t retarded Garth's relief. It
warned him that, entering the place alone, he could be handled, as,
perhaps, Nora had been handled.

"I'll get my hat and coat," Black said.

"No," Garth answered. "From now on you'll stick to me like a brother."

He took the receiver from the telephone and got the inspector at the
station house. While Black protested, he instructed the inspector to
have a man follow Black and himself, and, no matter what house they
entered, to surround that entire block and to keep a watch on every
house front. If he could communicate in no other way, Garth promised to
fire his revolver twice, if possible, from a front window.

Black shrank back.

"But you said--alone."

"Alone," Garth answered, "but that's what's going to happen once I'm in.
I'm not throwing my life away. Are you ready, or do you prefer the cell
and your picture in the morning papers?"

Black led the way without further protests down the staircase. At the
foot he broke down again. Garth warned him and helped him on with his
overcoat.

"You leave me no choice," Black whimpered. "No choice."

Garth drew him to the sidewalk.

"If you waste time steering me wrong," he said, "I'm through. And don't
forget I have a gun. Try to throw me down once we're in, I'll use it."

Black made an effort to square his shoulders. He crossed the avenue with
a lurching gait. Garth glanced back. A dark figure skulked after them.
So that was all right. The inspector would know their destination
immediately.

"One thing," Garth asked. "How did you have the nerve to drive your
limousine to the place last night?"

"I didn't," Black answered. "I picked it up in Third Avenue."

He did not speak again, and Garth no longer urged him. He walked
straight for the block in which he had been at his folly last night. But
he did not pause there. He continued across Lexington Avenue and made
confidently for the deserted, dust-filled house which just now had
mocked the police. Garth, amazed, followed him to the basement door.

Black took a key from his pocket, and with the ease of long habit
inserted it through the obscurity in the lock. The door opened and Garth
walked into the blackness with a quickening suspense. His apprehension
was for Nora rather than himself. What had happened to her when she had
stepped into the dusty hall? Her only chance was that he would not be
caught in this somber pit as she had probably been. He put his hand on
his revolver.

"