his feet. He stood for a moment swaying against the chair.
His pudgy fingers tore at the bandage about his throat. Nora ran to him
and grasped his arm.

"What are you doing, father?"

"Haven't you any eyes?" he roared. "Getting well. I'm tired being sick.
I want to get on this job. Working, I can cough my head off as
comfortably as I can sitting here."

Nora spread her hands.

"You are both mad," she said. "You both want to take too great
risks--impossible risks."

Garth was warmed by her concern for him. For the first time since their
quarrel in the house with the hidden door the barrier of reserve which
had risen between them lost a little its solidity.

The inspector had gone into his bedroom. From the sounds there Garth
gathered that the huge man fought his way into his clothing. Nora stared
helplessly from the door to Garth and back again. Then he saw resolution
tighten the lines of her face. Her eyes flashed. She laughed. Without
shaking hands she turned and walked to the door of the inspector's room.

"Good-by, Jim," she called. "I suppose I'll have to look after this
reckless one first."

* * * * * *

Garth went. Nora's words and manner had made him a trifle uneasy. Little
time, however, remained for speculation. It was seven o'clock when he
had completed his arrangements. He took the subway to Harlem and
continued in a taxicab.

Alsop's great wealth permitted him a rural loneliness even in this
expensive neighborhood. Garth dismissed the cab at the edge of a wide
property along the river, made sure he had not been followed, then
climbed the fence, and entered a thick piece of woods.

Certainly nature favored the police as thoroughly as it did the
conspirators. There was no moon, and sullen clouds hid the stars.

Suddenly in the dense obscurity of the woods he experienced that
sensation Marvin had described of no longer being alone. He paused and
waited, scarcely breathing, aware of the dangers, perhaps fatal, that
might lurk for him here. And, as he stood, not knowing what to expect,
he wondered if the veiled woman was abroad in the woods. He became
filled with a passionate desire to learn her identity. The somber,
perfumed atmosphere of the shop came back to him. There were odd things
in the Orient--happenings, apparently occult, for which no explanation
had ever been offered. Marvin was young and imaginative, but Alsop was
not the type to be frightened by fancies