hand firmly
within his own. The two friends departed, Shirley retracing his steps to
the club where many things were to be studied and planned. His system
of debit and credit records of facts known and needed, was one which
brought finite results. As he smoked and pondered at his ease, a tapping
on the study door aroused him from his vagrant speculations. At his
call, a respectful Japanese servant presented a note, just left by a
messenger-boy. He tore the envelope and read it.

"Montague Shirley:--The third time is finis. As a friend you
accomplished the purpose you sought. There is no grudge against you.
Why seek one? It is fatal for you to remain in the city. Leave while you
have time."

That was all. The chirography was the same as that upon the note of the
racing-car episode. Shirley locked up the missive in his cabinet, and
smiled at the increasing tenseness of the situation.

"The writer of these two notes may have an opportunity to leave town
himself before long, to rest his nerves in the quiet valley of the
Hudson, at Ossining. My friend the enemy will soon be realizing a
deficit in his rolling-stock and gentlemanly assistants. Two automobiles
and three prisoners to date. There should be additional results before
midnight. I wonder where he gardens into fruition these flowers of
crime?"

And even as he pondered, a curious scene was being enacted within a
dozen city blocks of the commodious club house.

CHAPTER XIII. THE SPIDER'S WEB

The setting was a bleak and musty cellar, beneath an old stable of
dingy, brick construction. The building had been modernized to the
extent of one single decoration on the street front, an electric sign:
"Garage." On the floor, level with the sidewalk, stood half a dozen
automobiles of varied manufacture and age. Near the wide swinging
doors of oak, stood a big, black limousine. Two taxicabs of the usual
appearance occupied the space next to this, while a handsome machine
faced them on the opposite side of the room. Two ancient machines were
backed against the wall, in the rear.

In the basement beneath, several men were grouped in the front
compartment, which was separated by a thick wooden partition from the
rear of the cellar. Three dusty incandescents illuminated this space. In
the back a curious arrangement of two large automobile headlights set on
deal tables directed glaring rays toward the one door of the partition.
In the center of the rear room was anoth