ll," said the colonel slowly, "I shouldn't have been so keen to go
after Maisie White if it hadn't been that you were fond of her and
wanted her. That's what I call letting love interfere with business."

"But you said you were afraid of her blabbing. You don't put it on to
me," said the indignant Pinto.

"I was and I wasn't," said the colonel. "I think I almost persuaded
myself that the girl was a danger. Of course, she isn't. Even Solomon
White wasn't a danger."

He stopped dead, and, speaking slowly and pointing his words with a
huge forefinger on the other's chest, he said:

"Bear this fact in mind, Pinto, that I have no malice against Miss
White, and I don't think that she can harm me. As far as I'm concerned,
I will never hurt a hair of her head or do her the slightest harm. I
believe that she has nothing against me, and I give orders to anybody
who's connected with me--in fact, to all of my business associates--that
that girl is not to be interfered with."

Slowly, emphatically, every word emphasised, the colonel spoke, but
Pinto did not smile. He had seen the colonel in this gentle mood before,
and he knew that Maisie White was doomed.

CHAPTER XXIV

PINTO GOES NORTH

Had Pinto been a psychologist, which he was not, he might have been
struck by the unusual reference on the part of the colonel to the funds
of the gang. It was a subject to which the colonel very seldom referred,
and it was certainly one which he did not emphasise. The truth was that
the colonel's investigations into his own private affairs had not been
as satisfactory as he had hoped would be the case.

He was in the habit of advancing money, and the gang owed him a
considerable sum, money which had been advanced for the pursuit of
various enterprises. To draw that money would leave the Gang Fund sadly
depleted, and he could not afford to draw upon it at a moment when they
were all on edge. Not only were the two principal subordinates in the
condition of mind which led them to jump at every knock and start at
every shadow, but he had been receiving urgent messages from all parts
of the country from the other men, and he had determined upon a step
which he had not taken for three years--a meeting of the full "Board" of
his lawless organisation.

That night summonses went forth calling his "business associates" to an
Extraordinary General Meeting of the North European Smelter Syndicate.
This was one of the companies which he oper