tion over
personally.

"I hadn't formed any definite plans. I just wanted to look about
first."

"Well," said Phil, "as you will soon see by the papers, another safe
has puffed out. It occurred to me that we might find out something by
spying about here immediately after one of the disappearances. That's
why I'm here. If you'll tell me where you live, or wait for me at some
safe place, I'll come and report to you as soon as I find out
anything."

"Oho! So that's the kind of a girl you think I am!" She laughed
sunnily again. "No, Mr. Reporter. Either we reconnoiter together, or
each on our own."

"Oh, together, by all means," said Phil so earnestly that she laughed
again. "And since we'd better wait for darkness, let's have something
to eat somewhere. I didn't finish my dinner."

Phil found Ione Bloomsbury in person to be even more wonderful than
her photograph suggested. Obviously she had brains; it was apparent,
too that she had breeding. Her cheerful view of the world was like a
tonic for tired nerves; and withal, she had a gentle sort of courtesy
in her manner that may have been old-fashioned, but it was almost too
much for Phil. Before the dinner was over, he would have laid his
heart at her feet. It gave him a thrill that went to his head, to have
her by his side, slipping along through the darkness toward Tony's
building.

This building was a one-story brick affair with a vast amount of
window space. From the sidewalk they could see faint lights glowing
within, but could make out no further details. They therefore selected
the darkest side of the building, and made their way hurriedly across
the lawn. Here, they found, they could see the crowding apparatus
within the one long room fairly well. They looked into one window
after another, making a circuit around the building, until Phil
suddenly clutched the girl's arm.

"Look!" he whispered. "Straight ahead and a little to the left!"

At the place he indicated stood a tall safe. Across the top of its
door were painted in gold letters, the words: "The Epicure."

"That's the safe that went to-night," whispered Phil. "That's all we
need to know. Now, quick to a telephone!"

"Oh," said a gentle, ironic voice behind them, "not so quick!"

* * * * *

They whirled around and found themselves looking into two automatic
pistols, and behind them in the light of the street lamps, the
sardonic smile of Tony Costello.

"Charmed a