hildishly.

"No?" One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the
contrary but that he was restraining himself--it was not worthwhile to
bother with such a girl seriously. "Things have fallen into a tangle
since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father
has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this
was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?"

He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.

"How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog."

He was silent for a time. "Well," he said, "if you told me the truth I
suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.
Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint."

"I suppose you'll get him back?"

"First, I want to find out how he got away."

"I know how."

"Ah?"

"Donnegan."

"Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!" burst out Lord Nick, and though he did
not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly
so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.
"Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one
of them! You, too!"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Donnegan thrills The Corner!" went on the big man in the same terrible
voice. "Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;
Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.
Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!"

She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.

"It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?" she asked
coldly.

"It's an awful business," declared Lord Nick. "Always complications;
have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads
are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas."

"Well," murmured the girl, "don't cross that bridge until you come to
it; and you'll never come to it."

"Never. Because I don't want him killed."

"Ah," Lord Nick murmured. "And why?"

"Because he's in love--with me."

"Tush!" said Lord Nick. "I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare
fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without
help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to
find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not
the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who
doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the
one!"

She hesitate