in her eyes. He questioned
if they had sprung from pity for him. She touched his hand. He looked
away, for the quick pressure expressed only thanks, and a friendship
troubled by his persistence.

* * * * * *

During the next few days Garth saw little of Nora, meeting her only once
or twice by chance in her father's office. He was not inclined, indeed,
to urge a more intimate opportunity. He had let her see rather too much
of his heart, and he shrank from an appearance of seeking advantage from
her gratitude.

That gratitude existed abundantly, and the inspector shared it. The
affair of the gray mask had altered a good deal for Garth. It had placed
him all at once apart from his fellows in the bureau. The newspaper
publicity, which, unlike most of his kind, he would have preferred to
avoid, had swept his reputation far beyond the boundaries of his own
city. He acknowledged a benefit in that. Such notoriety might deter the
desire for revenge of any of the friends of Slim and George who remained
at large.

A very real danger for Nora and himself lay there. It created, too, a
tie that the inspector visualized with an increasing friendliness and
confidence.

"If Slim and George go to the chair," the big man said on one of those
mornings when Garth had stumbled into Nora in the office, "you two are
probably safe enough. With those birds salted away the weaker brothers
aren't likely to take any wild chances, at least until the thing has
been pretty well forgotten."

Apprehension clouded his sleepy eyes.

"But, young people, if Slim and George escaped conviction or managed a
getaway, I'd look for a new first-class detective, and--"

He took Nora's hand and studied her face, whose dark beauty remained
unafraid.

"I guess I'd need another daughter, which I couldn't very well have."

He laughed brusquely.

"Slim and George are tight enough now, so why borrow trouble."

Garth saw the foreboding of his chief's eyes turn to curiosity, a trifle
groping.

"Wish you'd kept out of it, daughter."

"Don't scold," she laughed. "You did enough of that the other night."

"I'm not," he grumbled, "I'm only wondering where you got the nerve, and
the brains."

"Some from you, father."

"Not as much as all that. I guess your mother gave you a little that we
hum-drum New Yorkers don't quite understand."

"If," Garth said, "anything develops, you'll have to send Nora away."

"If there's time,"