himself in our hands and let him escape."

"The arch-conspirator!" gasped Carnes. "You don't mean Saranoff?"

"Yes, Ivan Saranoff. He was here on this marsh to-night. There were
four of his men and we got two, letting the most important one get
away."

"You've got four, Dr. Bird," said a guttural voice from the dark.

Dr. Bird whirled around and shot out the beam of his light. A third
Russian was revealed in its gleam.

"Hands up!" cried the doctor.

"I'm willing to be captured, Doctor," said the Russian. "Your search
for Saranoff is useless. He has been gone for an hour. He is not one
to risk his own skin when others will risk theirs for him. He fled
after he left the cave."

"Do you know where he has gone?"

"I wish I did, Doctor. If I knew, we'd soon have him, I hope."

The Russian's voice had changed entirely. Gone were the heavy guttural
tones. In their place was a rich, rather throaty contralto. Carnes
gave a cry of astonishment and turned his light on the prisoner.

"Thelma!" he gasped.

* * * * *

The Russian smiled.

"Surely, Mr. Carnes," she said. "Congratulations on your acumen. Dr.
Bird saw me for half an hour this evening, but he didn't recognize me.
He even knocked me out with his fist back in the cavern."

"The devil I did!" gasped the doctor. "What were you doing there?"

"Helping Saranoff capture you, Doctor," she replied. "The day you
left, I saw one of his men on the street. I dared not summon help lest
he should escape, so I followed him. I captured him and learned from
him the location of the gang headquarters.

"I disguised myself and took his place for a week, fooling them all,
even Saranoff himself. I was one of those chosen to carry out your
capture and your murder. This afternoon, unknown to Saranoff, I
tampered with that radite can and removed the fuse. That was why there
was no explosion when Mr. Carnes cut the wire. I had no chance to warn
him. I managed to shoot one of Saranoff's men when they broke and
ran."

Her voice trembled in the darkness.

"I hated to kill him--" she said with a half sob.

A faint hail came from the night.

"Haggerty!" cried Carnes.

"All right, Chief," came Dillon's voice. "He's got a bullet in his
shoulder and one through his leg, but no bones broken. He'll be all
right."

Carnes turned again to the girl.

"What about that Russian whose place you took?" he asked. "Maybe we
can pump something out of him."