not," the young man replied. "See here."

He produced from either trousers leg the two parts of a jointed steel
bar. It went together with a sharp click and proved to be a burglar's
"jimmy" of the most approved pattern.

"Scorch O'Brien! Where did you get that thing?" demanded Nancy. "You
could be arrested with it in your possession."

"Forget it," advised Scorch, easily. "My next-door neighbor is a cop. He
let me have it, and I'll show you how to use it."

The youth went to the single door of the room, inserted the point of the
bar between door and frame near the lock, and the next moment the dry
wood gave way, splintering all around the lock. The door came open at a
touch.

"Sup--suppose they stop us?" breathed Jennie, trembling.

"Let 'em try!" exclaimed the valiant Scorch, and led the way into the
dark hall.

They marched downstairs, the girls clinging together and trembling,
without a soul appearing to dispute their advance. The outside door was
chained; but Scorch had no difficulty in opening it. And so they passed
on out into the grimy street just after sunrise.

The house was merely an old, ill-kept lodging house, the person who ran
it being under some sort of obligation to Senator Montgomery. The girls
never learned what street it was on.

"My taxi's waiting," said Scorch, proudly, hurrying them around the
corner. "Come on, before it eats its head off and breaks me."

"Oh, I've got money, Scorch!" cried Nancy.

"All right. You may need it later."

The taxi-cab driver paid no attention to the girls as they got in.
Scorch took his seat beside him, and they were off. In a very few
minutes they stopped at Garvan's Hotel, in a much better-looking
neighborhood, and Scorch paid for the cab.

"Come on, now, and let me do the talking," said the red-headed youth.
"That gray man is ahead of us; but he isn't the whole thing around
_this_ hotel. They know me better than they do him."

Nobody sought to stop them, however. They went up in the elevator and
got out at the third floor. Scorch led the way along the corridor, and
suddenly turned the knob of a door without knocking. The door was
unlocked.

"Here! What do you want in here, young man?" snapped a voice that Nancy
and Jennie recognized.

It was Senator Montgomery. Scorch pushed ahead.

"I must see Mr. Gordon," he said. "I've been with him ever since he was
brought in from the wreck. I'm takin' my orders from him."

"He is in no fit shape to give