a javelin, the
heavy silver head forward. Robin Hood couldn't have done better with
an arrow. When the silver knob hit the back of the running man's head,
he fell forward to the sidewalk.

He was still struggling to get up when we grabbed him.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

The Duke and I were waiting for Dr. Brownlee when he came back from
talking to Lawrence Nestor in his cell. "He's one of our zanies, all
right," he said sadly. "A very sick man."

"He's lucky he wasn't lynched," I said. "Did he tell you what
happened?"

Brownlee nodded. "Just about the way you had it figured. He had the
little girl's clothes off when her mother came back. He heard her
putting her key in the door, so he grabbed Shirley and dragged her
into the closet with him. The mother didn't search the place at all;
she just went through the main rooms, called her daughter's name a few
times and then left."

"That's what threw us off at first," I said. "We both accepted Mrs.
Ebbermann's word that Shirley wasn't in the apartment. Then I realized
that she wouldn't have taken time to look in all the closets. Why
should she? As far as she knew, there wasn't any reason for Shirley to
hide from her."

"It's a good thing Mrs. Ebbermann did come back." Dr. Brownlee said.
"That was the only thing that saved the girl from rape and death.
Nestor was so unnerved that he just left her in the closet, still
unconscious from the blow he'd given her.

"Any normal man would have gotten out of there right then. Not Nestor.
He went looking for a drink. Fortunately, he found a bottle of whisky
in the kitchen. He was just getting in the mood to go back in after
the girl when you two came charging in.

"He saw you run to the bedroom, so he knew the girl's mother must have
called for help. He decided it was time to run. Too late, of course."

"Too late for a lot of things." I said. "Much too late far Angela
Donahue, for instance. And, as a matter of fact, we were so close to
being too late with Shirley Ebbermann that I don't even want to think
about it. I should have let Shultz go ahead and tell the newsmen. At
least people would have been warned."

"There's no way of knowing," said the Duke, "But I think there's just
as good a chance that he'd have gotten his hands on some other little
girl, even if the warning had gone out. There will always be parents
who don't pay enough attention to what their children are doing. They
may