missed from what was really a very excellent, very well-paid,
very easy job; he saw Anthony cursing himself and his stupidity and
ordering him out of his sight forever!

"Can't you start?" he shot at his driver.

"Well, I'm just sitting down," that person stated acidly.

"Well, get her a-going and then turn around; don't go over there, but go
back up this block! And start!" said Wilkins.

The cab started and turned, and he did not look behind. He had not need
for that; he could feel the official eyes boring through the back of the
cab and into himself; he could hear running feet; once he was quite sure
he heard the pounding of a club on the curb, which meant that every
officer in hearing would flock into sight. Wilkins, becoming stony of
countenance after a struggle, shut his teeth and sat back, quite
forgetting that Mary might welcome a breath or two of the outer air.

It was possible, after a little, if the police did not appear and stop
the machine, that he would order the cab into the country and there
release Mary, hat or no hat--but somehow Wilkins doubted whether he
would make that decision.

What he craved more than anything else just now was security behind
brick and stone walls--like the Lasande's.

* * * * *

Be it said that Hobart Hitchin had regained enough of his normal senses
to feel distinctly startled. His vision cleared considerably as he
looked at Theodore Dalton, crouching behind his table. He felt, in spite
of himself, that Dalton's grief was perfectly genuine, but the utter
mystery of the thing swept over him, too, and he leaned forward and
asked:

"What did you say, sir? Your son?"

"These--these!" Dalton said, clutching the trousers. "My son Dick's--his
fishing suit."

"And your son, where is he supposed to be?"

"In the north woods, somewhere, although I haven't heard from him for a
week," Dalton choked; and then, being a powerful character, he threw off
the hideous numbness and straightened up. "What did you say? What were
you trying to tell me? Where did you get--these?"

"From the dumbwaiter where----"

"What dumbwaiter?"

"In the Hotel Lasande."

"When?"

"Very early this morning."

"How did you come to----"

"I saw a young man when he went into the house last night; I live there,
you know. I had reason to think that something happened to him
overnight, and this morning I managed to snatch this suit from the
dumbwaiter as it passed my