force and in earnest. Cautiously he worked his way along the shadows,
his luck still holding until finally he had reached his point of
vantage within a few yards of the open gate that led to the elevator
itself. To gain that haven he must dash for it across a band of
unmasked moonlight. Once inside, he had only to wait for the relief of
reinforcements.

To the right and left of him, and from several spots at once, O'Keefe
heard stirrings in the thicket. There must be a sizable pack out on
the hunt and he surmised that they were making those unnecessary noises
with the purpose of drawing his fire and bringing him into revealment
by the spurt of his pistol.

The door of the elevator itself stood partly in the moonlight. Jerry
O'Keefe could see the dull glitter that he knew to be the key--and
could even make out--or so he thought--that the door stood an inch or
two ajar.

Of that he was not quite certain--and it was a vitally important point.

If the lock was not caught, he might get in before he could be killed.
If he had to fumble with a key, his end was certain.

Jerry drew himself together and made the dive. Four rifles spoke in
unison and four bullets imbedded themselves in the heavy timbers of the
great building as he hurled himself against the door, and felt it give
laxly under his weight.

He had not fired a shot and between himself and his enemies stood the
staunchness of walls against which their rifle bullets would pelt as
harmlessly as hailstones. Except for his anxiety about Alexander he
might have lighted his pipe and waited with a contented spirit.

Indeed, a slow smile did shape itself on his face, but a startled
thought wiped it away as swiftly and completely as a wet sponge
obliterates writing on a slate. That thought left his expression as
black as a slate too.

Jerry drew his pistol, and for a moment it was in his mind to open the
door and go out again.

When he had sent the girl away for reinforcements it had not occurred
to him that this ambuscade might be intended to include her as well as
himself. He had thought that, once apart from him, unless mistaken for
him in the dark, she could walk safely. Indeed he had been at a total
loss to explain, in any way, the motive of the attack.

Now it had flashed upon him that it was somehow an outgrowth of the old
robbery attempt--and if that were true as high a price lay on the
girl's head as upon his own. She was out there alone and in