ays
interfering--something to get you out of my way!"

Panting, she paused. Her tense figure, with hands closing and unclosing,
expressed the very acme of furious defiance--of desire to annihilate--of
ultimate hatred. Larry was astounded by the very extent, the profundity,
of her passion. And so they stood, silent except for their quick
breathing, eyes fixed upon eyes, for several moments.

And then a key sounded in the outer door of the little hallway.
Instantly there was an almost unbelievable transformation in Maggie.
From an imperious, uncontrollable fury, she changed to a white,
quivering thing.

"Barney!" she whispered; and sprang to the inner door of the little
hallway, closed and locked it.

She turned on Larry a face that was ghastly in its pallor.

"Barney always carries a pistol," she whispered.

They had heard the outer door close with a click of its automatic lock.
They now heard the knob of the inner door turn and tugged at; and then
heard Barney call: "What's the matter, Maggie? Let us in."

Maggie made a supreme effort to reply in a controlled voice:

"Just a minute. I'm not quite ready."

Then a second voice sounded from the other side of the door:

"Don't keep us too long, Maggie. Please!"

There was a distantly familiar quality to Larry in that second voice.
But he did not try to place it then: he was too poignantly concerned in
his own situation, and in the bewildering change in Maggie.

She slipped a hand through his arm. "Oh, La-Larry, why did you ever
take such a risk!" she breathed. Her whisper was piteous, aquiver with
fright. "Come this way!" and she quickly pulled him into the room where
he had met Miss Grierson and to the door by which he had entered.

Maggie opened this door. "They're all in the little hallway--I don't
think they'll see you," her rapid, agitated whisper went on. "Don't
take the elevators in this corridor, they're in plain sight. There are
elevators just around the corner. Take them; they're safer. Good-bye,
Larry--and, oh, Larry, don't ever take such a risk again!"

With that she pushed him out and closed the door.

Larry followed her instructions about the elevator; he used the same
precautions in leaving that he had used in coming, and twenty minutes
later he was back in his room in the Sherwood apartment. For an hour or
more he sat motionless--thinking--thinking: asking himself questions,
but in his tumultuous state of mind and emotions not able to keep t