he medium looked at him with bright eyes. "You're the real sort," she
whispered, and a wave of color in her cheeks brought back the suggestion
of girlish beauty. "I saw that scrap there through a hole in the floor.
You're the goods." She pressed his arm almost affectionately, then, with
her free hand, she pushed against the paneling. Noiselessly a section of
it turned inward, disclosing a dark cavity. "Get in!"

Orme quickly slipped into the darkness, the panel closed, and he heard
the swish of the hanging as it dropped back against the board.

It was not too soon. Two soft thuds told him that the Japanese had
dropped over the sill into the room.

He heard the woman give a well-feigned scream of surprise.

"'Scuse us, miss,"--it was Arima's voice--"we looking for sneak thief. He
come in here."

"Be off with you. I've just come from the front room there, and there
wasn't a soul came in."

"We saw him."

"He must have gone out to the hall, then." The woman's voice had a note
of mollification--as though she had suddenly recognized the right of the
two Japanese to enter the apartment. "_I_ didn't hear him."

A few words of Japanese colloquy; then Arima: "I look around. My friend
go to hall." A door closed; evidently Maku had gone out; and then Orme
heard steps. After this there was a long wait, while the Japanese
examined the other rooms, the woman evidently offering him her aid. At
last they returned.

"Well, I go back," said Arima. "I saw him come in the window. My friend
will know. See you later."

Presently the woman raised the hanging and whispered through the boards:
"He went back down the fire-escape. His friend's in the hall. He'll find
out you haven't went down, and then he'll come back."

"I'll try the roof," whispered Orme. "Perhaps I can get on to another
house that way."

"Wait till I see." She walked away, but soon returned.

"No use," he heard her say. "That Jap's a sitting on the fire-escape
watching. He grinned when I looked down."

Orme pondered. "Help me out of this," he whispered, "and there'll be
something in it for you."

She moved impatiently. "Cut it out! I don't want nothing. You're a good
sport, that's all." She paused. "Not that I'd mind having a present. But
I don't want no money."

Orme caught the distinction. "I'll remember," he said. "And what shall I
do now?"

"You'll have to stay in there a while, I guess."

"I simply must get away--and within an hour or two."

"I'll