ad come with
her; then she told herself how foolish she was, for he had a cold,
and this keen air would have been sure to give him more. The
electric-car passed her, and she had a grateful sense of
companionship. She looked after its diminishing light in the
distance, and almost wished that she had stopped it, but car-fares
had to be counted carefully.

She began to dread unspeakably passing the factories. She told
herself that there was no sense in it, that it was not late, that
the electric-light made it like high noon, that there was a watchman
in each building, that there was nothing whatever to fear; but it
was in vain. It was only by a great effort of her will that she did
not turn and go back home when she reached Lloyd's.

Lloyd's came first; then, a few rods farther, on the other side of
the street, McGuire's, and then Briggs's.

Ellen had a library book under her arm, and she clutched her
dress-skirt firmly. A terror as to the supernatural was stealing
over her. She felt as she had when waking in the night from some
dreadful dream, though all the time she was dinning in her ears how
foolish she was. She saw the lantern of the night-watchman in
Lloyd's moving down a stair which crossed a window.

She came opposite Lloyd's, and, just as she did so, saw a dark
figure descending the right-hand flight of stairs from the entrance
platform. She thought, from something in the carriage, that it was
Mr. Lloyd, and hung back a little, reflecting that she would keep
behind him all the way to town.

The man reached the ground at the foot of the stairs, then there was
a flash of fire from the shadow underneath, and a shot rang out.
Ellen did what she could never have counted upon herself for doing.
She ran straight towards the man, who had fallen prostrate like a
log, and was down on the ground beside him, with his head on her
lap, shouting for the night-watchman, whose name was McLaughlin.

"McLaughlin!" she shouted. But there was no need of it, for he had
heard the shot. The cry had not left Ellen's lips before she was
surrounded by men, one of whom was Granville Joy, one was Dixon, and
one was John Sargent.

Joy and Sargent had met down-town, and were walking home together,
when the shot rang out, and they had rushed forward. Then there was
McLaughlin, the watchman of Lloyd's, and the two watchmen from
Briggs's and McGuire's came pelting down their stairs, swinging
their lanterns.

They all stood around the w