her possession of even the necklace would not save the
Sparrow from the law. There was the money that was gone from the safe.
She could not recover that, but--yes, dimly, she began to see a way. She
swerved suddenly from the sidewalk as she came to an alleyway--which had
been her objective--and drew the Sparrow in with her out of sight of the
street.

The Sparrow gripped at her hand.

"The White Moll!" he whispered brokenly. "God bless the White Moll! I
ain't had a chance to say it before. You saved my life, and I--I--"

In the semi-darkness she leaned forward and laid her fingers gently over
the Sparrow's lips.

"And there's no time to say it now, Marty," she said quickly. "You are
not out of this yet."

He swept his hand across his eyes.

"I know it," he said. "I got to get those shiners back up there somehow,
and I got to get that paper they planted on me."

She shook her head.

"Even that wouldn't clear you," she said. "The safe has been looted of
money, as well; and you can't replace that. Even with only the money
gone, who would they first naturally suspect? You are known as a
safe-breaker; you have served a term for it. You asked for a night off
to stay with your mother who is sick. You left Mr. Hayden-Bond's, we'll
say, at seven or eight o'clock. It's after midnight now. How long would
it take them to find out that between eight and midnight you had not
only never been near your mother, but could not prove an alibi of any
sort? If you told the truth it would sound absurd. No one in their sober
senses would believe you."

The Sparrow looked at her miserably.

"My God!" he faltered. He wet his lips. "That's true."

"Marty," she said quietly, "did you read in the papers that I had been
arrested last night for theft, caught with the goods on me, but had
escaped?"

The Sparrow hesitated.

"Yes, I did," he said. And then, earnestly: "But I don't believe it!"

"It was true, though, Marty--all except that I wasn't a thief," she said
as quietly as before. "What I want to know is, in spite of that, would
you trust me with what is left to be done to-night, if I tell you that I
believe I can get you out of this?"

"Sure, I would!" he said simply. "I don't know how you got wise about
all this, or how you got to know about that necklace, but any of our
crowd would trust you to the limit. Sure, I'd trust you! You bet your
life!"

"Thank you, Marty," she said. "Well, then, how do you get into Mr.
Hayden-B