tly discovery was made in the semi-ruined cottage.

"Oho!" said Cleek, with one of his curious smiles. "So our friend the
mysterious assassin disappeared in the middle of a sort of tunnel did
he--and with a man at either end? Hum-m-m! I see, I see!"

"Do you? Well, I'm blest if I do, then. There wasn't a place as big as
your hand to hide anything in, much less shelter a man; and the fellow
who could do a diabolical thing like that----"

"That is a question which simply remains to be seen," interposed Cleek.
"The thing is not so supernatural as it appears at first blush. Once--in
the days that lie behind me, when I was the hunted and not the
hunter--in that old 'Vanishing Cracksman' time of mine, I myself did
that 'amazing disappearance' twice. Once in an alley in New York when
there was a night watchman and a patrolman to be eluded; and once in
Paris when, with Margot's lot, I was being hunted into a trap which
would have been the end of one of the biggest coups of my career had I
been nabbed that night."

"Margot?" repeated Narkom. "Yes, I remember the Queen of the
Apaches--the woman with whom you used to consort. Said she'd get even
with you when you turned down the old life and took sides with the law
instead of against it, I recollect. And you tell me that in those old
days you practised a trick such as this fellow did to-night?"

"Yes. Beat him at it--if you will pardon the conceit--for I vanished in
the middle of a narrow passage with a sergeant de ville chasing me at
one end and a concierge accompanied by a cabman and a commissionaire
racing in at the other, I always fancied that that trick was original
with me. I know of no one but Margot and her crew who were aware of the
exploit, and if any man has borrowed a leaf from the book of those old
times---- Oh, well, it will be the end of all your fears regarding any
friend of ours, Mr. Narkom, for the fellow will stand convicted as a
member of the criminal classes and, possibly, of Margot's crew. We shall
know the truth of that when we get to the scene of this mysterious
vanishment, my friend."

"Yes, but how was it done, Cleek? Where did he go? How did he elude the
chasing keeper and the waiting constable? A man can't vanish into thin
air, and I tell you there wasn't a place of any sort for him to hide in.
Yet you speak of the trick as if it were easy."

"It _is_ easy, provided he had the same cause and adopted the same means
as I did, my friend. Wait until