farther wall was a settee with a high, arching back,
which might have been put there for that special purpose. He inserted
himself behind this, just as a splintering crash announced that the Law,
having gone through the formality of knocking with its knuckles, was now
getting busy with an axe. A moment later the door had given way, and the
room was full of trampling feet. Archie wedged himself against the wall
with the quiet concentration of a clam nestling in its shell, and hoped
for the best.

It seemed to him that his immediate future depended for better or for
worse entirely on the native intelligence of the Force. If they were the
bright, alert men he hoped they were, they would see all that junk in
the bedroom and, deducing from it that their quarry had stood not
upon the order of his going but had hopped it, would not waste time in
searching a presumably empty apartment. If, on the other hand, they were
the obtuse, flat-footed persons who occasionally find their way into
the ranks of even the most enlightened constabularies, they would
undoubtedly shift the settee and drag him into a publicity from which
his modest soul shrank. He was enchanted, therefore, a few moments
later, to hear a gruff voice state that th' mutt had beaten it down
th' fire-escape. His opinion of the detective abilities of the New York
police force rose with a bound.

There followed a brief council of war, which, as it took place in the
bedroom, was inaudible to Archie except as a distant growling noise.
He could distinguish no words, but, as it was succeeded by a general
trampling of large boots in the direction of the door and then by
silence, he gathered that the pack, having drawn the studio and found
it empty, had decided to return to other and more profitable duties. He
gave them a reasonable interval for removing themselves, and then poked
his head cautiously over the settee.

All was peace. The place was empty. No sound disturbed the stillness.

Archie emerged. For the first time in this morning of disturbing
occurrences he began to feel that God was in his heaven and all right
with the world. At last things were beginning to brighten up a bit, and
life might be said to have taken on some of the aspects of a good egg.
He stretched himself, for it is cramping work lying under settees, and,
proceeding to the bedroom, picked up the tweed trousers again.

Clothes had a fascination for Archie. Another man, in similar
circumstances,