llify caution, warning
the presence of danger. The boy with his first pay envelope, the lover
who has just been accepted, the debutante on the way to her first ball;
the impetus that urges us to rush in where angels fear to tread.

At a quarter after five Kitty left the office for home, unaware that
the attribute designated as caution had evaporated from her system. She
proceeded toward the Subway mechanically, the result of habit. Casually
she noted two taxicabs standing near the Subway entrance. That she
noted them at all was due to the fact that Subway entrances were not
fortuitous hunting grounds for taxicabs. Only the unusual would have
attracted her in her present condition of mind. It takes time and
patience to weave a good web--observe any spider--time in finding a
suitable place for it; patience in the spinning. All that worried Karlov
was the possibility of her not observing him. If he could place
his taxicabs where they would attract her, even casually, the main
difficulty would be out of the way. The moment she turned her head
toward the cabs he would step out into plain view. The girl was
susceptible and adventuresome.

Kitty saw a man step out of the foremost taxicab, give some instructions
to the chauffeur, and get back into the cab, immediately to be driven
off at moderate speed. She recognized the man at once. Never would she
forget that squat, gorilla-like body. Karlov! Yonder, in that cab! She
ran to the remaining cab; wherein she differed from angels.

"Are you free?"

"Yes, miss."

"See that taxi going across town? Follow it and I will give you ten
extra fare."

"You're on, miss."

Karlov peered through the rear window of his cab. If she had in tow a
Federal agent the manoeuvre would fail, at a great risk to himself. But
he would soon be able to tell whether or not she was being followed.

As a matter of fact, she was not. She had returned to New York a day
before she was expected. Her unknown downtown guardian would not turn
up for duty until ordered by Cutty to do so. She entered the second cab
with no definite plan in her head. Karlov, the man who wanted to kill
Johnny Two-Hawks, the man who held Stefani Gregor a prisoner! For the
present these facts were sufficient. "Don't get too near," said Kitty
through the speaking tube. "Just keep the cab in sight."

A perfectly logical compensation. She herself had set in motion the
machinery of this amazing adventure; it was logically right tha