ne!" she panted. "You've been drinking. Leave me alone!"

He drew back, and laughed.

"Not very much," he said. "The celebration hasn't started yet, and
you'll be in on that. I guess your nerves have been getting shaky
lately, haven't they? Well, you can figure on the swellest rest-cure you
ever heard of, Bertha. Take it from me! We're going down to keep the Pug
company presently. You blow around to Matty's about midnight and get the
election returns. We'll finish the job after that by getting Cloran
out of the road some way before morning, and that will let you out for
keeps--there won't be any one left to recognize the woman who was with
Deemer the night he shuffled out." He backed to the doorway. "Get me?
Come over to Matty's and see the rajah's sparklers about midnight. We'll
have 'em then--and the she-fiend, too. So long, Bertha!"

She scarcely heard him; she answered mechanically.

"Good-night," she said.

XIX. DREAD UPON THE WATERS

For a moment after Danglar had gone, Rhoda Gray stood motionless; and
then, the necessity for instant action upon her, she moved quickly
toward the doorway herself. There was only one thing she could do, just
one; but she must be sure first that Danglar was well started on his
way. She reached the doorway, looked out--and suddenly caught her breath
in a low, quick inhalation, In the semi-darkness she could just make out
Danglar's form, perhaps twenty-five yards away now, heading along the
lane toward the street; but behind Danglar, at a well-guarded distance
in the rear, hugging the shadows of the fence, she saw the form of
another man. Her brows knitted in a perplexed and anxious frown. The
second man was undoubtedly following Danglar. That was evident. But why?
Who was it? What did it mean?

She retreated back into the shed, and commenced hastily to disrobe and
dress again in her own clothes, which she had flung down upon the
floor. In the last analysis, did it matter who it was that was following
Danglar--even if it were one of the police? For, supposing that the man
who was shadowing Danglar was a plain-clothes man, and suppose he even
followed Danglar and the rest of the gang to the old iron plant, and
suppose that with the necessary assistance he rounded them all up, and
in that sense effected the Adventurer's rescue, it scarcely meant a
better fate for the Adventurer! It simply meant that the Adventurer, as
one of the gang, and against whom every one of the rest wo