on this metal engine of destruction was a fuse. The rain had
drenched it and quenched its spark of fire, doubtless at some break in
the fiber, since fuse is supposedly water-proof. Nothing but the
thunder-storm had availed to save his life. He had walked into a trap,
like a trusting animal, and chance alone had intervened to bring him
forth alive.

His brain by now was thoroughly active. Reactionary energy rushed in
upon him to sharpen all his faculties. There was nothing left of the
joyous throbbing in his veins which thoughts of his tryst with Dorothy
had engendered. He felt like the wrathful dupe of a woman's wiles, for
it seemed as plain as soot on snow that Dorothy, fearing the
consequences of his recent discoveries in the Hardy case, had made this
park appointment only with this treacherous intent.

All his old, banished suspicions rushed pell-mell upon his mind, and
with them came new indications of her guilt. Her voice on the
telephone had been weak and faltering. She had chosen the park as
their meeting place, as the only available spot for such a deed. And
then--then----

It seemed too horrible to be true, but the wound was on his head, and
death was in his hand. It was almost impossible that anyone could have
heard their talk over the 'phone. He was left no alternative theory to
work on, except that perhaps the Robinsons had managed, through some
machination, to learn that he and Dorothy were to meet at this
convenient place.

One struggling ray of hope was thus vouchsafed him, yet he felt as if
perhaps he had already given Dorothy the benefit of too many reasonable
doubts. He could be certain of one thing only--he was thoroughly
involved in a mesh of crime and intrigue that had now assumed a new and
personal menace. Hereafter he must work more for Garrison and less for
romantic ideals.

Anger came to assist in restoring his strength. Far from undergoing
any sense of alarm which would frighten him out of further effort to
probe to the bottom of the business, he was stubbornly determined to
remain on the case till the whole thing was stripped of its secrets.

Not without a certain weakness at the knees did he make his way back to
the path.

He had no fear of lurking enemies, since those who had placed the bomb
in his pocket would long before have fled the scene to make an alibi
complete. The rain had ceased. Wrapping the fuse about the metal
cartridge in his hand, he came beneath a la