e finally did the blood
drummed in her ears. The trap! Someone was trying to get in through the
trap!

Cutty! Thus soon! Who else could it be? She hunted for a piece of lumber
light enough to raise to the trap. She tapped three times, and waited.
Silence. She repeated the signal. This time it was answered. Cutty! In a
little while she would be free, and Two-Hawks would not have to pay for
her folly with his life. Terror and remorse departed forthwith.

She took the plank to the door and pushed one end under the door knob.
Then she piled the other planks against the butt. The moment she heard
steps on the stairs she would stand on the planks. It would be difficult
to open that door. She sat down on the planks to wait. From time to time
she built up the falling tallow. Cutty must have light. The tapping on
the trap went on. They were breaking away the cement. Perhaps an hour
passed. At least it seemed a very long time.

Steps on the stairs! She stood up, facing the door, the roots of her
hair tingling. She heard the key turn in the lock; and then as in a
nightmare she felt the planks under her feet stir slightly but with
sinister persistence. She presently saw the toe of a boot insert, itself
between the door and the jamb. The pressure increased; the space between
the door and the jamb widened. Suddenly the boot vanished, the door
closed, and the plank fell. Immediately thereafter Karlov stood inside
the room, scowling suspiciously.

CHAPTER XXX

Cutty arrived at the apartment in time to share dinner with Hawksley.
He had wisely decided to say nothing about the escapade of Hawksley
and Kitty Conover, since it had terminated fortunately. Bernini had
telegraphed the gist of the adventure. He could readily understand
Hawksley's part; but Kitty's wasn't reducible to ordinary terms of
expression. The young chap had run wild because his head still wobbled
on his shoulders and because his isolation was beginning to scratch
his nerves. But for Kitty to run wild with him offered a blank wall to
speculation. (As if he could solve the riddle when Kitty herself could
not!) So he determined to shut himself up in his study and shuffle the
chrysoprase. Something might come of it. Looking backward, he recognized
the salient, at no time had he been quite sure of Kitty. She seemed to
be a combination of shallows and unfathomable deeps.

From the Pennsylvania Station he had called up the office. Kitty had
gone. Bernini informed