nd herself engulfed, would
be!

Her eyes sought his face again. The Adventurer was tactfully engaged
in carefully smoothing out the fingers of his yellow gloves. Thief
and gentleman, whatever he might be, whatever he might choose to call
himself, what, exactly, was it that had brought him here to-night? The
White Moll, he had said; but what did he want with the White Moll?

He answered her unspoken question now, almost as though he had read her
thoughts.

"She is very clever," he said quietly. "She must be exceedingly clever
to have beaten the police the way she has for the last few years;
and--er--I worship at the shrine of cleverness--especially if it be
a woman's. The idea struck me last night that if she and I
should--er--pool our resources, we should not have to complain of the
reward."

"Oh, so youse wants to work wid her, eh?" sniffed Rhoda Gray. "So dat's
it, is it?"

"Partially," he said. "But, quite apart from that, the reason I want to
find her is because she is in very great danger. Clever as she is, it is
a very different matter to-day now that the police have found her out.
She has been forced into hiding, and, if alone and without any friend
to help her, her situation, to put it mildly, must be desperate in
the extreme. You befriended her last night, and I honor you for the
unselfishness with which you laid yourself open to the future attentions
of that animal Rorke, but that very fact has deprived her of what might
otherwise have been a refuge and a quite secure retreat here with you. I
do not wish to intrude, or force myself upon her, but I believe I could
be of very material help, and so I have come to you, as I have said,
because you are the only source through which I can hope to find
her, and because, through your act of last night, I know you to be a
trustworthy, and, perhaps, even an intimate, friend of hers."

"Aw, go on!" said Rhoda Gray, alias Gypsy Nan, deprecatingly. "Dat don't
prove nothin'! I'd have done as much for a stray cat if de bulls was
chasm' her. See? I told youse once youse had de wrong number. She didn't
leave no address. Dat's flat, an' dat's de end of it."

"I'm sorry," said the Adventurer gravely. "Perhaps I haven't made out a
good enough case. Or perhaps, even believing me, you consider that
the White Moll, and not yourself, should be the judge as to whether my
services are acceptable or not?"

"Youse can dope it out any way youse likes," said Rhoda Gray
indifferen