I dunno, but that's where we've got to
try."

"But--" she began.

"Do what he says," whispered Bill Gregg. "I've doubted Ronicky before,
but look at all that he's done? Do what he says, Caroline."

"It means putting him in your power," she said at last, "just as he was
put in the power of John Mark, but I trust you. Give me a slip of paper,
and I'll write on it what you want."

Chapter Sixteen

_Disarming Suspicion_

From the house across the street Caroline Smith slipped out upon the
pavement and glanced warily about her. The street was empty, quieter and
more villagelike than ever, yet she knew perfectly well that John Mark
had not allowed her to be gone so long without keeping watch over her.
Somewhere from the blank faces of those houses across the street his
spies kept guard over her movements. Here she glanced sharply over her
shoulder, and it seemed to her that a shadow flitted into the door of a
basement, farther up the street.

At that she fled and did not stop running until she was at the door of
the house of Mark. Since all was quiet, up and down the street, she
paused again, her hand upon the knob. To enter meant to step back into
the life which she hated. There had been a time when she had almost
loved the life to which John Mark introduced her; there had been a time
when she had rejoiced in the nimbleness of her fingers which had enabled
her to become an adept as a thief. And, by so doing, she had kept the
life of her brother from danger, she verily believed. She was still
saving him, and, so long as she worked for John Mark, she knew that her
brother was safe, yet she hesitated long at the door.

It would be only the work of a moment to flee back to the man she loved,
tell him that she could not and dared not stay longer with the master
criminal, and beg him to take her West to a clean life. Her hand fell
from the knob, but she raised it again immediately.

It would not do to flee, so long as John Mark had power of life or death
over her brother. If Ronicky Doone, as he promised, was able to inspire
her brother with the courage to flee from New York, give up his sporting
life and seek refuge in some far-off place, then, indeed, she would go
with Bill Gregg to the ends of the earth and mock the cunning fiend who
had controlled her life so long.

The important thing now was to disarm him of all suspicion, make him
feel that she had only visited Bill Gregg in order to say farewell to
hi