ng parlor.

In the one, indeed, you might sedately purchase a perfecto, and take
your peaceful departure, never dreaming of how closely you had skirted
the walls of the busiest poolroom south of all Twenty-third street. In
the other you might have your hair quietly shampooed and Marcelled and
dressed, and return to your waiting automobile, utterly oblivious of
the fact that within thirty feet of you fortunes were being still
staked and lost and won and again swept away at one turn of a wheel, or
one stroke of a chalk on a red-lined blackboard.

It was through the hair-dressing parlor that MacNutt led the dazed and
unprotesting Frank, pinning her to his side by the great arm that was,
seemingly, so carelessly linked through hers. He gave a curt nod to
the capped and aproned attendant, who touched a button on her desk,
without so much as a word of challenge or inquiry. The machine-like
precision with which each advance was watched and guarded, disheartened
the imprisoned woman.

"I'm boss here for a while, and I'm goin' to clean out the building, so
that you can have this little picnic all to your lonely!" remarked
MacNutt, as he pushed her on.

A door to the rear of the second parlor swung open, and as she was led
through it she noticed that it was sheathed with heavy steel plating.
Still another door, which opened as promptly to MacNutt's signal, was
armored with steel, and it was not until this door had closed behind
them that her guardian released the cruel grip on her arm. Then he
chuckled a little, gutturally, deep in his pendent and flaccid throat.

"We're up to date, you see, doin' business in a regular armor-clad
office!"

Frank looked about her, with widening eyes. MacNutt laughed again, at
the sense of surprise which he read on her face.

It was obviously a poolroom, but it was unlike anything she had ever
before seen. It was heavily carpeted, and, for a place of its
character, richly furnished. The walls were windowless, the light
being shed down from twelve heavily ornamented electroliers, each
containing a cluster of thirty lamps. These walls, which were
upholstered with green burlap, bordered at the bottom with a rich
frieze of lacquered and embossed _papier-mache_, were divided into
panels, and dotted here and there with little canvases and etchings.
On the east end of the room hung one especially large canvas, crowned
with a green-shaded row of electric lamps.

MacNutt, with a chuckle of