edly. "They're after him,
anyhow, and are sore. All we've got to do is slip them word--they'll do
the rest!" And then with the sharper emphasis of an immediate plan: "We
don't want to lose a minute. I know where Gavegan hangs out at this time
of night. Come on!"

With a bare "Good-night" to Maggie the two men hurried forth on their
pressing mission. Left to herself, Maggie sank into a chair and wildly
considered the many elements of this new situation. Presently two
thoughts emerged to dominance: Whether Larry was right or wrong, he had
risked coming out of his safety for her sake--perhaps had risked all he
had won for her sake. And now the police were to be set after him, with
that Gavegan heading the pack.

Perhaps the further thinking Maggie did did not result in cool, mature
wisdom--for her thoughts were the operations of a panicky mind. Somehow
she had to get warning to Larry of this imminent police hunt! Without
doubt Larry would return to Cedar Crest sometime that night. Word should
be sent to him there. A letter was too uncertain in such a crisis.
Of course she had an invitation to go to Cedar Crest the following
afternoon, and she might warn him then--but that might be too late.
She dared not telephone or telegraph--for that might somehow direct
dangerous attention to the exact spot where Larry was hidden. Also she
had an instinct, operating unconsciously long before she had any thought
of what she was eventually to do, not to let Barney or Old Jimmie find
out, or even guess, that she had warned Larry--not yet.

There seemed nothing that she herself could do. Then she thought of the
Duchess. That was the way out! The Duchess would know some way in which
to get Larry word.

Five minutes later, in her plainest suit and hat, Maggie in a taxicab
was rolling down toward the Duchess's--from where, only a few months
back, she had started forth upon her great career.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Old Jimmie did not like meeting the police any oftener than a meeting
was forced upon him, and so he slipped away and allowed Barney Palmer
to undertake alone the business of settling Larry. Barney found Gavegan
exactly where he had counted: lingering over his late dinner in the cafe
of a famous Broadway restaurant--a favorite with some of the detectives
and higher officials of the Police Department--in which cafe, in happier
days now deeply mourned, Gavegan had had all the exhilaration he wanted
to drink at the standing inv