"I'm going to buy a crocodile," he imparted, with a wide, boyish
grin. "I'm going to buy a crocodile of a one-eyed man."

Stolidly Falconer eyed his departing back. Stolidly, definitely,
comprehensively, he pronounced judgment. "Mad," said he. "Mad as the
March Hare."

CHAPTER VIII

THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR

That stealthy touch brought Arlee half upright, shot with ghastly
alarms. Her heart stopped beating; it stood still in the cold clutch
of terror. The breath seemed to have left her body.

Once more she felt the hands gropingly upon her. It came from the
back side of her bed, reaching apparently from the very wall. And
then she heard a voice whispering, "Be still--I do not hurt you. Be
still."

It was a woman's voice, soft, sibilant, hushed, and the frozen grip
of fear was broken. She was trembling now uncontrollably.

"Who is there?"

"S-sh!" came the warning response, and then, her eyes staring into
the shadowy recess, she saw the curtains at the back side of the bed
were parting as a figure appeared between them.

"Give me a box, a book--somethings to put here in this lock,"
commanded the voice peremptorily, and in a daze Arlee found herself
extending a magazine across the bed toward the half-seen figure, who
turned and busied herself about the curtains a moment, then came
straight across the bed into the room beside Arlee.

"Now you see who I am," said the astonishing intruder calmly.

Mutely Arlee shook her head, seeing only a figure about her own
height clad in a dark negligee. Dumfounded she stood watching while
her visitor deliberately lighted a candle.

"So--that is better," she observed, and in the light of the tiny
taper between them the two stood facing each other.

Arlee saw a girl some years older than herself, a small, plump,
rounded creature, with a flaunting and insouciant prettiness. Her
eyes were dark and bright, her babyish lips were full and scarlet,
her nose was whimsically uptilted. Dark hair curled closely to the
vivid face and fell in ringlets over the white neck.

"You don't know me?" she said in astonishment at Arlee's eyes of
wonder. "He has not told you?" Incredulity, impertinent and mocking,
darted out of the dark eyes. "What you think then--you what got my
room?"

"Your room?" Arlee echoed faintly. She flung a quivering hand toward
the bed. "How did you get in here? I locked the door----"

"You see how I came--I came by the panel," She waited a moment,
watc