id know. You have received an offer to help us.
Are you willing?"

"I don't intend to turn against Mr. Prale!" Murk declared. "I ain't a
man like that! These gents can keep me here and starve me and beat me
up, and that's all the good it'll do 'em. I know a man when I see one,
and Mr. Prale's a man, and a square man, and I'm goin' to stand by him!"

"He has fooled you! You do not know him for the scoundrel that he is."

"Maybe it's you that's bein' fooled, lady."

"No. If you knew all, you would understand."

"Well, why don't you tell me, then? If you prove to me that Mr. Prale is
a crook or somethin', and that you people ain't, maybe I'll change my
mind about some things."

"I can tell you nothing now, except that I am right and that Sidney
Prale is fooling you," Kate Gilbert said.

"Then I'll stay right here and take my beatin' at the hands of them
thugs."

"You will do nothing of the kind," she said. "I will not see them use
violence toward you."

"I don't see how you're goin' to help it, ma'am."

"I am going to have you released. You may return to Sidney Prale and
tell him that we intend to punish him, but that I, for one, will not
resort to violence. He may fight unfairly, but we do not." She lowered
her voice and bent toward him. "I'll attract their attention, and send
my maid to release you," she said. "Remain where you are."

"Yes'm."

Without another word, Kate Gilbert got up and left the room, closing the
door behind her. In the other room were the masked man, the two thugs,
and Marie, the maid.

"I have talked to him, and I have a plan," Kate Gilbert told the others.
"Marie, I wish you to do something for me. Take the taxicab and go on
the errand, and after I am done here I will go home in another car."

She stepped across to the maid and gave her whispered instructions,
while the men waited. Marie left the room, walked through the hall, and
left the house. Kate Gilbert sat down at the table and called the others
to her.

"That man is loyal to Prale," she explained. "Prale has fooled him. He
honestly believes that Prale does not know his enemies or why he is
being bothered, and he is grateful to Prale for what Prale has done for
him. So, naturally, he refuses to turn against his employer."

"If you will leave the matter in my hands----" the masked man suggested.

"I may do so after we have had this little talk. Come closer, so I can
speak in a low tone and he will not hear."

They pulle