and for a moment the light in her eyes, her
unrestraint, more than the result of her appeal, held him tense.

"Tell them, Jim," she cried. "If they made you that way I swear I'd kill
myself."

She glanced up, tears in her eyes.

"I love him so much, Slim, that to save him I'd see my father dead."

A subdued murmur of voices sifted through from the street. They could
hear the stealthy straining of hands at the cellar doors. Nora arose,
and, hiding her face, stood trembling.

"The bulls!" George whispered. "Throw the stuff and let's make our
getaway."

Slim shook his head.

"I tell you it's a chance. All of you vamoose except George. We'll wait
and see, and maybe we won't need you after this. Remember, Nora,
there'll always be time for us to wash Garth's face and show our heels."

"Oh, I know it," she breathed. "I know it."

The lights snapped out. Garth was aware of clandestine stirrings. Then
the silence of the cellar was broken only by the fumbling at the door.

"I'll let you go, Nora," Slim whispered. "Send the other cops back. If
they try to rush us, by God we'll do the trick on Garth and kill who we
can besides, the inspector first of all. So play straight."

Garth heard her retreating footsteps. After all he had accomplished his
chief purpose. Through him Nora had found escape.

He heard a sharp splintering of wood, and a wan light, not much stronger
than the glow of the city through the mist, diffused itself in the
cellar. The inspector's breathless voice reached them.

"Nora! Garth!"

Garth saw Nora's shadowy figure advance into the well of the door. He
heard her stifle her father's relief and tell him to order his men
beyond ear-shot. Her voice murmured. Garth guessed that it recited his
abhorrent danger and the terms on which she had agreed to buy his
release.

He strained his ears, understanding fully what depended on the answer,
yet convinced that reasonably it could only be a refusal. In a way Nora
had placed the responsibility for whatever might happen to him on the
inspector's shoulders, but the alternative was too distinct. As the
price for his connivance the inspector must throw his position and his
reputation to the winds, perhaps, face a trial, more than likely to jail
sentence. It was conceivable that his love for Nora would dictate even
that sacrifice, but she would have to force on him an illusion of a
passion as unaccounting as that which had convinced Slim. Could she act
to tha