men running about?"

"Mainly in your interest," responded Gladwin quickly, "but if you will
consent not to send me to jail I will get them out of the house and
keep the unhappy termination of my romance out of the newspapers."

"Of course, it must not get in the newspapers," cried the horrified
Mrs. Burton.

"Then, madam, if you will go back to Helen and promise not to be too
hard with her I will attend to it."

"Was your father's name Edwin Gladwin?" asked Mrs. Burton, looking at
him with a swift change of expression as he led her back to the room
he called his den.

"Yes," said the young man, "but if you will excuse me I will endeavor
to get rid of all these policemen."

He suddenly darted from her and descended the stairs.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE ESCAPE.

While he had not the slightest notion where the picture expert had
managed to conceal himself during his own enforced absence from the
scene of the chase, Travers Gladwin was confident that the man was
capable of outwitting an army of the sort of man-hunters who were
swarming within and without the aristocratic premises.

When he caught sight of Whitney Barnes and Sadie in a tender confab
that was just about to frond out into the full foliage of a romantic
climax, it was on his tongue to bid them carry their hearts upstairs
and string them together in a more secluded spot. They beat him to his
own suggestion, and were gone before he could utter a syllable.

He had the great drawing room and picture gallery to himself and was
scanning every corner of it when a voice punctuated the silence.

"Ah, Mr. Gladwin!"

The young man turned quickly and saw what he at first mistook for a
uniformed constable emerge from the portieres that screened the
window.

"Well, if it isn't"--he began in gaping surprise.

"Murphy, sorr, only a tighter fit." Wilson stepped through the
curtains twirling his club.

"So you are 666 now, eh?" Gladwin blurted. "And Phelan"----

"The gentleman who belongs in this tight-fitting frock? Oh, he's still
about."

"And you managed to bribe him?"

"Not exactly that, Mr. Gladwin--say I persuaded him."

"My hat is off to you again," exclaimed the young man, "but don't
waste any time. You can get away easily in that uniform--quick, and
good luck."

"I never hurry in these cases," returned the thief, with an air of
calm indifference. "You see, I have an idea that the Captain and
Kearney are waiting for me at the front door, for