back."

"Somebody's got to look after Nora," Garth called, and caught up his
coat and hat, and ran from the building.

He threaded a course through the homeward bound crowds, experiencing the
sensations of a truant from an impending and destructive retribution,
his eyes alert for a sudden movement, his ears constantly prepared for
the sharp crack of a revolver.

As he ran he recalled that evening last summer when he had side-tracked
Simmons and had taken his place behind a replica of the gray mask. He
could see Nora in her cheap finery, and George, he remembered with a
sense of sheer terror, had loved Nora in his way; had, in fact, through
his brutal and amorous eagerness, delivered himself into her hands. He
threw aside all caution. He ran faster. Somehow, no matter what the
cost, he had to keep Nora out of the grasp of those men.

He reached the flat, breathless and wondering that he had not been
disturbed. No one answered his ring. He questioned the hall-boy. The
inspector's daughter had left fifteen minutes ago. She had said
headquarters had telephoned her to go to her father without delay. The
situation was clear. Garth grasped the hall-boy's arm.

"Didn't you follow her to the door? Didn't you see where she went?"

The boy shook his head, clearly alarmed before such vehemence.

"Then you must have heard. Did you hear anything?"

The boy tried to free his arm. He whimpered.

"No. Unless--maybe somebody screamed, but there are so many children in
the street, playin' and hollerin'--"

Garth let him go and ran to the sidewalk. A man stood there. In spite of
the sharp cold he wore no coat. Garth recognized him for a tailor who
worked in a nearby shop. The tailor's excitement made him nearly
incoherent, but Garth drew from him a description of Slim and George. As
the inspector's daughter had stepped to the sidewalk, he said, the men
had sprung upon her, stifled her one scream, and driven her off in an
automobile.

"I saw it from my shop," he spluttered. "I've been telephoning the
inspector. I just got him, because his wire was busy."

"Which direction did they take?"

The tailor pointed south. Garth hurried to the curb, stooped, and found
fresh tire marks. He was aware of his helplessness unless Nora's
ingenuity had hit upon some trick for his guidance. He searched with a
greedy hope. While his eyes roved about the frozen dust of the gutter he
acknowledged that the inspector had appraised his men justly.