mpty soap
box with a clatter to wake the seven sleepers. Instantly he knew it
had been put there for him to stumble over. A strong searchlight
flooded the stairs and focused on him. He caught a momentary glimpse
of a featureless face standing out above the light--a face that was
nothing but a red bandanna handkerchief with slits in it for eyes--and
of a pair of feet below at the top of the stairway.

The searchlight winked out. There was a flash of lightning and a crash
of thunder. A second time the pocket flash found Kirby. It found him
crouched low and reaching for the .45 under his arm. The booming of
the revolver above reverberated down the pit of the stairway.

Arrow-swift, with the lithe ease of a wild thing from the forest, Kirby
ducked round the corner for safety. He did not wait there, but took
the stairs down three at a stride. Not till he had reached the ground
floor did he stop to listen for the pursuit.

No sound of following footsteps came to him. By some miracle of good
luck he had escaped the ambush. It was characteristic of him that he
did not fly wildly into the night. His brain functioned normally,
coolly. Whoever it was had led him into the trap had lost his chance.
Kirby reasoned that the assassin's mind would be bent on making his own
safe escape before the police arrived.

The cattleman waited, crouched behind an out-jutting pillar in the wall
of the entrance. Every minute he expected to see a furtive figure
sneak past him into the street. His hopes were disappointed. It was
nearly midnight when two men, talking cheerfully of the last gusher in,
the Buckburnett field, emerged from the stairway and passed into the
street. They were tenants who had stayed late to do some unfinished
business.

There was a drug-store in the building, cornering on two streets.
Kirby stepped into it and asked a question of the clerk at the
prescription desk.

"Is there more than one entrance to the Denmark Building?"

"No, sir." The clerk corrected himself. "Well, there's another way
out. The Producers & Developers Shale and Oil Company have a suite of
offices that run into the Rockford Building. They've built an alley to
connect between the two buildings. It's on the fifth floor."

"Is it open? Could a man get out of the Denmark Building now by way of
the Rockford entrance?"

"Easiest in the world. All he'd have to do would be to cross the alley
bridge, go down the Rockford stairs, an