nd Blaine, with the
injured man between them, settled down in the ambulance for the slow,
careful journey back to the city. "That third man who came for me last
night--the one with the French accent and the cough--and the rest who
are in this kidnaping plot? Will you get them, too?"

"Ross and Suraci are enough to guard Mac Alarney and Al on their way
to the lock-up," the detective responded quietly. "The others will go
on up to the sanitarium and clean the place out. They'll get French
Louis, all right. And as for the rest who are concerned in this,
Doctor Alwyn, be sure that I intend to see that they get their just
deserts."

"And it is said that you have never lost a case!" the Doctor
remarked.

"I shall not lose this one." Blaine spoke with quiet confidence,
unmixed with any boastfulness. "I cannot lose; there is too much at
stake."

Late that night, Anita Lawton was awakened from a tortured, feverish
dream by the violent ringing of the telephone bell at her bedside. The
voice of Henry Blaine, fraught with a latent tension of suppressed
elation, came to her over the wire.

"Miss Lawton, I shall come to you in twenty minutes. Please be
prepared to go out with me in my car. No, don't ask me any questions
now. I will explain when I reach you."

His arrival found her dressed and restlessly pacing the floor of the
reception-room, in a fever of mingled hope and anxiety.

"What is it, Mr. Blaine?" she cried, seizing his hand and pressing it
convulsively in both of hers. "You have news for me! I can read it in
your face! Ramon--"

"Is safe!" he responded. "Can you bear a sudden shock now, Miss
Lawton? After all that has gone before, can you withstand one more
blow?"

"Oh, tell me! Tell me quickly! I can endure everything, if only Ramon
is safe!"

"I found him to-night, and brought him back to the city. I have come
to take you to him."

"But why--why did he not come with you? Does he not realize what I
have suffered--that every moment of suspense, of waiting for him, is
an added torture?"

"He realizes nothing." Blaine hesitated, and then went on: "It is best
for you to know the truth at once. Mr. Hamilton has suffered a severe
injury. He is lying almost at the point of death, but the physicians
say he has a chance, a good chance, for recovery, now that he is where
he can receive expert care and attention. How he came by his shattered
skull--he has a fracture at the base of the brain--we shall not know
unt