subject for thought. The cab had stopped, although several yards of
clear road lay ahead of it. The driver was climbing down. The
motor-car was nosing its way along nearly a block ahead. Hambleton
leaped out.

"Of course, we've broken down?" he mildly inquired. Deep in his heart
he was superstitiously thinking that he would let fate determine his
next move; if there were obstacles in the way of his further quest,
well and good; he would follow the Face no longer.

"If you'll wait just a minute--" the driver was saying, "until I get my
kit out--"

But Hambleton, looking ahead, saw that the car had disappeared, and his
mind suddenly veered.

"Not this time," he announced. "Here, the meter says four-twenty--you
take this, I'm off." He put a five-dollar bill into the hand of the
driver and started on an easy run toward the west.

He had caught sight of smoke-stacks and masts in the near distance,
telling him that the motor-car had almost, if not quite, reached the
river. Such a vehicle could not disappear and leave no trace; it ought
to be easy to find. Ahead of him flaring lights alternated with the
steady, piercing brilliance of the incandescents, and both struggled
against the lingering daylight.

A heavy policeman at the corner had seen the car. He pointed west into
the cavernous darkness of the wharves.

"If she ain't down at the Imperial docks she's gone plump into the
river, for that's the way she went," he insisted. The policeman had
the bearing of a major-general and the accent of the city of Cork.
Hambleton went on past the curving street-car tracks, dodged a loaded
dray emerging from the dock, and threaded his way under the shed. He
passed piles of trunks, and a couple of truckmen dumping assorted
freight from an ocean liner. No motor-car or veiled lady, nor sound of
anything like a woman's voice. Hambleton came out into the street
again, looked about for another probable avenue of escape for the car
and was at the point of bafflement, when the major-general pounded
slowly along his way.

"In there, my son, and no nice place either!" pointing to a smaller
entrance alongside the Imperial docks, almost concealed by swinging
signs. It was plainly a forbidden way, and at first sight appeared too
narrow for the passage of any vehicle whatsoever. But examination
showed that it was not too narrow; moreover, it opened on a level with
the street.

"If you really want her, she's in there, thou