our sister know?" Arnold begged.

"She shall know all that you have told me," Sabatini promised. "I
do not say that it will interest her--it may or it may not. In any
case, I thank you for coming."

Arnold was dismissed with a pleasant nod, and passed out into the
streets, now emptying fast. He walked slowly back to his rooms.
Already the sense of unwonted excitement was passing. Sabatini's
strong, calm personality was like a wonderful antidote. After all,
it was not his affair. It was possible, after all, that the man was
an ordinary burglar. And yet, if so, what was Isaac doing with him?
He glanced in front of him to where the lights of the two great
hotels flared up to the sky. Somewhere just short of them, before
the window of her room, Ruth would be sitting watching. He quickened
his steps. Perhaps he should find her before he went to bed. Perhaps
he might even see Isaac come in!

Big Ben was striking the half-hour past midnight as Arnold stood on
the top landing of the house at the corner of Adam Street, and
listened. To the right was his own bare apartment; on the left, the
rooms where Isaac and Ruth lived together. He struck a match and
looked into his own apartment. There was a note twisted up for him
on his table, scribbled in pencil on a half sheet of paper. He
opened it and read:

If you are not too late, will you knock at the door and
wish me good night? Isaac will be late. Perhaps he will
not be home at all.

He stepped back and knocked softly at the opposite door. In a moment
or two he heard the sound of her stick. She opened the door and came
out. Her eyes shone through the darkness at him but her face was
white and strained. He shook his head.

"Ruth," he said, "you heard the time? And you promised to go to bed
at ten o'clock!"

She smiled. He passed his arm around her, holding her up.

"To-night I was afraid," she whispered. "I do not know what it was
but there seemed to be strange voices about everywhere. I was afraid
for Isaac and afraid for you."

"My dear girl," he laughed, "what was there to fear for me? I had a
very good dinner with a very charming man. Afterwards, we went to a
music-hall for a short time, I went back to his rooms, and here I
am, just in time to wish you good night. What could the voices have
to tell you about that?"

She shook her head.

"Sometimes," she said, "there is danger in the simplest things one
does. I don't understand what it is," she