ractically thrown out,
and the young Hungarian could have climbed after him nimbly enough had
not Curtis insisted on helping him, and, pinioning his arms, forced him
head foremost over the sill, but not so rapidly that Steingall should
be unable to "go through him" scientifically for the note.

"Be off, you two! Take the car and go home!"

It was no time for argument. Both Curtis and Devar read into
Steingall's muttered injunction the belief that the hunt had ended for
the night. They knew that the detectives could take care of
themselves, and they had scrambled through the window and made off
swiftly in the direction of the waiting automobile before the despoiled
Hungarian regained his feet. The hour yet wanted nearly ten minutes of
being one o'clock, so the chauffeur had not budged from his post in the
park. Devar told him to start the engine, and be ready to jump off
without delay. Then they waited, and watched the corner of the square
intersected by East Broadway, but neither Steingall nor Clancy
appeared, so they judged it best to obey orders, and make for the
Police Headquarters. There they washed and resumed their own clothes,
an operation which consumed another quarter of an hour. Still there
was no sign of the detectives, and they decided, somewhat reluctantly,
to do as they had been bidden, and go home.

"What sort of witches' shibboleth was that which you brought off in
Siegelman's?" asked Curtis, while the car was humming placidly up
Broadway.

"Oh, that was an inspiration," chuckled Devar.

"An inspiration founded on a solid basis of fact. Now, out with it!"

"Well, I was a year at Heidelberg, you know, and a fellow there told me
that one evening, in a cafe at Temesvar, a student kicked up a shindy
by singing that song. In less than a minute an officer had been
stabbed with his own sword, and a policeman shot, and it took a
squadron of cavalry to clear the street. He learnt the blessed ditty,
out of sheer curiosity, and I picked it up from him."

"What is it all about?"

"I don't know. I believe it tells the Austrians their real name, but I
couldn't translate a line of it to save my life."

Curtis leaned back in the car and laughed.

"You are by way of being a genius," he said. "I have seen a crowd go
stark, staring mad because some idiot waved a black flag, but that was
a symbol of the Boxer rebellion, and it meant something. In this
instance, among people so far away from their o