it?"

The ex-detective looked a little sheepish.

"Yes, there ain't much more to be seen," he admitted. "Perhaps you'll
take the job on if you think there is."

"Well, I'd engage to show the gentlemen something a sight more
interesting than this," the new-comer continued. "They don't want to sit
down and drink with the scum of the earth."

"Perhaps," Sogrange suggested, "this gentleman has something in his mind
which he thinks would appeal to us. We have a motor-car outside, and we
are out for adventures."

"What sort of adventures?" the new-comer asked bluntly.

Sogrange shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"We are lookers-on merely," he explained. "My friend and I have
travelled a good deal. We have seen something of criminal life in Paris
and London, Vienna, and Budapest. I shall not break any confidence if I
tell you that my friend is a writer, and material such as this is
useful."

The new-comer smiled.

"Say," he exclaimed, "in a way, it's fortunate for you that I happened
along! You come right with me and I'll show you something that very few
other people in this city know of. Guess you'd better pay this fellow
off," he added, indicating the ex-detective. "He's no more use to you."

Sogrange and Peter exchanged questioning glances.

"It is very kind of you, sir," Peter decided, "but for my part I have
had enough for one evening."

"Just as you like, of course," the other remarked, with studied
unconcern.

"What kind of place would it be?" Sogrange asked.

The new-comer drew them on one side, although, as a matter of fact,
everyone else had melted away.

"Have you ever heard of the secret societies of New York?" he inquired.
"Well, I guess you haven't, anyway--not to know anything about them.
Well, then, listen. There's a society meets within a few steps of here,
which has more to do with regulating the criminal classes of the city
than any police establishment. There'll be a man there within an hour or
so who, to my knowledge, has committed seven murders. The police can't
get him. They never will. He's under our protection."

"May we visit such a place as you describe without danger?" Peter asked
calmly.

"No!" the man answered. "There's danger in going anywhere, it seems to
me, if it's worth while. So long as you keep a still tongue in your head
and don't look about you too much, there's nothing will happen to you.
If you get gassing a lot, you might tumble in for almost anything. Don't
come