rst, but
it was slow progress at best, and always the terror grew upon her. Had
Danglar met the men yet who had looted the millionaire's safe? Had he
already joined Skeeny in that old room behind Shluker's place? Had the
Sparrow--She would not let her mind frame that question in concrete
words. The Sparrow! His real name was Martin, Martin Finch--Marty,
for short. Times without number she had visited the sick and widowed
mother--while the Sparrow had served a two-years' sentence for his first
conviction in safe-breaking. The Sparrow, from a first-class chauffeur
mechanic, had showed signs of becoming a first-class cracksman, it was
true; but the Sparrow was young, and she had never believed that he was
inherently bad. Her opinion had been confirmed when, some six months
ago, on his release, listening both to her own pleadings and to those of
his mother, the Sparrow had sworn that he would stick to the "straight
and narrow." And Hayden-Bond, the millionaire, referred to by a good
many people as eccentric, had further proved his claims to eccentricity
in the eyes of a good many people by giving a prison bird a chance to
make an honest living, and had engaged the Sparrow as his chauffeur. It
was a vile and an abominable thing that they were doing, even if they
had not planned to culminate it with murder. What chance would the
Sparrow have had!

It had taken a long time. She did not know how long, as, at last, she
stole unnoticed into a black and narrow driveway that led in, between
two blocks of down-at-the-heels tenements, to a courtyard in the rear.
Shluker had his junk shop here. Her lips pursed up as though defiant of
a tinge of perplexity that had suddenly taken possession of her. She did
not know Shluker, or anything about Shluker's place except its locality;
but surely "the old room behind Shluker's" was direction enough,
and--She had just emerged from the end of the driveway now, and now,
startled, she turned her head quickly, as she heard a brisk step turning
in from the street behind her. But in the darkness she could see no one,
and satisfied, therefore, that she in turn had not been seen, she moved
swiftly to one side, and crouched down against the rear wall of one of
the tenements. A long moment, that seemed an eternity, passed, and
then a man's form came out from the driveway, and started across the
courtyard.

She drew in her breath sharply, a curious mingling of relief and a
sudden panic fear upon her. It