looked past her as though seeking
some police shadow.

"I have something important to tell you," she said. "Let us go up here."

They turned into a deserted side street, and rapidly she told her story.

"So Pinto's getting out, is he?" said the colonel thoughtfully. "Well,
it is no more than I expected. An aeroplane, too? Well, that's
enterprising. I thought of something of the sort, but there's nowhere I
could go, except to America."

He dropped his head on to his chest and was considering something.

"Thank you, Lollie," he said simply. "I'm glad that you didn't go with
Selby--you would never have got to the Continent alive."

He said this in an ordinary conversational tone, and the girl gasped.
She did not ask him for an explanation and he offered none. Crewe,
standing in the background, looked at the man with something like
bewilderment.

"And now I think you'd better make a real getaway, and not trust to the
police," said the colonel. "Maybe with the best intentions in the world,
Stafford King can't save you if I happen to be jugged. And you too,
Crewe," he turned to the other.

"So Pinto is going, eh?" he bit his nether lip, "and that is why he
promised to bring the fifty thousand to-morrow morning. Well, somehow I
don't think Pinto will go," he spoke deliberately. "I don't think Pinto
will go."

"It is too dangerous for you to stop him----" began Crewe.

"I shall not try to stop him," said the other; "there's somebody besides
myself on Pinto's track, and that somebody is going to pull him down."

"But why don't you escape, colonel?" she urged. "There is the aeroplane
waiting at Bromley. We could easily persuade the man that Pinto had sent
us."

He shook his head.

"You take your own advice," he said, "and clear out to-night. Get her
away, Crewe. Don't worry about the police. You've got twenty-four hours
in hand. This is Pinto's night," he said between his teeth. "Pinto--the
dirty hound!"

Slowly they paced the street together in silence. When they came to the
end the colonel turned.

"I want to shake hands with you, Lollie. I shook hands with you once
before, intending to send you to a very quick decease. You're carrying
your money with you, aren't you, Crewe?"

"Yes," said the other.

"Good!" responded the colonel. "Now get away."

He took no other farewell but turned abruptly and left them. Crewe was
following him, but the girl caught his arm.

"Don't go," she said in a low voice. "Don