y it had found a hiding place and was
content to abide there for the present. Such ideas are not without
avenues of retreat; they know the hours of attack. Kitty was alive to
but one fact: The game of hide and seek was on again. She was going to
have some excitement. She was going into the night on an adventure, as
children play at bears in the dark. The youth in her still rejected the
fact that the woof and warp of this adventure were murder and loot and
pain.

En route to the Subway she never looked back. At Forty-second Street she
detrained, walked into the Knickerbocker, entered the ladies dressing
room, turned her coat, redraped her hat, checked her gaiters, and sought
a taxi. Within two blocks of Cutty's she dismissed the cab and finished
the journey on foot.

At the left of the lobby was an all-night apothecary's, with a door
going into the lobby. Kitty proceeded to the elevator through this
avenue. Number Four was down, and she stepped inside, raising her veil.

"You, miss?"

"Very important. Take me up."

"The boss is out."

"No matter. Take me up.

"You're the doctor!" What a pretty girl she was. No come-on in her eyes,
though. "The boss may not get back until morning. He just went out in
his engineer's togs. He sure wasn't expecting you.

"Do you know where he went?"

"Never know. But I'll be in this bird cage until he comes back."

"I shall have to wait for him."

"Up she goes!"

As Kitty stepped out into the corridor a wave of confusion assailed her.
She hadn't planned against Cutty's absence. There was nothing she could
say to the nurse; and if Johnny Two-Hawks was asleep--why, all she could
do would be to curl up on a divan and await Cutty's return.

The nurse appeared. "You, Miss Conover?"

"Yes." Kitty realized at once that she must take the nurse into her
confidence. "I have made a really important discovery. Did Cutty say
when he would return?"

"No. I am not in his confidence to that extent. But I do know that you
assumed unnecessary risks in coming here."

Kitty shrugged and produced the wallet. "Is Mr. Hawksley awake?"

"He is."

"It appears that he left this wallet in my kitchen that night. It might
buck him up if I gave it to him."

The nurse, eyeing the lovely animated face, conceded that it might.
"Come, I've been trying futilely to read him asleep, but he is restless.
No excitement, please."

"I'll try not to. Perhaps, after all, you had better give him the
wallet."