ng, or acting trustful maiden to some
poor fool from the country--why, I'm ready and willing, because that's
my job. But this is a different matter altogether. If the colonel says
she's got to go abroad, why, I suppose she's got to go. But she's not
going to be on my conscience, that's all," said Lollie.

They passed through the door into a smaller room where the night
watchers sat. She made as though to sit at the table when he gripped her
arm and swung her round. She put up her hands to defend herself, but was
thrown against the wall, and his grip was on her throat.

"Do you know what I'll do for you?" he hissed.

"I don't care what you do," she said. She was on the verge of tears.
"You're not going into that room--you're _not_ going!"

She sprang at him, but with a snarl like a wild beast, he turned and
struck her, and she fell against the wall.

"Now get out"--he pointed to the door--"get out and don't show your face
here again. And if you've got any information, you can report it to the
colonel and see what he's got to say to you!"

She slunk from the room. Pinto went back to the room where the girl lay.

"Cover your head with a blanket, my pretty?" he said. "Pinto must not
see that pretty face, eh?"

He laid hold of the blanket's edge and pulled it gently down. But the
blanket would not come away. It was being clutched tightly. With a jerk
he wrenched it down, then stumbled backwards to the floor, a grotesque
and ludicrous figure, for the white silk mask of Jack o' Judgment
confronted him and the hateful voice of his enemy shrilled:

"I'm Death! Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack! Jack, the hangman! You'll
meet him one day, Pinto--meet him now!"

Pinto collapsed--he had fainted.

CHAPTER XXII

MAISIE TELLS HER STORY

"There is one fact which I would impress upon you," said Sir Stanley
Belcom, addressing the heads of his departments at the early morning
conference at Scotland Yard, "and it is this, that the criminal has nine
chances against the one which the law possesses. He has the initiative
in the first place, and if he fails to evade detection, the law gives
him certain opportunities of defence and imposes certain restrictions
which prevent one taking a line which would bring the truth of his
assertions or denials to light. It protects him; it will not admit
evidence against him; it will not allow the jury to be influenced by the
record of his previous crimes until they have delivered their