the bank of Brooklyn and Queens
certainly brought results. No wonder poor old Jimmy Brunell was all
broken up when he received such a message. More crafty than Pennold,
he realized that it was a trap, and we were on his trail at last.
We've got him cinched now, but he's only a tool, possibly a helpless
one, in the hands of the master workmen. We'll go after them, tooth
and nail, for the happiness and stainless name of two innocent young
girls, who trust in us, and we'll get them, Guy, we'll get them if
there is any justice and honor and truth left in the world!"

CHAPTER XIII

THE EMPTY HOUSE

"Don't spare them now. Get the truth at all costs."

With the last instructions of his chief ringing in his ears, the
following morning Guy Morrow set out for Brooklyn, to interview his
erstwhile friends, the Pennolds, in his true colors.

Mame Pennold, who was cleaning the dingy front room, heard the click
of the gate, and peered with habitual caution from behind the frayed
curtains of the window. The unexpected reappearance of their young
banking acquaintance sent her scurrying as fast as her palsied legs
could carry her back to the kitchen, where her husband sat luxuriously
smoking and toasting his feet at the roaring little stove.

"Wally, who d'you think's comin' up the walk? That young feller,
Alfred Hicks, who skipped from the Brooklyn and Queens Bank!"

"Good Lord!" Walter Pennold took his pipe from his lips and stared at
her. "What d'you s'pose brought him back? Think he's broke, an' wants
a touch?"

"No-o," his wife responded, somewhat doubtfully. "He looked
prosperous, all right, by the flash I got at him, an' he's walkin'
real brisk and businesslike. Maybe he's back on the job."

"'Tain't likely, not after the way he left his boarding place, if that
Lindsay woman didn't lie." Pennold laid aside his pipe and frowned
thoughtfully, as steps echoed from the rickety porch and a knock
sounded upon the door. "He's a lightweight, every way you take
him--he'd never stick anywhere."

"Maybe he's come to try an' get you into somethin'," Mame suggested.
"Don't you go takin' up with a bad penny at your time o' life, Wally.
He might know somethin' an' try blackmail, if he's real up against
it."

"Well, go ahead an' open the door!" ordered Walter impatiently. "We're
straight with the bank. If he's workin' there again we ain't got
nothin' to worry about, an' if he ain't, we got nothin' against him.
Let him in."