Take from Coffee Street up.
Don't miss a wharf or a boathouse. And if you find the girl don't let
her get away."

The editor crossed to the Pacific & Alaska dock, his glance sweeping
every dark nook and cranny that might conceal a huddled form. Out of a
sodden sky rain pelted in a black night.

He was turning away when an empty banana crate behind him crashed down
from a pyramid of them. Jeff whirled, was upon her in an instant before
she could escape.

She was shrinking against the wall of the warehouse, her face a tragic
mask in its haggard pallor, a white outline clenched hard against the
driving rain. One hand was at her heart, the other beat against the air
to hold him back.

"Nellie!" he cried.

"What do you want? Let me alone! Let me alone!" She was panting like
a spent deer, and in her wild eyes he saw the hunted look of a forest
creature at bay.

"We've looked everywhere for you. I've come to take you home."

"Home!" Her strange laughter mocked the word. "There's no home for folks
like me in this world."

"Your mother is breaking her heart for you. She thinks of nothing else.
All night she keeps a light burning to let you know."

She broke into a sob. "I've seen it. To-night I saw it--for the last
time."

"It is pitiful how she waits and waits," he went on quietly. "She takes
out your dresses and airs them. All the playthings you used when you
were a little girl she keeps near her. She--"

"Don't! Don't!" she begged.

"Your place is set at the table every day, so that when you come in it
may be ready."

At that she leaned against the crates and broke down utterly. Jeff knew
that for the moment the battle was won. He slipped out of his rain coat
and made her put it on, coaxing her gently while the sobs shook her. He
led her by the hand back to Pacific Avenue, talking cheerfully as if it
were a matter of course.

Here Marchant met them.

"I want a cab, Oscar," Jeff told him.

While he was gone they waited in the entrance to a store that sheltered
them from the rain.

Suddenly the girl turned to Jeff. "I--I was going to do it to-night,"
she whispered.

He nodded. "That's all past now. Don't think of it. There are good days
ahead--happy days. It will be new life to your mother to see you. We've
all been frightfully anxious."

She shivered, beginning to sob once more. Not for an instant had he
withdrawn the hand to which she clung so desperately.

"It's all right, Nellie...All right at