God!" he said heavily. "So that's it, is it?" His voice became
suddenly conciliating in its tones. "Look here, Bertha, old girl, don't
get sore. I didn't understand, see? And there was a whole lot that
looked queer. We even lost the jewels at old Luertz's last night. Do you
know who that woman was? It was the White Moll! She led us a chase all
over Long Island, and--"

"The White Moll!" ejaculated Rhoda Gray. And then her laugh, short and
jeering, rang out. The tables were turned. She had him on the defensive
now. "You needn't tell me I She got away again, of course! Why don't you
hire a detective to help you? You make me weary! So, it was the White
Moll, was it? Well, I'm listening--only I'd like to know first how you
got here to this shed."

"There's nothing in that!" he answered impatiently. "There's something
more important to talk about. I was coming over to the garret, and just
as I reached the corner I saw you go into the lane. I followed you;
that's all there is to that."

"Oh!" she sniffed. She stared at him for a moment. There was something
in which there was the uttermost of irony now, it seemed, in this
meeting between them. Last night she had striven to meet him alone, and
she had meant to devote to-night to the same purpose; and she was here
with him now, and in a place than which, in her wildest hopes, she
could have imagined one no better suited to the reckoning she would have
demanded and forced. And she was helpless, powerless to make use of it.
She was unarmed. Her revolver was gone. Without that to protect her, at
an intimation that she was the White Moll she would never leave the shed
alive. The spot would be quite as ideal under those circumstances
for him, as it would have been under other circumstances for her. She
shrugged her shoulders. Danglar's continued silence evidently invited
further comment on her part. "Oh!" she sniffed again. "And I suppose,
then, that you have been chasing the White Moll ever since last night at
eleven, and that's why you didn't get around sooner to allay my fears,
even though you knew I must be half mad with anxiety at the way things
broke last night. She'll have us down and out for keeps if you haven't
got brains enough to beat her. How much longer is this thing going on?"

Danglar's little black eyes narrowed. She caught a sudden glint of
triumph in them. It was Danglar now who laughed.

"Not much longer!" His voice was arrogant with malicious satisfaction.
"