it sped on,
as Shirley's taxi followed lazily.

A figure suddenly came out of the darkness of the road. The driver
stopped the taxi, and walked around the front, as though to adjust the
lamp. The door opened slowly. A face covered with a black handkerchief
obtruded. A hand slid up the detective's knee, along his side toward the
abdomen, and a protruding thumb began a singular pressure directly below
the criminologist's heart. Shirley's analysis for Dr. MacDonald had been
correct! But jiu-jitsu is essentially a game for two.

Shirley's left hand suddenly shot forth to the neck of his assailant.
His muscular fingers closed in a deft and vice-like pinch directly below
the silk handkerchief. It was the pneumogastric nerve, which he reached:
a nerve which, when deadened by Oriental skill, paralyzes the vocal
chords. Not a sound emanated from the mysterious man, even when
Shirley's right hand shot forward, under the chin of the other, for a
deft blow across the thorax. The other tumbled backward.

"What's wrong, Chief? Too much gas?" cried the chauffeur rushing to
the side of the fallen man. As the driver dropped to his knees, Shirley
flung himself like a tiger upon the rascal's back. The struggle was
brief--the same silent silencer accomplished its purpose. Before the
man knew what had happened to him, he was dragged inside the car, and
another deft pinch sent him to oblivion!

"Hit him over the forehead with the butt of the revolver if he opens his
mouth," grunted Shirley. "This is the chauffeur, now I'll get the other
one."

Just then a cry came from the darkness: it was a passing patrolman.

"What you doing in that auto?"

But Shirley waited for no parley-explanations, showing his hand, laying
the whole scandal before the morning edition of the newspapers, were all
out of question now. He must take up the pursuit later. He caught up,
the chauffeur's cap, sprang into the driver's seat, and the car shot
forward like a race horse as he threw forward the lever. The astonished
policeman was within twenty-five yards of the spot, when the auto
disappeared in the darkness. He pursued it vainly.

A few moments later, a man with a handkerchief across his face, groaned
and then raised himself on his elbow, there in the roadway. He could not
remember where he was, nor why. Slowly he crawled on hands and
knees, into the rhododendrons by the roadside, where he again lost
consciousness.

A big touring car rounded the curve o