by that time," O'Reilly soothed her. "I
had come for you! I was sure you'd be where Kit was, because of the
pearls. Denham and I had been trying to track Churn and Kit and
Chuff--all the lot you told me about--ever since you turned me down, in
Krantz's Keller."

"I didn't turn you down!"

"No, I don't mean that! You were a brave little soldier going into
battle on your own."

"A soldier? No, I was only a mouse."

"I know. 'The lion's mouse.' And to gnaw the net the lion was caught in,
you had to stick your head into another lion's den. But some memoranda
you'd picked up and left for us put Denham on the right trail. He
doesn't need much of a pointer, that chap! He fairly jumped on to the
track of a fellow named Isaacs--at least Isaacs is his 'alias'--a man
who's been suspected for a long time as a receiver of stolen goods--a
fence. When I got the tip that Kit and Churn were staying in the house
where we were to spot Chuff, I was sure I had the clue to you. I wish to
God we'd been five minutes earlier; but I thank Him we weren't five
minutes too late! If the police eventually bring the crime home to Kit
(that's improbable, Denham thinks) there's nothing to link up the story
with the name of Mrs. Sands."

"Oh, I'm not sure!" breathed Clo. "Kit knows about her. She told Churn."

"She won't tell any one else, you may depend on that. If she's accused
of the murder, she won't confess to stealing somebody's pearls as her
motive. She'll say that Peterson insulted her, and she feared him; some
sob-sister stuff of that sort."

"She did complain to Churn that Pete was horrible to her, and that if
Churn had been there to hear what he said, he'd have killed him quick,"
Clo remembered.

"You see, she wanted to clear herself in the eyes of her best young man!
How much more anxious she'd be to keep on the same line if it came to
saving herself from the Chair! You can make your mind easy about your
friend Mrs. Sands. I won't say a word against her. You love her. You may
be right, I may be wrong. I'm growing humble. I don't set my judgment
against yours, even though I know some things about the lady which it's
probable you don't know. But she's been good to you. That makes all the
difference to me. She's to be saved from the consequences of things
which--you'll never hear from my lips. Saved she shall be if it depends
at all on yours ever. But you've done so much that little more remains."

"Then you'll give her the papers?"