fice. How? I don't know myself yet. But we must get Miss
Snow at once. Come up quick. Can you get your men? Yes, all right. We'll
wait for you. Good-by."

"Hurry up, Jack," said Bailey. "Gertie's story's waiting for you. Now,
old girl, go ahead."

"Nice, respectful way to address your mayor," laughed Gertrude, to whom
the world had suddenly become a broader and brighter place than ever.
"Well, then here goes."

She began at the beginning of her story and told how she and Mary Snow
had set out for Newton Fitzgerald's sick bed; how they had been trapped,
and how the days had dragged in the flat.

"We wrote a score of notes on leaves torn from Mary's diary," she went
on, "and tucked them out of the top of the window and under the bottom
of the door. But nothing ever came of them."

Allingham handed her the slip of washed-out paper that still lay on his
desk.

"That floated in here this afternoon," he said. "It's the first clue
we've had."

"We've been searching this neighborhood tonight," added Bailey. "We'd
have got you tomorrow, sure."

"Then I wish I'd waited," said Gertrude. "Look at my hands." She held
them, palms out. They were all red and swollen. Allingham had an insane
desire to snatch and kiss them, but Bailey regarded them coolly enough.

"Rough on you, Gert. How did that happen?" he asked.

"Well, after trying every means we could think of to get some word to
the outside world, we decided to make our escape somehow. We tore up the
sheets and blankets and twisted them into a strong cable. This we
fastened securely to the kitchen pipes, and with our nail-files we
managed to saw away the copper netting that had been nailed across the
window frames, and then to pry up the lower sash. We had planned to come
down, both of us, on this, last night; but Mary was taken ill yesterday,
and I wouldn't come without her. Today she seemed worse instead of
better, and I came down for help."

"You came down that rope--yourself?" said Allingham.

"Yes--like any convict, escaping from state's prison," answered
Gertrude. "Of course I had no idea where I should land, nor into what
hands I might fall. I was sure we were watched, but believed only from
the front door--"

"Go on," said Bailey, impatiently. "Did you leave Mary alone in that
flat?"

"Of course," answered Gertrude. "What else was there to do? But instead
of landing in the enemy's camp, I found myself in the hands of a good
Samaritan." She smiled at Alli