was reported ten minutes late. If Gryson should show up in time, this
earliest outgoing train must be made to serve as the means for his
flight.

Blount had scarcely formulated the condition when the office-door winged
noiselessly, and the man himself, hollow-eyed and haggard, stumbled in.
As once before, Blount got up and went to shut the door and lock it.
When he came back, Gryson had taken his seat in a chair at the desk-end,
where the light from the shaded working-lamp fell upon his sinister
face.

"Well, I've been all th' way t' hell and back ag'in," he announced in a
grating whisper. "They've put th' reward out, and three times since last
night some of me own pals 've tried to snitch on me." Then he drew a
carefully wrapped package from its hiding-place under his coat and laid
it on the desk. "It's all there," he went on in the same rasping
undertone. "Some of 'em give up to get square wit' th' bosses, and some
of 'em had to have a gun shoved in their faces. No matter; they've come
across--the last damn' wan of 'em; and th' affidavits are there,
too--when I c'd get next to a dub of a not'ry that'd make 'em."

Blount did not untie the package, nor did he