se places--noises filtering thinly through
shutters, the pad of footsteps, and once--it seemed to come from some
roof invisible above her--the sound of sobbing, abandoned, strangled,
heart-shaking sobs. She frowned and went on.

A spot where the way forked made her hesitate; the men she was
following were no longer in sight. But as she pondered there came to
guide her a sudden cry, clear and poignant, the shout of a startled
man. It was from the right-hand path, and promptly, as though on a
summons, she bent her grey head and broke into a run in the direction
of it. As she ran, pounding valiantly, she groped in her pocket for a
dog-whistle she had with her; she took it in her lips, and, never
ceasing to run, blew shrill call upon call. Her umbrella was poised
for war, but, rounding a corner, she saw that her whistling had done
its work; three white jackets were making off at top-speed. It takes
little to alarm a thief; Miss Gregory had counted on that.

It was not till she fell over him that she was aware of the man on
the ground, who rolled over and cried out at the movement. She put a
steady hand on him.

"Are you hurt?" she asked eagerly.

He groaned; his face was a pale blur against the earth.

"They've got me," he said. "They stuck a knife in my back. I'm
bleeding; I'm bleeding."

"Get up," bade Miss Gregory. "Bleeding or not, we must get away from
here. Up you get."

She pulled him to a sitting position, and he screamed and resisted,
but Miss Gregory was his master. By voice and force she brought him
upright; he could stand alone, and seemed surprised to find it out.

"Take my arm," she ordered him. "Lean on it; don t be afraid. Now,
where are your rooms?"

"On this way," he sobbed.

Evidently he had an ugly wound, for at each few steps he had to stop
and rest, and sometimes he swayed, and Miss Gregory had to hold him
up. His breath came hastily; he was soft with terror. "They'll come
back! they'll come back!" he gabbled, tottering on his feet.

"They're coming now; I can hear them," replied Miss Gregory grimly.
"Here, lean in this doorway behind me, man. Stop that whimpering,
will you! Now, keep close."

She propped him against the nail-studded door, and placed herself
before, him, and the three robbers, bunched together in a group,
stealing along the middle of the way, might almost have gone past
without seeing them. But it was not a chance to trust to. Miss
Gregory let them come abreast of her;