suddenly. "I've been cultivating Cloran myself for the last two
weeks. We're quite pals! I'm for playing the luck every time! When
the jewels showed up to-day, I figured that to-night's the night--see?
Cloran and I are going to supper together at the Silver Sphinx at about
eleven o'clock--and this is where you shed the Gypsy Nan stuff, and show
up as your own sweet self. Cloran'll be glad to meet you!"

She stared at him in genuine perplexity and amazement.

"Show myself to Cloran!" she ejaculated heavily. "I don't get you!"

"You will in a minute," said Danglar softly. "You're the bait--see?
Cloran and I will be at supper and watching the fox-trotters. You blow
in and show yourself--I don't need to tell you how, you're clever enough
at that sort of thing yourself--and the minute he recognizes you as
the woman he's been looking for that murdered Deemer, you pretend to
recognize him for the first time too, and then you beat it like you had
the scare of your life for the door. He'll follow you on the jump. I
don't know what it's all about, and I sit tight, and that lets me out.
And now get this! There'll be two taxicabs outside. If there's more than
two, it's the first two I'm talking about. You jump into the one at the
head of the line. Cloran won't need any invitation to grab the second
one and follow you. That's all! It's the last ride he'll take. It'll be
our boys, and not chauffeurs, who'll be driving those cars to-night,
and they've got their orders where to go. Cloran won't come back.
Understand, Bertha'?"

There was only one answer to make, only one answer that she dared make.
She made it mechanically, though her brain reeled. A man named
Cloran was to be murdered; and she was to show herself as this--this
Bertha--and...

"Yes," she said.

"Good!" said Danglar. He pulled out his watch again. "All right, then!
We've been here long enough." He rose briskly. "It's time to make a
move. You hop it back to the garret, and get rid of that fancy dress.
I've got to meet Cloran uptown first. Come on, Matty, let us out."

The place stifled her. She got up and moved quickly through the
intervening room. She heard Danglar and his crippled brother talking
earnestly together as they followed her. And then the cripple brushed
by her in the darkness, and opened the front door--and Danglar had drawn
her to him in a quick embrace. She did not struggle; she dared not. Her
heart seemed to stand still. Danglar was whispering in