one to the door with Alsop and Marvin, he called
Garth over, and hurriedly whispered:

"It's a big chance, Garth, but dangerous as dynamite. These fellows
won't hesitate to blow that house up if they can't block Alsop's dirty
politics any other way. And remember, you're fighting a woman who
behaves like a ghost. Take it from me, she's the one you've got to be
afraid of. She has the brains."

"If I could get something out of Brown," Garth mused.

"Maybe he's conscious now," the inspector said. "Run up to the hospital,
then look over the neighborhood where he was found. Come back here by
five, and we'll lay our plans."

Nora stopped Garth in the hall.

"Jim," she breathed, "you're going to take this case?"

"Surely. I've only to lay a ghost. That ought to be simple."

She hesitated.

"I've been thinking," she said, "and I wish you wouldn't go, because it
will be hard, terribly hard--with death always in the way."

CHAPTER XIV

THE LEVANTINE WHO GUARDED A CURTAIN

Garth, in spite of Nora's fears, went confidently enough to the
hospital. If he could learn all Brown knew the case should be easy
sailing.

In Brown's room the blinds were down. The greenish light scarcely found
the upturned face. It sought rather the bandage, ghastly and white,
wound thickly about the head. From time to time Brown's lips moved with
a pitiful futility. Garth, while the nurse cautioned him to silence,
bent closer, so that at last he could define the pallid face and the
closed eyelids that trembled. Suddenly the eyes opened. From them into
Garth's brain sprang an impression of immeasurable terror as if they
still secreted the outline of some monstrous vision.

Garth started back as the injured man, apparently spurred by that
recollection, struggled to rise, sat bolt upright, his head swaying
drunkenly, while from his wide throat vibrated an accusing and
despairing cry:

"The veiled woman! Oh, my God! The veiled woman!"

Garth's nerves tightened. Again that incredible feature of the case
startled him. Here was proof he needed. The figure that had frightened
Alsop and Marvin was probably involved in the attack on Brown. The
inspector was right. She was the brains of the affair. Brown must tell
him all he knew. He urged the man desperately.

"Take hold of yourself! You've seen this woman! You've got to talk to
me!"

But Brown screamed incoherently with a diminishing power. The nurse had
run into the hall. Through the op