rd and
forward while his mind gauged the distance. His right hand scrawled
some figures on a pad, and all the time his ears were strained to catch
the whisper.

"I have seen you," it went on, "and I like your looks. That's why I'm
talking now."

For a second the whisper ceased. There was something awe-inspiring about
that whisper. As he sat in his secret chamber away up there against the
sky, Curlie felt as if some spirit-being was floating about out there in
the sky on a fleecy cloud and pausing now and then to whisper to him.

"I saw you," the whisper repeated. "You are in very grave danger. He is
a bold and treacherous man. It's big, Curlie, _big_!" The whisper rose
shrilly. "But you must be careful. You must not let him know the place
where you listen in. I don't know where it is. But I do know you listen
in. Be careful--careful--careful, c-a-r-e-f-u-l-" The whisper trailed
off into space, to be lost in thin air.

Wiping the beads of perspiration from his face, Curlie sat up. "Well,
now," he whispered softly to himself, "what do you know about that?

"One thing I do know," he told himself. "I'd swear it was a girl's
whisper, though how you can tell a girl's whisper is more than I know.
Question is: Which one is it--hotel station or the one that moves?"

For a moment his brow wrinkled in thought. Then with an exclamation of
disgust he exclaimed:

"That's easy! I've got their location!"

He figured for a few seconds, then put a pencil point on a certain spot
on his map.

"There!" he muttered. "It's the hotel, the exact spot."

Suddenly he started. There came the rattle of a key in the door.

"Oh!" he exclaimed as Coles Masters shoved the door open, "it's you. I'm
glad you're here. Got something I want to look into. Want to bad. Mind
if I take an extra hour?"

"Nope."

"All right. See you later." With a bound he was out of the door and
down the stairs.

"That boy," muttered Coles Masters, with a grin, "will either die young
or become famous. Only Providence knows which it will be."

Curlie did not leave the elevator at the first floor. Dropping down to
the sub-basement, he wound his way in and out through a labyrinth of
dimly lighted halls, at last to climb a stair to the first basement.
Then, having passed into his accustomed eating place, he paused long
enough to purchase a Swiss cheese sandwich, after which, with cap pulled
well down over his eyes, he made his way up a second flight of stairs
int