lly, quietly--completely.

* * * * *

When the telephone rang, Bennett knew it was the district attorney
returning his call, and that the die was cast. Until this ugly
business was brought to a conclusion, his life would be in constant
danger.

"Leroy Bennett speaking," he said. "I have had collected some
information that I think will be of very great interest to your
office."

"Information about what?" the voice at the other end asked briskly.

"I have proof that John Tournay is responsible for the death of two
men, in an action involving criminal collusion."

"If what you say is true, I will be glad to see your evidence," the
district attorney said. "Could you deliver it in person? There may be
some questions I would like to ask you about it."

"Certainly," Bennett replied. "When would be the most convenient
time?"

"Later in the day. I have a case going on. How would four-thirty this
afternoon suit you?"

"That would be fine."

The rest of the day dragged slowly. At four o'clock Bennett left his
office and took the elevator to the ground floor. Under his arm he
clutched the briefcase which might spell death for him.

A moment after he left his office building, he knew he had made a
mistake--a fatal one!

Idly, at first, his mind's eye watched the driver of a long gray
sedan, parked at the curb, start up its motor as he approached. The
car pulled away from the curb when he came alongside it.

Through an open rear window, Bennett saw a man with a dark, brooding
face--with black eyebrows that joined over the bridge of the
nose--glowering at him. At the same instant he saw the blunt nose of
an automatic resting on the lowered glass of the window, just below
the chin of the frowning man.

Incredibly, even as he realized that he was about to die, Bennett's
first thought was not one of fear, but rather that this dark man was
the other person he had seen in his hallucinations of the city of
Thone!

Then, as one part of his mind drew back in terror at what it knew was
about to happen, another part wondered at the mystery of Thone and the
people in it. Where did that hallucination fit in this mist of life
which was about to end?

He felt three hard, solid blows punch shockingly into his body. There
was pain, but greater than that was the terror that whipped his
panicked mind.

"Lima," Bennett whispered with his last stark thought as he dropped to
his knees.

He groped f