"Listen!"

Keralio proceeded:

"Now you understand what you are to do. You bring the child here
to-morrow morning. Meantime, I have already written in a disguised
hand to Mrs. Traynor telling her that her child is safe--for the
present, and that if she wants to see her she must come here to-morrow
afternoon. I warned her that if she communicated with the police or
informed any of her friends, the child would be put to death before it
would be possible to effect a rescue. That ought to bring her here----"

"Would monsieur go as far as to kill----"

"Why not," demanded Keralio fiercely. "I permit nothing to stand in
the way of my will. That woman can save her child's life, but she must
pay the price I ask. She shall learn what it costs to dismiss me from
her house----"

The valet was heard to chuckle as he said:

"I don't love her any too much myself. She discharged me from her
employ the other day so haughtily I felt like a whipped cur."

Again there was silence, followed by a muffled hammering.

"They're taking the printing press apart," whispered Dick, who through
the keyhole, had managed to get a glimpse of machinery. "If we don't
act quickly, they'll get away with all the evidence. Hadn't we better
go and call the police?"

For answer, the lawyer put his fingers to his lips with a warning
gesture, and beckoning the young man to follow, retraced his steps on
tiptoe along the narrow, dark hall and down the filthy, winding
staircase. Not a word was spoken by either man until they reached the
street. Once in the open air, the lawyer turned and said:

"Dick, we've uncovered as black a plot as was ever hatched in hell. If
we don't queer the game and put them all in the chair it won't be my
fault. We can't bring poor Kenneth back to life, but we can and will
revenge his cowardly murder. It will be a positive joy to me to see
that arch-scoundrel Keralio electrocuted."

"What do you propose to do?" asked his companion. "Hadn't we better
call Mrs. Traynor on the telephone and warn her before it's too late?"

The lawyer was silent for a few moments. Then meditatively, he said:

"No, that would be a mistake. No doubt, by this time, she has received
Keralio's anonymous letter. She is probably frantic with anxiety over
the news of her child's disappearance, and will respond eagerly to any
clue that promises to take her to her child. If we warned her she
would pay no heed. She might pretend to,