eart and soul,
it well might have been that he and Carson and Hampton would have gone
out of the room knowing no more than when they had come in. But it
seemed to Lee that the room which knew Judith so intimately, was
seeking to open its dumb lips to whisper to him of danger to her. He
had come here troubled for her; he stood, looking about him frowningly,
his heart heavy, fear mounting within him. And at length he found a
sign.

At the far end of the room, in a corner, was Judith's writing-table, on
which were several opened letters, pen and ink, a pad of paper. Lee
stepped to it. If she had been lured away after nightfall, then some
message had come to her. If that message had come by word of mouth,
there was no need seeking it; if it had been a note, fate might have
kept it here.

Impaled on a sharp file was a sheet of note-paper. The note was brief,
typewritten, even to the signature--that of Doc Tripp. It ran:

DEAR JUDITH:

I am afraid of a new trouble. Have spotted another one of T's gang
working for us. Also have got a bullet-hole in my right hand. Nothing
serious so far. Come down right away. Don't let any one see you as I
want to spring a surprise on them. Am not even using the telephone, as
I've a notion they are watching me. Hurry.

TRIPP.

"Come back to the office," said Lee bluntly. And well in front of
Carson and Hampton, who stared wonderingly at the paper in his hand, he
went to the office telephone and called for Tripp.

"How's your hand?" he asked when Tripp answered.

"All right," replied Tripp. "Why?"

"Get it hurt?"

"No."

"Did you write Miss Sanford a hurry-up note within the last few days?"

"No."

"Sure of that, Doc? Typewritten note?"

"Of course I'm sure," snapped Tripp. "What's wrong?"

"God knows," answered Lee shortly. "But you'd better come up here and
come on the jump. Also, keep your mouth shut until you can get a
chance to talk with me or Carson."

He clicked up the receiver and turned terrible eyes on the two men
watching him.

"They've got her," he said slowly. "They've got her, Carson. They've
had her since Saturday night!"

Carson read the note. Only then did it pass into Hampton's hands. The
boy, angered at the way in which he had been ignored, insulted in his
sense of dignity by those words of Lee's to Tripp, "Talk with me or
Carson," seeing the reins of power being snatched from his hands, was
speechless with wrath.

"You fe