er.

To the officer Jeff nodded casually. "Bad weather to be out all night
in, Nolan."

"Right you are, Mr. Farnum."

The editor ordered a bottle of whiskey and while it was being put up
passed into the telephone booth and closed the door behind him. He
called up Olive 431.

Central rang again and again.

"Can't get your party," she told him at last.

"You'll waken him presently. Keep at it, please. It's very important."

At last Sam Miller's voice answered. "Hello! Hello! What is it?"

"I've found Nellie.... Just in time. thank God...She's at my rooms....
Have Mrs. Anderson bring an entire change of clothing for her.... Yes,
she's very much exhausted. I'll tell you all about it later.... Come
quietly. She may be asleep when you get here."

Jeff hung up the receiver, paid for the whiskey, and returned to
his rooms. He did not know that he had left three good and competent
witnesses who were ready to take oath that he had brought to his rooms
at midnight a woman of the half world and that he had later bought
liquor and returned with it to his apartment.

Billie Gray thumped his fist into his open palm. "We've got him. We've
got him right. He can't get away from it. By Gad, we've got him at
last!"

Jeff found Nellie wrapped in his bathrobe in the big chair before the
gas log. Her own wet clothes were out of sight behind a screen.

"You locked the door when you went out," she charged.

"Some of my friends might have dropped in to see me," he explained with
his disarming smile.

But he could see in her eyes the unreasoning fear of a child that has
been badly hurt. He had locked the door on the outside. She was going to
be dragged home whether she wanted to go or not. Dread of that hour was
heavy on her soul. Jeff knew the choice must be hers, not his. He spoke
quietly.

"You're not a prisoner, of course. You may go whenever you like. I would
have no right to keep you. But you will hurt me very much if you go
before morning."

"Where will you stay?" she asked.

"I'll sleep on the lounge in this room," he answered in his most matter
of fact voice.

While he busied himself preparing a toddy for her she began to tell
brokenly, by snatches, the story of her wanderings. She had gone to
Portland and had found work in a department store at the notion counter.
After three weeks she had lost her place. Days of tramping the streets
looking for a job brought her at last to an overall factory where she
found emp