d. They stopped all
my efforts to raise money in other directions, and have isolated me from
my friends. I have fifteen shillings left, and yet since they routed me
out of cover the day before yesterday I have not dared get a lodging for
fear that I might arouse suspicion. I slept on the Embankment last
night."

He paused, breathless from his own vehemence. Fairfield had seen him in
moments of danger, yet never had he seen him so roused out of himself.
He could see one of the sinewy hands actually trembling, and that alone
was proof enough of the violence of the hunted man's emotion. He went to
a side table, and pouring out a generous dose of brandy from a decanter,
squirted a little soda-water in it and handed it to Grell. But his face
was still hard and set.

"Drink that," he said. And then, as the other obeyed: "It is no use
fencing with the question, Grell. If you want me to help you you will
have to give some explanation. I am not going to dip my hands in this
business blindly. Don't think it's a matter of you and I simply. This
concerns Eileen."

Grell put down his empty glass and stared into the other's eyes.

"Ah yes, Eileen," he said quietly. "What about her?"

"This," Fairfield spoke tensely, "that if you are guilty you have ruined
her life; if you are innocent and cannot prove it you might as well be
guilty. I'll not conceal from you that I have given Scotland Yard some
measure of assistance in trying to find you. Do you know why? Because I
judged you to be a man. Because I thought that if put to it you might
prove your innocence or take the only course that could spare her the
degradation of seeing the man she loved convicted as a murderer."

A grim unmirthful smile parted Robert Grell's lips. He understood well
enough what was meant. "You always were a good friend, Fairfield," he
retorted. "Perhaps you have a revolver you could lend me."

"Will you use it if I do?" burst impulsively from Fairfield's white
lips. He was sincere in his suggestion. To his mind there was only one
escape from the predicament in which his friend found himself. Anything
was preferable, in his mind, to the open scandal of public trial.

"Don't be a fool," said Grell, making a gesture as though waving the
subject aside. "I shall not commit suicide--at any rate, while I've got
a fighting chance. Let's get to the point. Will you lend me some money?"

The clear-cut face of Fairfield had gone very pale. When he answered it
was