ion. There was only a moment left before the car would stop. He
looked down at Alcatrante, who was close in front of him. Then his face
relaxed and in spite of the gravity of his situation he smiled; for he
had found a solution. Promptly he acted upon it.

The car halted just below the ceiling of the first floor. "What's the
matter with you?" called a voice--the voice of the starter.

"Man robbed," said the elevator-boy.

"Bring the car down."

"No!" shouted Alcatrante. "The thief is in the car. He must not escape."

"I won't let him out. Bring the car down."

The boy let the car descend to the floor level. The starter placed
himself against the gate. "Now then, who was robbed?" he demanded.

Alcatrante crowded forward. "It was I. My purse is gone. I had it just
before I got in."

"Oh, it was you, was it?" The starter remembered the trouble Alcatrante
had made a few minutes before. "Sure you didn't drop it?"

"I am certain that I did not."

The passengers were shuffling their feet about, in a vain effort to touch
the lost property. A young girl was giggling hysterically.

"Perhaps you put it in the wrong pocket, and didn't look careful enough."

"I looked, I looked," exclaimed Alcatrante. "Do you think I would not
know. See! I put it in this pocket, which now is empty."

He thrust his hand into the pocket which he had indicated. Suddenly his
expression changed to astonishment.

"Find it?" grinned the starter.

With the blankest of looks Alcatrante pulled the purse from his pocket.
"It was not there two minutes ago," he muttered.

"You've been dreamin'," remarked the starter, opening the gate with a
bang. "All out!"

Orme chuckled to himself. In a moment Alcatrante would realize how the
purse had been replaced in his pocket, and he would be furious. Meantime
Orme entered another elevator, to go back to the eighth floor, and, as he
had expected, the minister followed him.

When they were outside the office of the Wallingham Company, Orme paused,
his hand on the door. "Senhor Alcatrante," he said, "this business must
end. I shall simply have to call the police."

"At your own risk," said Alcatrante. Then an ugly light flashed in his
eyes and his upper lip lifted above his yellow teeth. "You got the better
of me there in the elevator," he snarled. "You won't get the better
again."

Orme opened the office-door. He glanced about the reception-room, to see
whether the girl had hidden herself. She was no