han started before the distance was eaten up
and it came to halt again; but this time, in such a din and babel of
struggling and shouting that Lennard seemed to have reached the very
gateway of Sheol.

Narkom and his men were out of the vehicle almost as the brake fell into
place, and clicking their electric pocket torches into sudden flame,
rushed headlong into the black opening of the arch, into which they had
taken but half a dozen steps, when they came upon a startling sight.

Snarling and yapping like a couple of fighting dogs and crying out in
concert: "Got you, you blighter! Got you fast!" were two men, locked
tight in each other's arms, reeling and swaying--one wearing the
official badge of an appointed Common keeper, the other in the helmet
and tunic of an ordinary constable.

"Lend a hand, gov'ner, for Gawd's sake!" rapped out the former. "Name's
Mawson, sir--keeper on the Common-- Number four, sir. Got the
blackguard! Murder, sir--got him red handed!"

"Good Lord!" little more than gulped the man he held.

The two pairs of gripping hands dropped, the struggling figures fell
apart, and the two men who but an instant before had been locked in an
angry embrace stood staring at each other in open-mouthed amazement.

"What kind of a game is this?" demanded Narkom, as with his allies he
crowded forward. "You two people are paid to keep the peace, not to
break it, dash you!"

"My word!" exclaimed the Common keeper, finding his voice suddenly. "A
copper, is it?--a copper! when I thought.... Gawd's truth, Constable,
wot have you done with him? He run in here with me on his blessed heels.
You didn't let him get past you, did you?"

"No fear!" snapped out the constable indignantly. "I stood here
waiting--waiting and shouting to you--until you ran smack into my
blessed arms; and if anybody but you come in _your_ side of the arch, he
never come out o' mine, I'll take my solemn oath!"

"Then where's he gone? Wot's become of him?" shouted the Common keeper
excitedly. "I tell you I was on the very heels of him from the moment I
first whistled and called out to you to head him off. I could a-most
have touched him when he dashed in here; and--and his footsteps never
stopped soundin' for one second the whole blessed time. Murder is wot
he's done--murder!--and I've been on his heels from the very moment he
fired the shot."

Narkom and his allies lost not an instant in revealing their identity
and displaying their ins