astened
upon their unwilling wrists gleaming handcuffs. Then he understood, and
laughing a little hysterically, shook the water from his eyes.

Shame of his doubt joined the relief that swept him with the urgency of
a material suffering. He glanced at Nora. She had stooped and was
raising from the floor behind Slim's seat a bottle precisely similar to
that from which the water had poured. She had not conquered her emotion.

"He ought to have it," she whispered. "I didn't believe he'd do that
when he saw the game was up and there was no use. The chair is too
kind."

She opened the window and emptied the bottle. She flung it far to the
right of way. The inspector freed Garth from the coat and the handcuffs.
He grasped Garth's hand.

"I know it hurt you, Garth, to promise to go along with these crooks
quietly, but Nora made me ask it. She passed me the wink at the top of
the cellar steps."

"You mean," Garth asked, "that Nora had all this planned from the very
beginning?"

"Not then," the inspector answered, "but she promised to get us both
out, and I've had enough experience with that daughter of mine to
believe her when she talks like that. She chased to the Grand Central
while we watched Marlowe's and saw you leave. Got the number of your
car, of course, and had reports on you all the way to Tarrytown. A
mounted cop on the bridge made sure you were all three inside, and the
operator at Tarrytown was a local detective. Nora smiled at them in the
railroad offices and fixed the rest."

Garth beckoned Nora. She sat by a window. Her expression was nearly
tranquil again. The only concession she made to the reaction was a
quick tapping of her fingers on the window ledge.

"Better sit down, too, Garth," the inspector advised. "Your legs ought
to be shaky."

Garth obeyed, laughing nervously.

"I've been trying to hide it."

He turned to Nora.

"I'd like to know how you changed the bottles."

"I only arranged the most likely opportunity," she answered. "I knew
something must happen to make Slim forget that acid for a moment. It had
to be bigger, more immediate than the fear of capture. Everybody has a
dread of railroad accidents. Own up, Jim. You were scared yourself when
the brakes set."

He nodded.

"You sized us up right. For that minute I was about as afraid of the
wreck as I was of the acid, and I was trussed like a fowl."

"So," she went on, "I persuaded them in New York to furnish an illusion
of the