f a man in a black
domino. It lay sprawled in the dirt, and covering the face was a mask
which smiled placidly up at the beholders; on the left breast was pinned
a solitary gardenia, crimson with blood. It had been pierced with a
dagger, and out of it had trickled a bright-red arterial stream.

Van Dam continued to stare at the gruesome sight while his wits whirled
dizzily. Why, it was but a moment ago that this boy had left him, in the
full flower of his youth! The body was still warm. It seemed
inconceivable that the grim reaper could have worked this grisly change
in so short a time! How had it happened? He recalled that somber figure
as he had seen it scaling the fence; he recalled that warning whistle.
At the memory he turned sick. Was it possible that he had been to blame
for this? He shook the notion from him, reflecting that Emile's fate
would have been the same, or worse, had he chosen any other course.
Arrest, he knew, would have been no more welcome than this.

Roly felt a great desire to shout the truth at these people who stood
about so stupidly; he longed to set them on the trail of the Black Wolf
and his pack, but he refrained. How little he really knew, after all!
Who was the Black Wolf? Who was this Emile? What had the young scapegoat
done to place himself not only outside the law, but outside the good
graces of those conspirators? What intricate network of hatred and crime
was here suggested? The desire to know the truth overcame all thought of
his own safety, so he began to question those around him, heedless of
the fact that he was being hunted in this very block.

The crowd was growing. An officer returned after sending a call for an
ambulance, and began to force the people back.

Van Dam discovered a voluble old woman, evidently a shopkeeper, who
seemed better informed than the others, and to her he applied himself.

"Do I know him, indeed?" she cried, shrilly, in answer to his question.
"And who should know him better than I, Emile Le Duc--a fine boy, sir,
of the very best family. Think of it! To be murdered like this! Ah!
That's what comes of a bad life, sir. But right at my own doorstep, as
you might say, and in the light of day! Well! Well! What can you expect?
He must have been mad to return, with the whole city knowing him so
well." She was greatly excited, and her voice broke under the stress of
her feelings. "It doesn't help the neighborhood, you understand, to have
such things happen,"