ss before him. Another blow or two on the skull would have
served his purpose noiselessly. The cattleman knew from his
observation of this case that the authorities had a way of muddling
things. Perhaps it would be better to wait until the difficulties had
been smoothed out before going to them.

"That suits me," he said. "We'll tackle Hull when his wife isn't with
him. He goes downtown every day about ten o'clock. We'll pick him up
in a taxi, run him out into the country somewhere, an' put him over the
jumps. The sooner the quicker. How about to-morrow morning?"

"Suits me, too. But will he go with us?"

"He'll go with us," Kirby said quietly.

CHAPTER XXXV

LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT

From ten thousand bulbs the moving-picture houses of Curtis Street were
flinging a glow upon the packed sidewalks when Kirby came out of the
hotel and started uptown.

He walked to the Wyndham, entered, and slipped up the stairs of the
rooming-house unnoticed. From the third story he ascended by a ladder
to the flat roof. He knew exactly what he had come to investigate.
From one of the windows of the fourth floor at the Paradox he had
noticed the clothes-line which stretched across the Wyndham roof from
one corner to another. He went straight to one of the posts which
supported the rope. He made a careful study of this, then walked to
the other upright support and examined the knots which held the line
fast here.

"I'm some good little guesser," he murmured to himself as he turned
back to the ladder and descended to the floor below.

He moved quietly along the corridor to the fire escape and stepped out
upon it. Then, very quickly and expertly, he coiled a rope which he
took from a paper parcel that had been under his arm. At one end of
the coil was a loop. He swung this lightly round his head once or
twice to feel the weight of it. The rope snaked forward and up. Its
loop dropped upon the stone abutment he had noticed when he had been
examining the exteriors of the buildings with Cole Sanborn. It
tightened when he gave a jerk.

Kirby climbed over the railing and swung himself lightly out into
space. A moment, and he was swaying beside the fire escape of the
Paradox. He caught the iron rail and pulled himself to the platform.

By chance the blind was down. There was no light within, but after his
eyes had become used to the darkness he tried to take a squint at the
room from the sides of the blind