the way _always_
opens. For that's prayer, right prayer; the kind that Jesus taught."

The woman sat staring at the girl, an expression of utter blankness
upon her pallid face. Prayer! Oh, yes, she had been taught to pray.
Well she remembered, though the memory now cut like a knife, how she
knelt at her beautiful mother's knee and asked the good Father to
bless and protect them all, even to the beloved doll that she hugged
to her little bosom. But God had never heard her petitions, innocent
though she was. And He had let her fall, even with a prayer on her
lips, into the black pit!

A loud sound of male voices and a stamping of feet rose from below.
The woman sprang to the door and stood listening. "It's the boys from
the college!" she cried in a hoarse whisper.

She turned and stood hesitant for a moment, as if striving to
formulate a plan. A look of fierce determination came into her face.
She went to the bureau and took from the drawers several articles,
which she hastily thrust into the pocket of her dress.

"Now," she said, turning to Carmen and speaking in a low, strained
voice, "you do just as I say. Bring your bundle. And for God's sake
don't speak!"

Leaving the light burning, she stepped quickly out with Carmen and
locked the door after her. Then, bidding the girl wait, she slipped
softly down the hall and locked the door of the room to which the girl
had first been taken. Both keys she dropped into her pocket. "Now
follow me," she said.

Laughter and music floated up from below, mingled with the clink of
glasses. The air was heavy with perfume and tobacco smoke. A door near
them opened, and a sound of voices issued. The woman pulled Carmen
into a closet until the hall was again quiet. Then she hurried on to
another door which she entered, dragging the girl with her. Again she
locked the door after her. Groping through the darkness, she reached a
window, across which stood a hinged iron grating, secured with a
padlock. The woman fumbled among her keys and unfastened this.
Swinging it wide, and opening the window beyond, she bade the girl
precede her cautiously.

"It's a fire-escape," she explained briefly. She reached through the
window grating and fastened the padlock; then closed the window; and
quickly descended with the girl to the ground below.

Pausing a moment to get her breath, she seized Carmen's hand and crept
swiftly around the big house and into a dark alley. There she stopped
to throw o