. Every second seemed an eternity. The speeding
cab seemed to crawl.

Presently she broke out hoarsely:

"You are sure--sure that's where he has gone--to Heeler's?"

"He told me he should go. He told me to meet him there," Farrow
answered.

Peg bit her lip till the blood came.

"And you think--do you think ... they are ... waiting for him?"

"That was what it sounded like from the talk."

"Who told you?"

"The landlord of the Green Man overheard and sent for me."

Peg groaned. Her love for Forrester exaggerated the possible danger a
thousandfold. She suffered tortures as they drove through the dark
streets; and when at last the cab stopped close to the closed gates of
Heeler's factory she flung herself from it headlong.

But the whole building was in darkness, and when she shook the
padlocked gates with frantic hands they yielded nothing.

The cabman was staring at her curiously, and Peg came back to
consciousness of her surroundings with a little gasping laugh.

She looked at Farrow.

"He can't have come, after all," she said faintly. Farrow shrugged his
shoulders. He was beginning to feel rather foolish.

Peg spoke to him sharply.

"Pay the man, and tell him to go. What's he think he's staring at?"

She was angry and shaken; she leaned against the closed yard gates,
trembling from head to foot. Suddenly she laughed.

"Well--we've had a wild-goose chase," she said dryly. "Come on, we may
as well go home. I daresay Mr. Forrester went to his club after all.
Come on, I say," she added angrily as Farrow did not move. "What are you
waiting for?"

But she knew before he answered, for at that moment Forrester's tall
figure suddenly grew out of the darkness beside them.

He was making for the smaller gate, of which Peg knew he kept a
duplicate key, and which led to the offices, and with sudden impulse she
darted forward and caught his arm.

"Mr. Forrester!"

The Beggar Man turned sharply and peered down at her white face.

"You! Good heavens! is anything the matter.... Faith?" His mind flew
with swift apprehension to his wife.

Peg laughed bitterly.

"Oh, no, she's safe and sound enough. It's you."

"Me!" His eyes went beyond her to where Farrow stood. "Good heavens!
What's the meaning of it all?" he demanded angrily. "Farrow, if you've
been down to Hampstead frightening my wife...."

He turned on the man threateningly as a shrill warning scream broke from
Peg, and the next instant Forrester f