SWALLOWED UP
 
 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. WILSON WOODROW 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BRENTANO S 
 
 Publishers
 
 Copyright, 1922, by 
 BRENTANO S 
 
 Copyright, 1922, by 
 THE RIDGWAY COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED IN THB UNITED STATES OT AMERICA 
 
 VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY 
 INQHAHTON AND NEW TCMIC
 
 . 
 
 SWALLOWED UP
 
 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 By Mrs. Wilson Woodrow 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HOPE RANGER walked down the hall to 
 her mother s sitting-room. 
 The moment she had passed inside and 
 closed the door behind her, a man servant stepped out 
 of the automatic lift a little further along the corridor 
 and followed her noiselessly. He had some letters 
 on a tray, but it apparently was not his intention to 
 deliver them at once. Instead, he paused close to 
 the sitting-room door, his head inclined, listening. 
 
 As Hope entered, her mother looked up with a 
 smile from some notes she was writing. 
 
 "Going out, darling?" she asked. 
 
 "No, dear heart; I m going to spend a long, lazy 
 afternoon, shoveling coal in the cellar." Hope laughed 
 at the superfluous question. She so manifestly was 
 going out. Not for house wear were the tailored 
 suit, the smart small hat on her dark hair, the expensive 
 bag that swung from her wrist. 
 
 "I m to meet Lucia at the Plaza.," she explained, 
 dropping her bantering tone. "Her mother will be 
 there with some people, but we shan t bother with 
 
 9
 
 io SWALLOWED UP 
 
 them. After luncheon, they are going on to a matinee 
 that is, Lucia and her mother are but it s Phil 
 ander, and I ve seen it three times, you know, so I 
 begged off. I ll pick up some veils and a few things 
 I need, and then home." 
 
 The man outside had his ear against the door now, 
 unwilling to miss a word of the conversation; but at 
 the same time his eyes were watching alertly along 
 the hall and down the staircase. 
 
 "I don t know, though," Hope reconsidered, "but 
 that I d better drop into Silcott s and hurry him up 
 with those fittings. If by any miracle he is ready, I 
 could telephone you to come down. Or, better still, 
 come to luncheon with us, and then go there with 
 me. Do, mother," she urged. 
 
 The eavesdropper s mouth twisted downward as 
 Mrs. Ranger hesitated ; but his ugly expression cleared 
 as he caught her answer. 
 
 "No-o; I ll not tag. You and Lucia will enjoy 
 yourselves more alone. Besides, I ve no end of things, 
 to look after. Are you driving down, dear?" 
 
 Again the man at the door held his breath, waiting 
 for Hope s reply. 
 
 "I need the walk," she shrugged lightly. "My skin 
 is crying for air and exercise." She scrutinized her 
 reflection in a dim mirror with a quaint, tarnished 
 gilt frame. 
 
 Everything in this intimate room of Mrs. Ranger s 
 was old and faintly tarnished. In her day she. had.
 
 SWALLOWED UP n 
 
 been a beauty, Southern as her name, Mary Louise 
 Beauchamp Carter poor as poverty with generations 
 of wealth behind her born to a leaking family roof- 
 tree, old family silver, old family pictures, old family 
 servants, the latter dwindling in number until none 
 remained. 
 
 Her mother had pinned her last hope to Mary Lou ; 
 but before the rash girl was twenty she had lost her 
 head over a rising young nobody at all, Loring Ran 
 ger, with less background than a chipmunk and no 
 particularly substantial foreground, and had recklessly 
 married him. Mrs. Carter shed tears steadily, and 
 only abandoned them for equally steady smiles when 
 she realized the genius of her son-in-law for making 
 money hand over hand lucky hands that turned 
 everything they touched into gold. Then, completely 
 reconciled, she gave them her blessing, bestowed upon 
 them the family heirlooms and departed this life in 
 peace. 
 
 Hope, so far as a physical presentment goes, was 
 a replica of what her mother had been at her age. The 
 difference lay in point of view. Mary Lou was a 
 product of the Age of Innocence ; Hope was twentieth 
 century to her finger-tips, sure of herself, confident of 
 her ability to meet any situation, with a knowledge 
 of the world and of the facts of life which amazed 
 and occasionally shocked her mother. 
 
 She turned now from the inspection of herself in 
 the glass.
 
 12 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "So you don t care for my society to-day; some 
 intrigue on hand?" She was rewarded with the re 
 proachful glance she expected. "Well, amuse your 
 self your own way." 
 
 Mischievously she ruffled her mother s sleek head, 
 cuffing her affectionately first on one ear and then on 
 the other, and, bending down, kissed her cheek. 
 
 "Good-by." 
 
 "Oh, wait a moment!" Mrs. Ranger caught her 
 hand. "I forgot to tell you, your father won t be 
 home this evening. He s having some out-of-town 
 men at the club. Why shouldn t you and I do a play?" 
 
 "No reason on earth." Hope nodded. "Choose 
 something neither of us has seen. A slushy, weepy 
 one the kind you like." 
 
 She had reached the door when her mother stopped 
 her again. 
 
 "You ll telephone from Silcott s, you say, if he s 
 ready for your fittings? That will be about three 
 o clock, I suppose?" 
 
 "Or even earlier." 
 
 Her hand was on the knob now, but once more her 
 mother detained her. 
 
 "Wait!" Mrs. Ranger cried, with a wistful re 
 luctance to see her go, she didn t know just why. 
 "No," shaking her head; "there was something 
 I wanted to say, but it s slipped my mind. Run 
 along." 
 
 "You want to make me late that s all." Hope
 
 SWALLOWED UP 13 
 
 made a funny little face at her from the doorway. 
 
 The man servant was at the head of the stairs 
 with his tray of letters as she came out. 
 
 "Anything for me, Fitch?" 
 
 "No, Miss Ranger; they re all for Mrs. Ranger." 
 
 Hope ran down the stairs. A moment later she 
 was walking through the cross-street on which they 
 lived, and at the corner she turned down Fifth Avenue. 
 
 A delectable morning. There was just enough 
 crispness in the air to quicken the blood. The trees 
 beyond the gray wall of the park were a mist of 
 green; light clouds jostled each other in the blue 
 spaces of the sky and hurried on toward the sea; 
 window-boxes were bright with tulips and hyacinths, 
 their delicate fragrance mingling with the smell of 
 gasoline, which always lies over this one of the world s 
 great thoroughfares. Shining motors were spin 
 ning along. People stepped out briskly, while the 
 sun overlaid with its gilt patina the whole vivacious 
 scene. 
 
 The face of more than one passer-by brightened 
 at the sight of Hope. She was so in accord with the 
 morning. She gave so convincingly the impression 
 that she had not an ungratified wish that there were 
 no moons for which she was secretly crying that they, 
 too, for one brief optimistic moment felt that life was 
 good and life was gay. 
 
 She walked on down the Avenue, and crossing over 
 at Fifty-ninth Street, arrived at the Plaza just as her
 
 i 4 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 friend, Lucia Thorne, and the latter s mother alighted 
 from a limousine which had drawn up before the en 
 trance. 
 
 There was an exchange of greetings and a mo 
 ment or two of laughing chatter on the sidewalk; 
 then the three passed together into the hotel. 
 
 Meanwhile, the man who had been listening at the 
 keyhole stole furtively out of the house by an area 
 door and made his way to a telephone station in the 
 back of a near-by cigar store.
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 A WESTERN manufacturer, one of Loring 
 Ranger s two guests at dinner that evening, 
 was just reaching the point of a story which 
 had been interrupted by frequent bursts of laughter 
 when the club hallboy approached the table and in 
 formed Mr. Ranger that he was wanted on the tele 
 phone. Ranger laid down the cigar he had lighted. 
 
 "One moment," he said rising. "And, Arnold, 
 hold your breath and don t finish that story until I 
 come back. If you do, you ll have to go all over it 
 again." 
 
 He made his way through the dining-room, a big, 
 good-looking, dominant man, and into a telephone- 
 booth. 
 
 "Loring!" His wife s voice came quaveringly over 
 the wire. "Oh, I am so glad to get you. I m terribly 
 worried. Hope went out this morning and hasn t 
 come back yet. And it is nine o clock." 
 
 "Where did she go?" he asked. 
 
 "To have luncheon with Lucia Thorne. Then she 
 expected to do an errand or two and come home." 
 
 Ranger laughed easily. 
 
 "She s gone on some party with Lucia. Probably 
 
 15
 
 1 6 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 she telephoned, and they ve neglected to give you the 
 message." 
 
 "No," Mrs. Ranger s tone was positive. "I ve 
 questioned all of the servants. Then I called up the 
 Thornes. Mrs. Thorne says that Hope left them a 
 few minutes after two, telling them just what she told 
 me, about attending to her errands and then coming 
 home. She and I were going to a play this evening." 
 
 "Now, now, Mary Lou," he spoke soothingly, 
 "there s no reason to get excited. You know as well 
 as I do that Hope s perfectly able to look out for her 
 self no one better. She s having a good time some 
 where and doesn t realize how late it s getting. That s 
 all there is to it." 
 
 But he was frowning as he uttered the reassuring 
 words; the incident disturbed him more than he cared 
 to have his wife know. There was an uneasy clutch 
 at his heart as the thousand possibilities of danger 
 in a vast city flashed across his mind. 
 
 "You re all in," he said, pretending to be concerned 
 only on her account; "so I m coming home at once. 
 If she isn t there before I am, I ll trace her for you 
 in no time. Just keep cool and don t fret; it ll be 
 all right." 
 
 He glanced at his watch as he hung up the receiver. 
 Twenty minutes after nine. Again his brow con 
 tracted; it was unlike Hope to be so inconsiderate, 
 knowing her mother s inclination to worry.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 17 
 
 The Rangers, it will be seen, were not ultramodern. 
 New York, in spite of its chroniclers, is not all jazz 
 and home brew, nor is the Fifth Commandment en 
 tirely overruled. There are families of quite good 
 social position, even since the war, where the un 
 explained absence of a daughter after reasonable hours 
 gives rise to question. 
 
 But Mr. Ranger, although disquieted, was not par 
 ticularly alarmed. Girls, even the best of them, are 
 apt to be thoughtless, and Hope was certain to show 
 up before long with some plausible explanation for 
 her negligence. 
 
 Still he lost no time in excusing himself to his guests, 
 and, hurrying out to a taxi, told the chauffeur to take 
 him home, and "step on it." 
 
 On the way he succeeded so well in convincing 
 himself that Hope was either already returned or 
 had been heard from, that when he entered the house 
 he was quite prepared to tease his wife over her tem 
 pest in a teapot. But the jocular sentence died on his 
 lips as she met him in the hall, white-faced and tense. 
 
 "No word yet?" he asked, and, as she mutely shook 
 her head, put his arm about her shoulders and drew 
 her into the library. 
 
 "Sit down," he said, "and tell me all you know." 
 
 Making a brave effort to control her agitation, 
 Mrs. Ranger recounted as faithfully as she could the 
 conversation between Hope and herself that morning 
 and the program the girl had outlined for her move-
 
 1 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 ments. She had not really become anxious, she said, 
 until about six o clock, knowing that Mrs. Thorne 
 and Lucia might easily have persuaded Hope to ac 
 company them to the matinee; and even later she 
 kept trying to tell herself that Hope might also have 
 decided to dine with the Thornes, although, in that 
 case, it seemed strange that she had not telephoned her 
 intentions. 
 
 But when it neared the theater-hour she had grown 
 panicky and had called up first the Thornes and then 
 all of Hope s more intimate friends, both men and 
 girls, whom she was able to reach, but without the 
 slightest result. She had also telephoned the tailor, 
 getting him after some difficulty at his home, but he 
 insisted that Miss Ranger had not been at his establish 
 ment that afternoon. If she had come in, he would 
 certainly have been informed. 
 
 Ranger, who had listened intently to her report, 
 gave a puzzled shake of the head, and, stepping into 
 the hall spoke to the butler. 
 
 "I ve sent for Higby," he said, returning. "He ll 
 probably laugh at us as a couple of fools. But I 
 don t care. We need the cool advice of an outsider." 
 
 Eustace Higby was Ranger s attorney and a warm 
 friend of the family, with an apartment only half a 
 block away. 
 
 While they waited for him, Ranger occupied himself 
 constructing different theories to account for Hope s 
 absence and failure to communicate, his favorite one
 
 SWALLOWED UP 19 
 
 being that she had been persuaded to motor into the 
 country with a party of friends, and that they had 
 found themselves stalled at some spot remote from 
 either telephone or telegraph station. 
 
 "The trouble is, we ve given her too free a hand, 
 Mary Lou," he grumbled. "Ah!" starting up as he 
 heard the hall door close. "There she is now!" 
 
 But it was Higby, the lawyer, not Hope, who in 
 response to the butler s direction turned into the library. 
 
 "Time and a half for overtime, Ranger," he warned 
 banteringly. "What s the idea of He broke off 
 as he saw their drawn faces and took a quick step 
 forward. "Something wrong?" he asked sharply. 
 
 But as the explanation proceeded, the lines about his 
 eyes began to crinkle, and at the finish, as Ranger 
 had predicted, he gave a mirthful chuckle. 
 
 "You two ridiculous old hens with your lone duck 
 ling!" He regarded them with mock compassion 
 and, walking over to the table, helped himself to a 
 cigarette. 
 
 "No more to it than that!" He threw the match 
 with a careless flip into the ash-tray. "Hope isn t 
 a baby. She s twenty years old, knows her New 
 York like a book, and is quite as sophisticated as all 
 girls are nowadays. You ve given her everything in 
 the world but one thing " he flung up his arm in 
 an open-handed gesture "adventure. Naturally she 
 wants a touch of it, so she s gone on some little harm 
 less spree of her own."
 
 20 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "No! No!" cried Mrs. Ranger impatiently. "You 
 know Hope too well really to believe anything of that 
 sort, Eustace. The most devoted, the most consider 
 ate of girls. Or if you re just talking to keep up our 
 courage, it s wasted. You can t explain her staying 
 out this way with a laugh and a shrug of the shoulders 
 not to me, anyhow. There s every reason to be se 
 riously alarmed. Oh " her voice broke suddenly, and 
 she wrung her hands "won t you two men do some 
 thing? I want something done." 
 
 "That s right," assented Ranger strongly. "I don t 
 propose to sit around here any longer, trying to argue 
 with myself that everything is all right when I know 
 very well that it isn t. . Every day people older and 
 more sophisticated than Hope are being knocked down 
 by automobiles, or " he glanced at his wife, and added 
 lamely "or* having something happen to them." 
 
 Higby shook his head. 
 
 "I m satisfied you two are making a mountain out of 
 a very insignificant molehill," he insisted optimistically. 
 "Still, to relieve all of our minds, I ll make sure." 
 
 He busied himself at the telephone, his investigations 
 lasting some time, owing to the extreme care he took 
 to avoid any opportunity for publicity; but in the end 
 he was able to announce that no young woman answer 
 ing to the description of Hope Ranger had been re 
 ported at any of the hospitals or station-houses of the 
 city as the victim of an. accident or sudden illness. 
 
 But this assurance rather added to than relieved the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 21 
 
 perplexities of the situation. Ranger, nervously pacing 
 the floor, expressed the general feeling when he mut 
 tered : 
 
 "By George, I almost wish it had been the other way 
 round. Then, at least, we would know where she is." 
 
 Higby tapped his finger-nail with a pencil he had 
 taken from his pocket and glanced at the clock. It 
 was on the stroke of twelve. 
 
 "I still believe," he said dryly, "that you will re 
 ceive a message from Hope to-night or, at any rate, 
 by to-morrow morning." 
 
 "To-morrow morning?" Mrs. Ranger echoed, with 
 a tremulous gasp. 
 
 The lawyer cleared his throat and laid down the 
 pencil. 
 
 "Ranger," his tone was direct, incisive, "there s no 
 use in beating about the bush this way. If you want 
 me to help you, we must have absolute frankness." 
 
 Husband and wife stared at him, uncomprehending, 
 and then at each other. 
 
 "What do you mean?" growled Ranger. 
 
 "Simply this : You and I have been not only lawyer 
 and client but friends and neighbors as well. Still, no 
 matter how close an intimacy may be, there are always 
 undercurrents in the life of every family which remain 
 unknown to an outsider. What I want you to tell 
 me, both of you, is the real reason why Hope left 
 home." 
 
 "Why Hope left home?" repeated Ranger.
 
 22 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Left home! cried Mrs. Ranger, starting up. 
 "Left home ! How crazy of you, Eustace Higby ! 
 How perfectly crazy!" 
 
 "Is it?" he retorted, unshaken. "Since there has 
 been no accident, and since it is absurd, unbeliev 
 able that a girl of her age and knowledge of the world 
 could have been abducted or enticed away, it follows 
 that she must have gone of her own accord. But 
 what was her motive in doing so? Is there some 
 love affair back of this?" 
 
 Ranger started to speak, and then glanced doubt 
 fully at his wife. But she shook her head violently. 
 
 "No," she insisted. "Hope has had flirtations, of 
 course lots of them ; she is popular. She plays about 
 with the boys in her set, and some older men. Once 
 or twice she has seemed on the verge of taking one 
 of them seriously, but it came to nothing. I know 
 that positively. I was her confidante in everything. 
 She always knew that she could talk to me about any 
 thing under the sun. We were more like two sisters 
 than mother and daughter." 
 
 "There was no man to whom you objected, whom 
 you had urged her not to see or, perhaps, had for 
 bidden the house?" 
 
 "Absolutely not." Ranger s denial was emphatic. 
 "I see what you are driving at, Higby, but you are 
 on the wrong tack altogether." 
 
 "Well, then, was there any other cause for disagree 
 ment? Did she, for instance, have ambitions for a
 
 SWALLOWED UP 23 
 
 so-called career want to live her own life or go on 
 the stage or 
 
 "No! No!" protested the mother wildly. "If she 
 had had any such longings, we would not have op 
 posed her. But there was never anything of the sort. 
 
 "Oh, why do you waste time in this silly question 
 ing? Hope never went away of her own free will, 
 I don t care what you say. There was no reason for 
 it. She was happy in her home. She was devoted 
 to me and adored her father. We never placed a 
 single restriction on her; we didn t have to. You 
 know her yourself, Eustace; did you ever see any 
 thing in her that was not normal and wholesome and 
 straightforward? Well, she was just that way al 
 ways. How cruel of you to insinuate that she was 
 sly and morbid and deceitful and It isn t true!" 
 she maintained, torn with hysterical sobbing. "It 
 isn t true! She never willingly left us without a 
 word. Something has happened to her. Even now 
 she may be suffering dying! Oh, is there nothing 
 you men can do but talk and ask questions.? I want 
 my little girl! I want my baby!" 
 
 Her husband put his arms about her and held her 
 close. 
 
 "We ll find her," he said through his clenched teeth. 
 "We ll find her. Don t believe anything else, Mary 
 Lou. What s my money good for, if it can t do 
 that?" 
 
 The lawyer sat thinking, pulling at his chin. Then
 
 24 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 he got up with an air of decision and reached for his 
 hat. 
 
 "I m going down to talk to Lucia Thorne," he said. 
 "She was the last person we know of that Hope saw, 
 and her most intimate friend, wasn t she? Well- 
 in answer to Mrs. Ranger s eager nod "that young 
 woman is in for the stiffest kind of a cross-exam 
 ination. If she knows anything she isn t telling, trust 
 me to frighten it out of her before I get through. If 
 she s a blank he paused and pursed up his lips 
 "then I guess there s nothing to do, Loring, but go 
 to the commissioner of police." 
 
 "The commissioner of police?" Rangier drew his 
 brows together, wincing at the thought of the attend 
 ant notoriety. 
 
 "If it comes to that yes. There s no use fooling 
 away time in half-measures or with private detectives. 
 With the influence we can command, we may be able 
 to manage so that nothing gets out, but we ll have to 
 risk that end of it. To get the best results, though, 
 I ll have to offer a reward, I suppose. How high 
 would you be willing to go?" 
 
 "Anything." Ranger gave an indifferent wave of 
 the hand. "Whatever is customary." 
 
 "Whatever is customary?" Mrs. Ranger was shrill 
 in her scorn. "Tell them they can have everything 
 we ve got everything if they ll only give me back 
 my daughter." 
 
 Higby considered the matter. "I ll tell you," he
 
 SWALLOWED UP 25 
 
 decided, "we ll make it five thousand to start with. 
 Then we can increase it to ten if necessary. But it 
 won t be. It won t be necessary to go to the police 
 at all. Take my word for it, you ll have reassuring 
 news in a very short time. Yes " responding to Mrs. 
 Ranger s imploring glance "I m confident of it." 
 He caught her hand in a firm, hopeful clasp. "Now, 
 keep up your courage, both of you. I m right on the 
 job every minute, and there won t be a stone left un 
 turned. I ll keep in touch with you, too, so that we 
 can advise each other immediately of any develop 
 ments." 
 
 "Thanks, old man." Ranger s voice was husky as he 
 followed him to the door. "I don t know what we 
 should have done without you."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 OUTSIDE, Higby caught a passing taxicab 
 and, giving the number of the Thome resi 
 dence, slammed the door and sank back 
 wearily. He was distressed that his old friends should 
 be undergoing this ordeal, and the interview with 
 them had drawn heavily on his sympathies ; but he 
 was far from sharing their anxious apprehensions. 
 
 "It s an elopement, of course," he muttered to him 
 self as he lighted a cigarette. "Naturally, they can t 
 see it she kept the affair dark; but I ll soon worm the 
 truth out of the Thorne girl." 
 
 It seemed for a time, though, that his promised 
 interrogation of Lucia would have to be deferred ; for 
 on reaching the house, he rang repeatedly without 
 arousing any response, and when a sleepy servant 
 finally appeared to answer the bell, it required all his 
 powers of persuasion to gain admittance. 
 
 But when Mrs. Thorne came down and he had ex 
 plained the nature of his errand, she readily grasped 
 the situation, and as soon as Lucia could make a hasty 
 toilet, sent her into the room alone. 
 
 The girl, he had to confess, seemed appalled at the 
 news her mother had brought her and genuinely alarmed 
 for Hope s safety. She had frequently to wipe away 
 
 26
 
 SWALLOWED UP 27 
 
 the tears that rolled down her cheeks; and as the 
 inquiry proceeded, Higby became more and more 
 satisfied, not only that her emotion was unfeigned 
 but also that she was not endeavoring to conceal any 
 thing from him. 
 
 Hope had been in fine spirits at luncheon, she said, 
 and they had talked of a dozen things Lucia s recent 
 trip abroad, clothes, mutual acquaintances, both men 
 and girls, fheir plans for the summer. She had teased 
 Hope about -two or three men, but Hope had merely 
 shrugged her shoulders and laughed. "I d be lone 
 some, Lucia," she had said, "if some one wasn t anx 
 ious to pet me; but marriage! I haven t seen the 
 man I d marry yet, not for a farm." When they 
 parted, it was with an arrangement to see each other 
 the next afternoon, and Hope had given not the slight 
 est suggestion of anything unusual on hand. She had 
 said something about going to the tailor s, and pos 
 sibly doing a bit of shopping before she went home; 
 that was all. 
 
 Answering apparently without reserve all his ques 
 tions regarding every man who could by any stretch 
 of imagination be classed as a suitor of Hope s, Lucia 
 divulged nothing that Higby could properly term a 
 lead. And, although she was obviously skeptical of 
 his elopement theory she was almost pathetically eager 
 to aid in any way the clearing up of the girl s mys 
 terious disappearance. 
 
 In the end, the lawyer had to admit that he had
 
 28 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 erred in believing the affair would lend itself to so easy 
 a solution. If the missing girl had gone away deliber 
 ately, she certainly had breathed no hint of her in 
 tention to her closest friend and intimate. 
 
 This left Higby no recourse except to appeal to the 
 police; and here he proved himself, on one score at 
 least, a true prophet. The five thousand dollars re 
 ward he offered furnished all the incentive required 
 to set the department going at full steam. 
 
 Within twelve hours the movements of Hope 
 Ranger were known to a certainty from the time she 
 left her father s door at twenty-five minutes after 
 twelve until a quarter past three that afternoon. 
 
 Leaving home, she had walked down the east side 
 of the Avenue. At fifteen minutes to one o clock, 
 she had stopped at a florist s and bought a gardenia. 
 Then she had crossed at Fifty-ninth Street and met 
 her friends at the Plaza, had gone with Lucia Thorne 
 into the dining-room, remained there an hour, and 
 left the Thornes at ten minutes past two. At half 
 after two, she had bought a veil in a millinery and 
 dressmaking establishment on Fifty-seventh Street, 
 and had been recognized and called by name by the 
 saleswoman. She had then looked at hats, and had 
 been urged by another saleswoman to try on some of 
 them. She had laughed and said she had not the 
 time, but would be in again with her mother in a day 
 or two. Without stopping to look at anything else, 
 she had left the shop. From there she had gone to a
 
 SWALLOWED UP 29 
 
 bookstore and asked for a book which she had previ 
 ously ordered. She had had this charged to her 
 father s account, hesitated a moment before a table 
 of magazines and then passed through the door and 
 into the street again. 
 
 During this entire time, according to all reports, 
 she was always alone and quite her normal self. 
 
 She was next seen at the soda-water counter of a 
 fruit-and-sweets shop, where she ordered a maple 
 sundae. It was then exactly ten minutes after three, 
 the clerk being able to fix the time so definitely from 
 the fact that just after he had set Miss Ranger s order 
 before her, a disturbance had been created by a cus 
 tomer at the cashier s desk over a question of correct 
 change. The altercation had become so heated that 
 the manager of the place had been summoned. 
 
 Miss Ranger, like every one else in the shop, had 
 turned to watch the incident, and then, when it had 
 been settled, she finished her sundae and went out. 
 
 And from that point, the investigators ran into a 
 blank wall. Silcott, the tailor, was just round the cor 
 ner from the fruit-and-sweets shop, but she had not 
 gone there; everybody about the place from the pro 
 prietor to the door man was positive on that point. 
 She certainly did not go home. Where, then, did 
 she go?" 
 
 After four days of assiduous effort on the part of 
 the Police Department, aided now by an army of pri 
 vate detectives, no clue had been unearthed to indicate
 
 30 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 what had become of her or whither she had gone. 
 
 Mrs. Ranger was by this time under the care of 
 physicians, ill from grief and worry; and her hus 
 band, his face lined and haggard, his straight shoulders 
 bowed, looked twenty years older. Even Eustace 
 Higby showed the effects of the strain. 
 
 In desperation they decided to make the facts public, 
 and every newspaper in the country was filled with 
 descriptions of the missing girl. Reporters by the 
 dozens and amateur investigators by the hundreds fol 
 lowed the trail from the Ranger house to the florist s, 
 from the hotel to the millinery shop, thence to the 
 bookstore and on to the soda-water counter. 
 
 There they stopped, unable to go further. 
 
 Out from that fruit shop, Hope Ranger had stepped 
 into the broad daylight of a mid-afternoon in 
 April, and there on crowded Fifth Avenue, had van 
 ished disappeared as utterly as the flame of a candle 
 blown out by a puff of wind.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 RANGER S pipes are known all over the world. 
 Buy a pipe clay, calabash, meerschaum, 
 brier-root or what-not, and in whatever part 
 of the globe and the chances are ten to one that, 
 "Ranger & Co., Makers,"" will be found stamped on it. 
 
 The factory and salesrooms occupy a block on 
 Seventh Avenue near Fourteenth Street, and there, as a 
 matter of habit, Ranger continued to go daily in the 
 attempt to win some surcease from anxiety by absorb 
 ing himself in the accustomed routine. 
 
 But in the weeks succeeding the disappearance of 
 his daughter, the interviews with factory executives 
 and alert traveling salesmen had grown perceptibly 
 shorter. His time was now almost exclusively given 
 up to long conferences with the men who were con 
 ducting the search. 
 
 The piles of shipping lists and invoices on his desk 
 had given way to typewritten reports from various 
 detective agencies, chiefly remarkable for the size of 
 the expense accounts attached thereto. 
 
 Many a down-at-the-heels shadowing concern had 
 cause to bless the name of Hope Ranger that summer ; 
 for the merest hint of a clue, no matter how vague or 
 visionary, was usually enough to secure Ranger s at-
 
 32 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 tention. In those haunts along Broadway where the 
 sleuths slink in and out like big black cockroaches 
 among the butterfly swarms of actors and actresses, 
 "walking the weary," the millionaire pipe manufac 
 turer came to be looked upon as a sort of exaggerated 
 meal-ticket. 
 
 So ready was he to listen to every wild story or sug 
 gestion offered him that it had been found necessary 
 to post guards before his office door to protect him 
 from the invasion of cranks and impostors. 
 
 The gentlemen who had forsaken wire-tapping, the 
 sale of wildcat oil stock and other similar pursuits to 
 chance this new and lucrative game, together with the 
 fortune-tellers, mediums, clairvoyants and plain 
 "bugs," suddenly found themselves halted by stern 
 investigators and forced to state their business in em- 
 barassing detail. 
 
 Thus, one morning, Number One of the cordon per 
 emptorily halted a caller who had attempted to stroll 
 by him, and who now, with too much assurance to be 
 pleasing said that he wished to see "Ranger." 
 
 The off-hand manner, as well as the lack of the prefix 
 of "Mister," annoyed the guard. Neither did he find 
 the stranger s appearance prepossessing. Dark, lean, 
 his clothes unpressed, his hat tilted, the man swag 
 gered before him. 
 
 "Ranger, eh?" with heavy sarcasm. "Well, I 
 got to tell you that the boss is busy this morning and 
 can t see nobody even you."
 
 SWALLOWED UP 33 
 
 The visitor shifted his hat to another and more dis 
 reputable angle, took an old pipe from his pocket and 
 began to fill it. 
 
 "You re new here, my lad; that s plain. But, if 
 you re in doubt take my name, either to Frank Bryan or 
 Loring himself." He closed his sack of tobacco by 
 pulling the strings together with his teeth. "Sorry I 
 left my card-case in my evening clothes." 
 
 The guard scowled, but wavered in his decision to 
 throw the man out. He trusted his own impressions 
 more than he did this airy certainty of welcome. Yet 
 the fellow seemed so confoundedly sure. 
 
 He covered his hesitation with truculent repartee. 
 
 "Well, s posin I do? Who shall I say it is that 
 wants the boss Lloyd George or Herbert Hoover?" 
 
 "Neither." The man flicked a raveling from his 
 sleeve. "He ll probably see me quicker if you give it 
 to him straight. Just say, my good man, that Juarez 
 Charlie is here." 
 
 Juarez Charlie! In the face of such a designation, 
 Number One felt his original estimate of the man fully 
 justified. And yet there was something in that dark, 
 obscure glance, in the jeering smile on the glib mouth 
 that overrode his settled judgment. Uncertainly he 
 scratched his jaw. 
 
 "I don t know but what I ll take a chance on you," 
 he finally decided. "You ain t so much worse than a 
 lot I ve had to let get by. But listen here " with a
 
 34 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 return of authority "if I get in wrong, you d better 
 not wait. I m coming back, and if they don t want 
 you, I ll just naturally wipe up the street with you." 
 
 "That s a bet." The other was still nonchalant. 
 "And don t waste any more time. Loring will be real 
 peevish if I tell him how you ve been holding me up 
 out here. Be sure and repeat the name right, too. 
 It s Juarez Charlie, with the m silent as in soup. Get 
 that, Clarence?" 
 
 "Fresh guy, ain t you?" growled the guard, but 
 nevertheless started away, muttering resentfully, 
 "Plain crook every inch of him." As he came into the 
 presence of Ranger s private secretary, Frank Bryan, 
 the impulse that had led him to take in the name of the 
 rakish visitor weakened, andhe stood shuffling his feet, 
 uncertain what to say. 
 
 "Well?" asked Bryan, without looking up from his 
 desk. 
 
 
 
 "Mr. Bryan, sir, there s a a party out there, that 
 wants to see Mr. Ranger." 
 
 "A party?" Bryan glanced up with annoyed re 
 buke. "What sort of way is that to announce any 
 body? Didn t he give you his name?" 
 
 "Not exactly a name. He said to tell you or Mr. 
 Ranger that Juarez Charlie " 
 
 "Juarez Charlie!" the secretary snapped. "Why 
 didn t you say so? Show him into the private office at 
 once." 
 
 The bewildered guard returned to his post.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 35 
 
 "This way, mister," he beckoned with disgruntled 
 civility. 
 
 "Quite a shock, wasn t it, Cuthbert? Axiom: It 
 takes a gentleman to know a gentleman. So I forgive 
 you. 
 
 "Never mind." He waved Number One aside. "I 
 know the way." 
 
 He passed on, a privileged character, exchanging a 
 word or two with different employes in the outer 
 office and nodding familiarly to others; for, rolling- 
 stone adventurer though he was, grafter and swindler 
 as he was suspected of being, Juarez Charlie was wel 
 come here to come and go as he pleased. 
 
 He and Loring Ranger had been boys together. 
 They had started in at the same time in the shipping- 
 room of this very factory; but whereas the one had 
 risen step by step until he became the controlling head 
 of the company, and by the development of his genius 
 had vastly broadened and enlarged its activities, the 
 other, driven by wanderlust and an ineradicable strain 
 of vagrancy, had soon drifted out. Yet, in spite of the 
 gulf of circumstance between them, their early friend 
 ship still held. 
 
 More than once the successful manufacturer had 
 urged his old associate to take a position with him, 
 offering Charlie his choice either inside the factory or 
 on the road ; for it was Ranger s firm belief that the 
 vagabond, if he would only devote himself to it, would 
 make an incomparable salesman.
 
 36 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 But Charlie always evaded these efforts at rehabil 
 itation. 
 
 "I couldn t breathe in a settled job," he would say. 
 "I must have air, more air, change, variety, excitement, 
 freedom from responsibility. This is my native ele 
 ment, and deprived of it, I d gasp, flop and die. As it 
 is, I drink the wine of life, roaming where I choose 
 and exercising my especial gifts." 
 
 His especial gifts were various; perhaps the less 
 said about them the better. He employed them when 
 he felt like it and when opportunity offered; loafed 
 when he felt like it; traveled constantly about the 
 country sometimes first-class, sometimes in the com 
 pany of yeggs and hoboes boasted that he had a more 
 comprehensive knowledge of the United States than 
 any other man within its borders, and regarded life on 
 the whole with a cynical, good-humored philosophy 
 which no exigency could daunt or misfortune over 
 whelm. 
 
 But the careless, impudent smile he habitually wore 
 died, his dark face softened, as he entered the private 
 office and saw the change which the burden of these 
 torturing weeks had wrought in his old friend. He 
 could hardly believe for a moment that it was really 
 Loring Ranger this bowed, melancholy man who 
 raised his eyes with a gleam of hope at the sound of an 
 unaccustomed step, and then when he saw who it was, 
 muttered a perfunctory welcome and turned his brood 
 ing gaze again to the window.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 37 
 
 There was an unwonted tug of sympathy at 
 Charlie s wrinkled heart, and on a sudden impulse he 
 stepped over and laid his hand on Ranger s shoulder. 
 
 "Tough luck, Lorry !" he said huskily. "But don t 
 give way like this, old boy. Brace up ; it isn t it isn t 
 as if your little girl were gone for good." 
 
 The friendly touch, the sincerity of feeling in his 
 tone brought an unexpected response. A tremor ran 
 through the manufacturer s bent frame; then, with a 
 groan, he dropped his head in his hands. 
 
 "It s no use, Charlie." His voice came brokenly. 
 "No use to try and deceive myself. She is gone for 
 good." 
 
 He turned away to hide his working face, then 
 twisted round and began to talk rapidly. Here at 
 last was some one to whom he could lay bare all that 
 was in his mind. 
 
 "She is dead," he said. "Anything else is unthink 
 able. Of course I am going through the motions of 
 keeping up a search, but that is chiefly for the sake of 
 my wife. For myself, I m not expecting to to see 
 Hope again. But " his face grew livid "I ll spend 
 my last cent in running down the evidence and landing 
 those God ! I can t speak ; I don t dare even think 
 of them!" 
 
 He dragged himself together with an effort that 
 was painful to witness. 
 
 "Look at the facts, Charlie. Look at the facts. 
 It s a month yesterday since Hope went away was
 
 3 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 taken away, I mean and in all that time not a word 
 from her not a word of her. Only this horrible 
 silence like a thick black curtain meeting me every 
 where I turn. 
 
 "They ve tried to tell me that she went away of her 
 self, and is keeping quiet, so we won t know where 
 she is." His words were pouring out now; he was 
 letting go all the reticence and self-command he had so 
 sternly imposed on himself. And the other man made 
 no attempt to stop him, encouraged him, instead, by 
 his compassionate attention, to loose this dammed-up 
 flood of emotion. 
 
 "That s what they try to tell me ; but I know better." 
 Ranger brought his hand down on the desk. "It s a 
 lie ! No matter what she had done, where she had 
 gone, Hope would know that she d be welcomed back. 
 And it wasn t in her, sensitive and tender-hearted as 
 she was, to resist the appeals we have made in the news 
 papers when she could relieve us by a single word. 
 
 "Why, Charlie, we ve done things that make me 
 ashamed to think of them. We haven t trusted our 
 own impressions and knowledge of her. We ve had 
 that young girl s life raked over as if she had been a 
 criminal. We ve had her friends and acquaintances 
 put through a regular third degree even shadowed 
 some of the men she saw the most of. This or that 
 lead anything that could furnish a possible excuse 
 for her to leave home has been followed up. And 
 not a thing has been discovered that didn t show her
 
 SWALLOWED UP 39 
 
 heart-whole, contented, without secret fads or mental 
 quirks of any kind. 
 
 "She was abducted, of course." He dropped his 
 hands despairingly over the arms of his chair. "I 
 don t know how, but some way. There, on Fifth 
 Avenue without an outcry, without a struggle!" 
 
 Evidently his mind was traversing the field of puz 
 zled conjecture through which he had so often wan 
 dered before to no destination. 
 
 "If any one had told her that her mother or I were 
 dying," he hazarded, "and that there was a cab there 
 to take her home or elsewhere, she d have walked back 
 into that fruit shop and telephoned. She knew too 
 much to be caught that way. We didn t bring her up 
 in any silly ignorance of the ways of the world. 
 
 "And who did it? Enemies? She hadn t one on 
 earth. I have a few like any other successful man; 
 but they re all the sort that damn me when they hear 
 my name and let it go at that. They re sane. Only a 
 crazy man would take such a devil s revenge. 
 
 "The white-slaver theory has been advanced," he 
 ran on. "But those vermin would never take such a 
 chance. Too many less conspicuous girls whose dis 
 appearance wouldn t create much comment. 
 
 "And then the reward. A hundred thousand dollars. 
 Why doesn t somebody claim it? Or even ask a 
 higher ransom? A month has passed, and I ve held 
 myself open to every sort of communication; but no 
 demand has been made upon me.
 
 40 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "No," his tormented brain reasoned back to his first 
 conclusion; "she is dead. Perhaps killed in an attempt 
 to escape. Perhaps succumbing on their hands from 
 the shock and terror of it all. But certainly dead. 
 
 "And that s the awfulness of it!" He buried his 
 face in his handkerchief. "If we had laid her in her 
 grave, I would grieve for her, but I could still bear up. 
 But this nightmare of uncertainty, the horrible pos 
 sibilities " 
 
 Unnoticed by him in his agitation, Juarez Charlie 
 had risen from his seat, and now stood close beside 
 him. 
 
 "But it s all a mistake, Lorry," he whispered tensely, 
 gripping Ranger firmly by the shoulder. "Your 
 daughter is not dead. That is the message I was in 
 structed to bring you. I was to tell you that she is 
 alive and well."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE news came too suddenly. Ranger s 
 brain recorded the words but could not assim 
 ilate them. He had so gripped the convic 
 tion that Hope was dead with every tentacle of his 
 mind that he could not discard it immediately for this 
 new, reversing statement. 
 
 His bewildered stare wavered, gave way suddenly 
 to a light that leaped to his eyes and flashed over his 
 face. 
 
 "What? What?" His fingers bit into the flesh of 
 Juarez Charlie s arm. "You re mad!" He was try 
 ing to protect himself from a disappointment he could 
 not face. "You re mad!" he repeated. 
 
 Charlie wriggled free. 
 
 "I m giving you the message exactly as I got it," 
 he said soothingly but insistently. "Where your 
 daughter is, I don t know, Lorry, or how to reach her. 
 I have merely the word that she is alive and well. It 
 may be wrong, but I don t believe it." 
 
 "But tell me, tell me how did you hear? Who 
 gave you this message?" Ranger stood up, too 
 shaken nervously to sit still. "Where did it come 
 from?" 
 
 "I can t tell you that. I don t know myself." 
 
 "Don t know?" indignant, astonished reproach in
 
 42 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 the exclamation. "But that s idiocy! If you re not 
 crazy, for heaven s sake explain." He began to plead, 
 but broke off abruptly. "Oh, I see!" he muttered, his 
 eyes narrowing. "It is a case of nothing for nothing. 
 Well turning with thinly veiled contempt to the 
 check-book lying on his desk "I m willing to pay if 
 your information is authentic. Name your price and 
 let s get down to business." 
 
 Juarez Charlie got up, twirling his hat on his finger. 
 
 "I don t think I deserve that of you, Ranger. I ve 
 never grafted a penny off you yet, and F<m certainly 
 not going to begin now on the strength of your being 
 in trouble. I came here to do you a favor and relieve 
 your mind; but since you see it only as a plant to try 
 and bleed you " 
 
 "Now, now, Charlie!" Ranger laid hasty hands on 
 him to drag him back from the door. "I apologize. 
 I had no desire to insult you. Consider the state of 
 mind I m in." 
 
 "Fair enough." Charlie sat down again. "I sup 
 pose you re hardly to be blamed, with every come-on 
 artist in the country trying to shake you down. But, 
 honest, Lorry, I ve told you all I know. I couldn t do 
 any more if you were to slip me your entire wad, pipe 
 factory and all." 
 
 While he talked, he had produced a wisp of paper 
 and his little sack of tobacco, and was busying himself 
 in rolling a cigarette. Now, as he lifted it to his lips to 
 moisten the edge of the paper with his tongue, he spoke
 
 SWALLOWED UP 43 
 
 quickly, guardedly, out of the corner of his mouth. 
 
 "Is there any chance of our being overheard here? 
 In a minute or two, step to that door and make sure 
 there s no one listening to us. Not as if you were 
 looking for anybody, you understand, but in a natural 
 way. Make an excuse that you want something out 
 side or that it s stuffy in here anything of the sort." 
 
 Ranger twisted his mouth impatiently at the idea of 
 such an absurd precaution; but, willing to humor any 
 caprice so long as Charlie was induced to talk, he nod 
 ded an assent. 
 
 So, a moment or two later, as he paced back and 
 forth across the floor, he suddenly flung open the door 
 leading out of the office and almost knocked over his 
 private secretary. The latter only saved himself by a 
 dexterous backward jump. 
 
 "Why, Bryan!" Ranger stared at him. "What are 
 you doing here?" 
 
 The secretary almost instantly recovered both his 
 physical and mental balance. 
 
 "I was just about to knock," he said, coming forward 
 in his usual deferential fashion. "Inspector Bailey 
 has telephoned that they have another girl they 
 would like you to look at. An aphasia victim, they 
 found wandering round Washington Square this 
 morning." 
 
 "An aphasia victim?" Ranger s eyes glinted with 
 the reawakened hope so many times dashed in the 
 last few weeks by similar calls upon him for identi-
 
 44 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 fication. "Certainly." He snatched up his hat. "I ll 
 go right down. Does the inspector really think it 
 could possibly be Hope?" 
 
 But Juarez Charlie threw himself in his way as he 
 was hurrying toward the door. 
 
 "Now, look here, Lorry," he drawled, "what s the 
 use of getting yourself all excited over what s only 
 another false alarm? This girl is no more your 
 daughter than I am, and I ll bet my roll to a worn- 
 out banana-peel on it. If somebody has to go 
 down and give her the once-over, let Bryan there 
 do it. I want you to come out with me and buy a 
 hat." 
 
 "Buy a hat?" 
 
 "Yes; that was part of the message I was instructed 
 to give you, but I hadn t come to it yet, you kept 
 breaking in on me so." 
 
 "A part of the message?" Ranger eyed him doubt 
 fully. Was the man daft? 
 
 "Sure!" Charlie nodded. "I was to say to you, 
 Hope is alive and well ; send her a hat. 
 
 The private secretary turned with a start. 
 
 "Hope?" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to say, 
 Juarez, that you have news of her?" 
 
 "Just -what you heard." Charlie s habitual non 
 chalance was a bit stressed. "I was told to tell Loring 
 here that his daughter was alive and well and that he 
 was to send her a new hat." 
 
 "Yes; but who told you?" demanded the secretary
 
 SWALLOWED UP 45 
 
 excitedly. "Didn t you hold the messenger? If we 
 can make him talk 
 
 "Exactly." Charlie slanted his eyebrows in an 
 ironical grimace. "If! But as I ve been trying to 
 explain to the boss, Frank, I ve no more idea who sent 
 that message than I have of who invented apple pie. 
 All I can tell you is that I found it chalked up on the 
 front stoop of my boarding-house when I came out 
 this morning, with no signature or mark of any kind 
 to let me know where it came from." 
 
 "But it should be photographed and preserved by 
 all means," declared Bryan. "A competent hand 
 writing expert might " 
 
 Charlie gave a derisive chuckle. 
 
 "A handwriting expert would be sunk on this job 
 before he began, Frank. It was done in hobo language 
 the kind of signs you see marked up on box-cars 
 and fences and freight-houses and the sides of barns 
 when you are out on the road." 
 
 "Oh-h!" Bryan s tone indicated that for him the 
 matter was dismissed. He turned to Ranger. "The 
 sort of stuff we are getting constantly from cranks 
 and notoriety seekers. This is probably some yegg- 
 man s idea of a joke." 
 
 "No," disputed Charlie; "because of that part about 
 the hat." 
 
 "The part about the hat? Why, that s the very 
 thing that clinches it as absurd," sneered Bryan. 
 "Would Miss Ranger be likely in a communication of
 
 46 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 this sort to ask her father for a hat? I m surprised, 
 Juarez, at a fellow of your shrewdness taking any 
 stock in such an obvious fake." 
 
 "Oh, I don t pretend to be anything but a pitiable 
 moron," disclaimed Charlie modestly; "and you are 
 possibly quite right when you say that Miss Ranger 
 would never think of asking for a hat. Still, I .can 
 see how a thing of the kind might come in very handy 
 to the folks who have got her. How so, you ask? 
 Well, this way: Suppose they d send back a photo 
 graph of her with that hat on? It would be pretty 
 good proof wouldn t it? that she was just what 
 they said she was, alive and well about as good proof 
 as anybody would want. 
 
 "So that s why I say," he observed pointedly, "that 
 you d better be chasing down to headquarters, if any 
 body is to go, and leave Loring to attend to this more 
 likely lead and get the hat on its way as quickly as 
 possible. Saves now, Frank?" 
 
 "That s my opinion, too," nodded Ranger, with an 
 intimation not to be misunderstood, and the secretary, 
 merely saying that he would look into the matter of 
 the girl at police headquarters at once, left the room. 
 
 Juarez Charlie, rolling another cigarette, perched 
 himself in the window and smoked until from his eyry 
 he saw Bryan come out of the building and disappear 
 in a subway entrance at Fourteenth Street. 
 
 "I ve never got that fellow s number exactly," he 
 muttered as he flipped the cigarette butt down to the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 47 
 
 street below and turned back toward the desk. 
 "Chances are he s only a bit curious, but Any 
 how, I feel safer to have him out of the way. 
 
 "And now, if you ll set that door open, Loring, so 
 that I can see if anybody else comes circulating around, 
 I ll shake down a few things that I ve been holding up 
 my sleeve." 
 
 He paused a moment as if hesitating just how to 
 begin; then, leaning forward, he spoke in a voice so 
 carefully lowered that it was hardly more than a 
 whisper. 
 
 "Lorry, what I am going to tell you is known to 
 every gun and grafter and worker in the so-called 
 underworld, big or little ; but it s mighty seldom spoken 
 of even among themselves. The police don t know it. 
 All they get on to is what their stool-pigeons tell em, 
 and it would have to be a nervier snitch than any I ve 
 ever seen that would dare breathe this to a cop. 
 
 "I m running the biggest risk of my life in tipping 
 you off." The serious set of his devil-may-care face, 
 the drawn lines about his mouth, showed that he had 
 no doubts on this score. "And, although I ve had 
 my suspicions right along, I wouldn t come to you 
 until I was absolutely certain. But now I m going 
 through with it if it s the last thing I ever do. 
 
 "Loring " he drew a long breath like a swimmer 
 about to make a dive, then brought his words out with 
 a rush "your daughter, I m sorry to tell you, is in 
 the hands of the Combine. "
 
 48 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "The Combine ?" repeated Ranger. 
 
 "Sh," Charlie cautioned. "Not so loud." 
 
 "But what do you mean by the Combine ?" Ran 
 ger persisted, although he somewhat impatiently low 
 ered his tone. 
 
 "Just what you d imagine. An inside bunch that 
 runs things the same as in politics or finance." 
 
 "Are you trying to tell me " Ranger showed his 
 skepticism "that crime has become an organized thing 
 in this city controlled and directed by a board 
 or group such as you describe?" 
 
 Charlie nodded vehemently. 
 
 "Not only in this city but all over the country," he 
 declared. "Don t you read the newspapers? Look 
 at -the frequent robberies on a big scale, not money 
 and securities alone, but jewels, silks, furs, merchandise 
 in car-load lots. How could plunder of that sort be 
 disposed of unless there was an organization to manage 
 it? That s the Combine, and it runs the whole show. 
 
 "Ah, you still don t believe me?" as Ranger gave 
 a contemptuous sniff. "Well, you just pick out the 
 most God-forsaken cross-roads you can think of, and 
 go there to try and work it on your own hook, and 
 see where you come out." 
 
 "Then, if a pocket is picked in Omaha, or a grocery 
 store robbed in Lansing, Michigan, it has all been 
 planned and directed by a central bureau here in New 
 York? Rot. Why, Charlie, such a thing 
 
 "No, no, Lorry; you don t get me. I m not saying
 
 SWALLOWED UP 49 
 
 that the jobs are planned and ordered from here 
 that is, none except the big ones. It s like well, it s 
 a good deal like the way things used to be in Wall 
 Street when old J. P. Morgan was alive. He and 
 his crowd controlled the finances of the country, didn t 
 they? That didn t mean, of course, that every time 
 some two-by-four bank wanted to loan a thousand 
 dollars it had to write in and ask Morgan; but it did 
 mean that all the banks, big and little, had to play into 
 his hand and that any time he wanted them he had only 
 to whistle." 
 
 "The so-called money trust, that we used to hear 
 so much about." Ranger nodded reminiscently. 
 "And you want to claim there is an organizing genius 
 of the sort among the criminals?" 
 
 "A bigger man in his way than Morgan ever dared 
 to be," affirmed Charlie. 
 
 "But I don t see how it could be managed," frowned 
 Ranger; he was taking Charlie s statements a shade 
 more seriously. "Banks have fixed places of doing 
 business and men of responsibility in charge. Any 
 body, though, might set up as a crook Tom, Dick 
 or Harry. How, then, is it possible for this Com 
 bine, as you call it, to exercise control?" 
 
 "Easy. As you say, anybody might rip a pete 
 crack a safe, I mean or do a job of porch-climbing; 
 but don t forget, Loring, that the stuff has to be got 
 rid of after they get it." 
 
 "Oh? The what s the term the fences, eh?"
 
 50 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Sure. The fences and the cops. That s where 
 the Combine gets its stranglehold on the business. 
 They ve got the lowdown on every fence from Maine 
 to California, open or secret; and woe be to the one 
 that steps out of line. Through the fences, too, they 
 control the cops; if an outsider butts in or a regular 
 welshes, he is tipped off. So what chance has a poor 
 gun got? He has to come across with half out of 
 every haul he makes or quit the game." 
 
 "And the men at the top rely for safety, I suppose, 
 on the traditional honor among thieves ?" 
 
 "Honor among thieves?" Juarez Charlie gave a 
 short laugh. "There ain t no such animal. Not on 
 your life, Loring! Those lads at the top are like the 
 man higher up in politics. Even more so; for there 
 must be somebody who has a hold on the man higher 
 up. But you can t even make a guess at the crowd 
 in the Combine, especially the Big Noise who is at the 
 head of them. You can follow the chain up through 
 the fences just so far; then you hit a blank wall. 
 Orders after that come, as I got mine this morning, 
 through messages chalked up in hobo language. But, 
 if you know what s good for you, those messages will 
 be obeyed." 
 
 Ranger yielded to a growing conviction that there 
 was more in this than mere imaginings or a fantastic 
 embroidery on a few unrelated facts. Improbable as 
 it seemed, there was at least some basis for Charlie s 
 revelation enough to go on.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 51 
 
 "And you think," his voice trembled, "that this inner 
 group this Combine have my daughter?" 
 
 "I m certain of it. It isn t often that they pull off 
 anything on their own account. But after that message 
 I received Well, that settles it in my mind that this 
 is one of the times they ve done it. Loring," he spoke 
 gravely, "it s what you called the organizing genius 
 himself, that you re stacked up against on this deal."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 RANGER reached quickly for the telephone on 
 his desk; but Charlie, anticipating his action, 
 seized it first. 
 
 "No, you don t!" He held the instrument tight 
 in both hands. "I can see your mouth made up for 
 Spring, 3100 as plain as if you were already calling 
 it. What I ve told you was for your own information^ 
 Loring, and not to be passed on to the police." 
 
 Ranger made no attempt to deny his purpose. 
 
 "Don t be a fool!" He blustered a bit. "You ll 
 not prevent me by hanging on to that phone; there 
 are others I can use. Certainly you can t suppose 
 that I ll be blocked from repeating what you ve told 
 me by any scruples regarding it as confidential." 
 
 "Oh, no." Charlie was frankly cynical. "It isn t 
 any scruples that ll hold you back; it s your own com 
 mon sense as soon as you ve had a chance to think 
 for a minute. Haven t I already told you that this 
 crowd has the police well, what a real-estate dealer 
 would call, firm in hand ?" 
 
 Ranger gave over his attempt to use the telephone 
 and sank back with a gesture of rebuff. 
 
 "What am I to do?" He ran his hands up through 
 his thick, gray hair. "If I don t report this infor 
 mation to the police " 
 
 52
 
 SWALLOWED UP 53 
 
 "If you do," Charlie spoke sharply, "you re done 
 for. Get that into your head, Loring. These people 
 are under cover so deep that there s about as much 
 chance of a detective getting to them as there is of his 
 drilling into the vaults of the National City Bank 
 with a baby s rattle. No; this isn t a case where the 
 police can help you." 
 
 "Apparently, it isn t a case where anybody can help 
 me," muttered Ranger hopelessly. 
 
 "No; don t say that." Charlie gave a quick glance 
 of pity at the other s tormented face. 
 
 The unwonted note of sympathy in his grating 
 voice lifted Ranger momentarily from his dejection. 
 A faint smile of appreciation flickered across his lips, 
 and he pressed Charlie s hand. 
 
 "Oh, you, of course. I know that I can always 
 count on you. But what can you and I do alone ?" 
 
 "What have your cops and your high-priced de 
 tectives and the biggest reward ever offered done for 
 you?" the answer flashed back. "There s a chance 
 to get your daughter, as I see it, Lorry; but it ll 
 never be by depending on the police. This has got to 
 be worked on a different tack. You think I m not 
 much?" He grinned; nothing could long repress his 
 care-free spirit. "Maybe so. But remember, please, 
 that when Mr. Lion got all tangled up in the net, it 
 was Friend Mouse who came along and gnawed him 
 free. That s the role I ve cast myself for, Loring 
 li l Mousie."
 
 54 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 Through the obsession his lost daughter that 
 filled Ranger s mind to the exclusion of everything 
 else, there pierced some realization of what the vag 
 rant was so lightly offering his life, perhaps, if they 
 were really pitted against so ruthless and formidable 
 an adversary as he described. 
 
 The matter-of-fact manufacturer was hardly ready 
 to credit that assumption in its entirety, but he could 
 not doubt that Juarez Charlie, with far more knowl 
 edge than himself of the characters and methods of 
 the underwork!, believed it implicitly. And on one 
 score, at least, Charlie s reasoning was irrefutable 
 the keenest detectives in the country had failed ; the 
 machinery of the law had proved powerless ; he had 
 squandered money like water, and there .was nothing 
 to show for it. 
 
 Why not, then, accept this generous, unbought aid 
 tendered him? He would search far to find an ally 
 of quicker wits or a more comprehensive knowledge 
 of criminal subtleties. 
 
 Ranger s success in life was largely due to his habit 
 of quick decision. With scarcely a pause he reached 
 out and gripped Charlie s hand in a clasp that told 
 more than he could have expressed in an hour s speech. 
 
 "Handle it your own way, old man," he said heartily. 
 "I m with you. I ll back you with everything I ve 
 got." 
 
 "That will help a little," said Charlie dryly. 
 
 He fell into a reverie, his dark face twisted up re-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 55 
 
 flectively, his yellow cigarette-stained fingers tapping on 
 the arm of his chair. 
 
 "You said a while back," he remarked at last, "that 
 it looked to you, Loring, like we were up against a 
 blank wall. Well, we are; but there s one opening 
 in that wall, and it s through the messages they ll send. 
 Take this hat we ve been ordered to furnish. Some 
 body s got to get it and carry it to them. Then, if 
 that person is trailed and we find out where the hat 
 is delivered, we ll be getting pretty warm to the people 
 we re after." 
 
 The suggestion seemed to Ranger an immediate 
 solution of the whole problem, and he was eager to 
 lose no time in putting it into execution; but Charlie 
 checked his enthusiasm. 
 
 "No," he advised. "They ll be on the lookout. 
 Let one or two messages go by, though, with just a 
 bungling attempt to follow, and they ll begin to grow 
 careless. That ll be our time to start trailing." 
 
 "But how do you know there will be further 
 messages?" 
 
 "How do I know that Christmas is coming? You 
 don t suppose they re sending for that bonnet merely 
 to doll your daughter up, do you? As I told you, 
 they ll send you a photograph of her wearing it to 
 prove to you that she s alive and well, and then they ll 
 begin to apply the screws." 
 
 "Demand money, do you mean? But why haven t 
 they done so before? It is a month to-day since Hope
 
 5 6 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 disappeared; yet, although I have thrown myself wide 
 open to an offer, this communication through you is 
 the first word I have received either directly or in 
 directly." 
 
 "Sure. They wanted you to try the cops and all 
 the rest of it, and learn just how tight they had you 
 tied up. Now that they think you re desperate, they re 
 ready to do business." 
 
 "But all this circumlocution this nonsense of send 
 ing a hat and one thing and another seems silly to 
 
 
 
 me," objected Ranger, pushing out his lip. "All I 
 want is my daughter. Can t you chalk up a message 
 of the same kind you received, telling them I am ready 
 to meet any terms they propose?" 
 
 "Terms?" Charlie s glance was significant. "Be 
 lieve me, Lorry, those birds are planning to strip you 
 bare. They ll never be satisfied with anything less 
 than your whole roll." 
 
 "Then let them have it!" Ranger did not hesitate 
 a second. "I m ready to start in all over again, if only 
 my daughter " 
 
 Charlie shook his head. 
 
 "It wouldn t do you any good. Those wolves don t 
 know what mercy is. They ll never hand over the 
 girl, with the chance of her telling something that 
 might give them away. No; what they re planning 
 is to string you along on one excuse or another until 
 they ve milked you dry. Then they ll quietly croak 
 her and end the matter up.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 57 
 
 "Your only hope, Loring I m giving it to you 
 straight is to play the game the way they ve laid it 
 out for you and try to catch them napping before 
 they ve got you plumb skinned. If you ll " 
 
 His alert glance caught sight of the returning Bryan 
 making his way toward them through the outer office, 
 and, without altering his attitude, he changed his tone 
 to one of querulous expostulation. 
 
 "If you ll quit your arguing and do as I say, we ll 
 soon see if there s anything in it or not. A hat isn t 
 going to set you back more than twenty-five or thirty 
 dollars, and you d hand that out any day to one of 
 your high-priced dicks and think nothing of it." 
 
 "Oh, come along, then." Ranger took his cue in a 
 way that even Charlie had to approve. "But mind 
 you he got up with the air of yielding against his 
 judgment "I haven t the slightest hope that anything 
 will come of it." 
 
 "Ah, Bryan?" with an assumption of eagerness. 
 "You saw the girl at headquarters? Did she No? 
 Only another disappointment, eh?" 
 
 Sighing, he picked up his hat, and he and Charlie 
 left the office. Outside, he dismissed his chauffeur 
 and, driving the car himself, proceeded to a millinery 
 shop on a cross-street in the Fifties. 
 
 When the odd pair entered this feminine Mecca of 
 cunningly arranged mirrors and carefully tinted walls, 
 the strayed princess who received them gave the sug 
 ared languor of her smile exclusively to Ranger; the
 
 5 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 other person was, of course, impossible. But after 
 she had brought out several hats, setting forth with 
 soft fluency the desirability of each, Ranger failed to 
 meet her expectations. He appeared more bewildered 
 and uncertain every minute. 
 
 It was then that Juarez Charlie boldly projected 
 himself into the situation. 
 
 "You ve got the wrong steer altogether, little one," 
 he said briskly. "These lids are all right for Fifth 
 Avenue ; but we want something that will stand out 
 like an English flag in an Irish street parade some 
 thing so out of style that no swell dame would be 
 caught dead in it, or so into style that if it showed up 
 along Forty-second Street they d have to call out the 
 reserves. Do you get me, Fanchon?" 
 
 A more human smile broke through the veneer of 
 the princess s superiority. He was speaking her lan 
 guage. Fresh; she d say so. But he knew what he 
 wanted all right and was able to spill it so that she 
 could understand. Only discipline, environment and 
 the presence of Ranger prevented her from replying 
 in kind. 
 
 "Ah?" She hastily relegated the toque she was bal 
 ancing on two fingers to a table and permitted herself 
 to descend to a vulgar interest. "Is it perhaps for 
 some lady of the stage to wear in a character part?" 
 
 "You ve got it, sister. Just think of what Marie 
 Dressier would wear as the belle of Hickville when 
 she first hits Paris."
 
 SWALLOWED UP 59 
 
 The princess was genuinely intrigued. She sought, 
 she found a bizarre shape, gave it a pinch in here, a 
 flare out there, thus immeasurably heightening its ab 
 surdity. She pinned on towering spirals of ribbon, 
 and trailed feathers a shoulder-length over the brim. 
 
 "Do you approve?" she asked, glancing up archly as 
 she placed it on her head. 
 
 "Couldn t be better!" Charlie was enthusiastic. 
 "Now run, bright eyes, and sew it together with your 
 own pretty ringers." 
 
 Ranger hurriedly placed a bill in those same fingers, 
 and she went, humming a song, to return presently 
 with the completed hat in a box. As Ranger paid for 
 it, Charlie was forced to revise his estimate of the cost 
 of women s headwear. A parting compliment or so 
 to the princess, and he seized the hat-box and carried 
 it out to the car. 
 
 A long drive was before them, their objective Char 
 lie s lodgings. These were in a stark, detached house 
 sadly in need of paint in an isolated neighborhood on 
 the outskirts of Brooklyn. 
 
 "We ll know now just how closely we re being spied 
 on," he commented, as they swung through a huddle 
 of mean suburban streets and across a railroad track to 
 reach it. Then as they drew up before the gate, he 
 gave a sudden exclamation and leaped out to examine 
 three rude chalk-marks scrawled as though a child had 
 done it across one of the posts of the sagging paling 
 fence.
 
 60 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Look, Lorry! They re playing it exactly as I 
 doped. And it s just as I told you, too; we can t make 
 a move but they re wise to it." 
 
 "What is it? Another message?" demanded Ran 
 ger, who had climbed out of the car and was also 
 bending over to inspect the marks. 
 
 "No; but it tells where the message is to be found." 
 And beckoning his companion to follow, he started for 
 the railroad tracks just below. 
 
 A short distance from the crossing was a siding 
 with a string of box-cars standing along it. Charlie 
 pointed to them. 
 
 "That s where we ll find the message all right," he 
 announced confidently. But although they went over 
 the entire line of cars, even climbing up to inspect the 
 tops of them, no sign of anything resembling a com 
 munication was to be found. 
 
 Nonplused and puzzled, they rushed back to the 
 house to see if they could possibly have mistaken the 
 directions chalked on the fence-post. But, no; as 
 Charlie deciphered the hieroglyphics, the plain instruc 
 tions were to seek the message down along the rail 
 way. 
 
 "Maybe, we came too quick, before the fellow had a 
 chance to chalk her up?" muttered Charlie. Then, as 
 his roving glance fell on the motor, he startled and 
 gasped. "By Godfrey, Lorry! Somebody s come 
 along and swiped the hat." 
 
 He was right. The large, gaily decorated box
 
 SWALLOWED UP 61 
 
 which they had left on the rear seat of the tonneau was 
 gone. With a common impulse the two hastened over 
 to the side of the car and looked in to see if, by any 
 chance, it could have fallen to the floor. 
 
 It had not. But as they gazed, Charlie made a 
 sharp exclamation. 
 
 There upon the cushion of the seat where the box 
 had rested was chalked a circle with a rough cross- 
 mark in the center of it, like the "X" of a voter on an 
 election-ballot the sign-manual of the Combine. 
 
 Charlie stood looking far more guilty than if he had 
 been detected in a theft. 
 
 "Fooled!" He began to swear under his breath. 
 "Go on, Lorry ; say anything you like. You can t call 
 me anything worse than I m calling myself." 
 
 But Ranger was in no mood for reproaches. On 
 the contrary, he was inclined to draw encouragement 
 from the incident. The hat was gone, and he took it 
 as proof that Hope was alive. So far at least Char 
 lie s theory was vindicated. 
 
 "You said we must bungle one or two times in 
 order to render them careless," he returned generously. 
 Well, we ve done it. What more do you want?" 
 
 "Maybe some one saw them?" Charlie had floun 
 dered up from the dust of his humiliation, and his eyes 
 were darting up and down the empty street. He 
 caught sight of his landlady sewing at an upper win 
 dow and dashed inside. 
 
 But his inquiry of her elicited only the information
 
 62 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 that during the absence of himself and Ranger another 
 automobile had driven up and had stopped before the 
 house as if to make some slight repairs. It had halted 
 but a moment or two, and then had driven on again. 
 The chauffeur who got out was a young man, she 
 thought, but she couldn t see his face as he was bending 
 over the engine. She couldn t describe the car, and she 
 wasn t sure whether there were others in it or not. 
 
 "So, there s that!" Charlie shrugged his shoulders 
 as they started back to town. "Clever work to send us 
 off on a wild-goose chase among those freight-cars 
 while they gypped us of the creation. Nothing to do 
 now, of course, but wait for the next message. 
 Only " he dug viciously in his tobacco-sack 
 "they don t catch me asleep at the switch again."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE May breeze caught up a sheet of news 
 paper and sent it scudding down the road. 
 It headed straight for the ditch, hung a mo 
 ment on the brink of a little pool of stagnant water, 
 and then, with the sudden veering of a stronger wind, 
 was lifted high in air and carried over a lofty brick 
 wall and privet hedge. It blew along the grass within 
 the enclosure until it flapped against the trunk of a 
 large beech-tree, and there it lay. 
 
 George Kelsey, strolling about the grounds, saw it, 
 and his listless expression changed to one of avid 
 interest, immediately suppressed. Before he took a 
 step toward it, though, he looked about him, his indif 
 ferent glance embracing the whole scene the large 
 house with its bright awnings and wide porches, the 
 smooth green lawns where circular sprinklers were 
 playing like miniature fountains, every clump of shrub 
 bery. Near him a gardener was bending over a flower 
 bed, but Kelsey knew that although the man was intent 
 on his work he was observant. 
 
 Kelsey yawned and sauntered over toward a rustic 
 bench under the beech-tree. Sheltered for a moment 
 by its trunk, he stooped quickly, crumpled the stained, 
 frayed paper in his hand, folded it roughly and laid 
 
 63
 
 64 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 it between the pages of his book. Then seating him 
 self on the rustic bench, he opened the volume and be 
 gan to read. 
 
 One of the most rigidly observed rules of this ex 
 clusive private hospital for what are euphemistically 
 called "nervous cases" was that no reading- matter 
 was permitted which might excite the patients or arouse 
 discussion among them. There was a carefully selec 
 ted library of innocuous novels, mild biographies and 
 records of travel, and a few tepid magazines. News 
 papers were banned. 
 
 Consequently to Kelsey, as ignorant of world hap 
 penings and the progress of events as if he were on 
 a desert island, the discovery of this paper was as 
 exciting and momentous a circumstance as the glimpse 
 of a sail to a shipwrecked crew. 
 
 It was disappointing, though, for him to find that 
 he had only a stray sheet of a Sunday supplement 
 two or three weeks old, entirely taken up with the dis 
 appearance of a girl called Hope Ranger and illustrated 
 with pictures of her reproduced from photographs, 
 paintings and sketches. No doubt by this time the 
 girl had been found and the reward paid a huge one, 
 that. 
 
 Still it was news, even if it was not of a kind that 
 particularly interested him. Having read to the end, 
 he put the paper in his pocket and the fate of Hope 
 Ranger out of his mind. 
 
 He had more important and personal questions to
 
 SWALLOWED UP 65 
 
 consider. Laying his book on the bench beside him, 
 he sat with his arms folded, staring at the ground 
 before him, too deeply absorbed in his own predica 
 ment and its dangers and difficulties to hear light foot 
 falls on the grass. 
 
 The sense of some one being near him rather than 
 the perception of an actual presence roused him finally 
 from his brown study, and he looked up, expecting to 
 see one of the silent men who worked so unobtrusively 
 about the place and who always seemed to pop up if 
 one strayed too near the gates or wall. 
 
 Instead, a girl was standing a few feet away from 
 him, regarding him steadily, her hands clasped before 
 her. 
 
 The involuntary smile of recognition died on his 
 lips as he stood up. He had thought at first a 
 resemblance only, but to whom? Where had he seen 
 recently? He grasped it. One of the nurses, 
 Miss Copley. He had talked to her the day be 
 fore. 
 
 But he had now a swift impression of grace and 
 charm, of a distinction which the nurse did not possess. 
 His brain ticked off these notes as the habit of obser 
 vation continued mechanically to function; but they 
 were superseded, nullified by some strange emotional 
 realization of her an ephemeral experience outside 
 the measurements of time, lasting the infinitesimal frac 
 tion of a second; gone. 
 
 He stood still waiting for her to speak ; but she said
 
 66 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 nothing only continued to gaze at him with heavy, 
 shadowed eyes. 
 
 "Good morning," he broke the silence which was 
 becoming awkward. "For a moment I thought you 
 were Miss Copley." 
 
 "Did you?" she asked vaguely. Her voice con 
 firmed the impression of charm. It was warm, 
 faintly vibrating. 
 
 "Miss Copley is a nurse here," he explained. "She 
 resembles you very much. I thought she might be 
 your sister." 
 
 "Sister?" she echoed in the same monotonous tone. 
 "I have no sister." She stopped and considered this, 
 her brows twisting. "I don t think I have a sister." 
 
 She came nearer him and sat down on the bench, 
 motioning him to resume his seat. 
 
 "You have a newspaper," she stated, with a direct 
 ness which would have struck him as odd if he had 
 noticed it. 
 
 "You saw that ?" he exclaimed, annoyed as much at 
 the necessity for subterfuge in such trifling matters 
 as at being found out. "A silly rule to forbid them." 
 He shrugged his shoulders. Then curiosity to hear 
 what she would say made him add, "Are you going to 
 give me away?" 
 
 "Certainly not!" a touch of disdain in her surprise. 
 If he had known it, she was dismayed at the prompt 
 ness of her answer.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 67 
 
 "I did say, newspaper/ then?" she asked naively. 
 "I forget so easily that I might just as well have said 
 table-cloth, or garden gate, or something else as ridicu 
 lous. They say I do often." 
 
 There are others." Kelsey felt a sudden desire 
 to console her. "I heard a man at breakfast this 
 morning ask for two bales of hay fried on one 
 side." 
 
 A delightfully humorous smile curved her lips and 
 then was gone, lost in the vacuity that returned to her 
 expression. 
 
 "I don t understand it," she shook her head. "I 
 don t understand anything. I don t even know 
 whether I have met you before or not." 
 
 He looked down at her with his friendly smile, his 
 voice reassuring. 
 
 "I never saw you until just now." 
 
 "Are you a patient here, too?" 
 
 Kelsey had an uncertain temper which he had 
 taught himself to control; but at her question a flare 
 of anger swept over his face, which slowly congealed 
 to an icy repression. 
 
 "Am I a patient?" He had turned in his seat, 
 and she saw that the flame still lingered in his hot blue 
 eyes. There were white dents about the corners of 
 his mouth ; his voice was rough ; the inflections were 
 satirical. "Well, that is as you look at it. I was 
 house physician here for a few weeks. I resigned
 
 68 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 for reasons. My resignation was accepted, and I 
 packed my things and prepared to leave. I needed 
 a car to take me to the station, as it was some distance. 
 There were polite excuses all the cars were in use. 
 I started to walk, hoping I d get a lift on the road; 
 the gates were locked. I attempted to throw my bags 
 over the wall and scramble after them. Two men. 
 closed in on me. I lost my head and struck out, but 
 they were too much for me. Our superintendent had 
 grown so fond of me, you see, that he couldn t bear 
 to part. So he elevated me to the rank of a patient. 
 I am still here for the present." 
 
 "That means you intend to get away?" she leaned 
 nearer him to whisper. 
 
 "I will get away!" biting off the words with a 
 click of his jaw. "Never doubt it. I 
 
 He stopped short and swept his hand back over 
 his light ruddy hair, flushing sullenly over the reali 
 zation that he was making an ass of himself to run on 
 this way to one of the inmates of the hospital, who 
 if she were able to follow him at all, would probably 
 babble every word he had said to the next person she 
 met. 
 
 "I m talking nonsense," he began stiffly; but she 
 touched him lightly on the arm. 
 
 "Dr. Bristow is coming," she murmured. "Give 
 me a pencil quick, and wait here. I will come back 
 if I can." 
 
 Wondering alike at the quick change in her manner
 
 SWALLOWED UP 69 
 
 and at the purpose of her request, he gave her the 
 pencil, and she moved away, to stand listlessly turning 
 it in her hands and looking vacantly before her. 
 
 The superintendent of the institution came striding 
 across the lawn toward them. He was a man of about 
 medium height ; but his up-thrown head, the squareness 
 of his shoulders and his erect bearing gave the impres 
 sion of size. 
 
 In features, too, he was impressive, even extra 
 ordinary. Heavy, dark brows over strikingly keen, 
 slate-gray eyes; a firm, clean-shaven mouth and chin, 
 and thick dark hair growing far down the nape of the 
 neck. 
 
 As always, he was fastidiously dressed a gray 
 morning suit and a gray soft hat. The luster of a 
 splendid black pearl shone in his mauve necktie. 
 
 "Well, Miss Copley" he stopped before the girl 
 and spoke in the sympathetic, slightly bantering tone 
 of a physician to a convalescent patient "this is better 
 than moping over rejected manuscripts, don t you 
 think?" 
 
 She still stared before her. 
 
 "He gave me this pencil," she said; "but he wouldn t 
 give me any paper." She moved on droopingly toward 
 the house. 
 
 "Good morning, Kelsey." Dr. Bristow s voice 
 was low. It was said that he had never been heard 
 to raise it above that modulated pitch. To do so was 
 unnecessary; it was sufficiently authoritative without
 
 7 o SWALLOWED UP 
 
 emphasis. "You have been making friends with Miss 
 Copley, I see." 
 
 The remark was casual, but Kelsey divined under 
 currents. 
 
 "Is that her name?" he asked uninterestedly. "I 
 thought it might be. Sisters?" 
 
 The doctor s eyes were on him. 
 
 "Yes a sad case. Hopeless, I fear. She 
 wanted to be a writer. I have seen some of her manu 
 scripts. Pretty bad. There was one fair story, 
 though, of a little sempstress who fell in love with an 
 actor s picture. He played Mercutio. That was one 
 of your favorite parts, I believe." 
 
 "You re in one of your inventive moods to-day," 
 Kelsey said insolently. As usual when he was with 
 Bristow, he was at a disadvantage. He knew from 
 experience that no verbal arrows had power to dent 
 the burnished armor of the superintendent s equa 
 nimity, and his longing to administer a stiff punch to 
 the jaw was more intense than usual this morning. 
 But he had sense enough to restrain it. 
 
 "Have you entirely forgotten the hit you made in 
 that part?" Bristow was now, as Kelsey expressed 
 it to himself, baiting him for fair. "Can t you recall 
 the duel scene where you stagger back into the arms 
 of your supporters, the house still? Tis not so deep 
 as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but twill
 
 SWALLOWED UP 71 
 
 serve. A plague o both your houses! Then the 
 thunders of applause." 
 
 Kelsey was a little pale from his effort at self-control, 
 his mouth was rigid. 
 
 "\Yho that had ever lived through such an inspiring 
 experience could forget it?" he murmured with exag 
 gerated enthusiasm. 
 
 "Good!" Bristow s tone was gratified. "You are 
 coming along nicely, my dear boy." 
 
 With a pleasant nod, he turned away and stepped 
 back to the drive where his car was waiting. A 
 moment more, and he was whirling through the? gates, 
 the big noiselessly running machine no greater an ex 
 ample than himself of controlled, coordinated force. 
 
 Kelsey s face was black as he looked after him. 
 Lost in his resentment and sense of injury, he had 
 forgotten the girl. It was with a start that he realized 
 that she had come back and was seating herself beside 
 him. Suspicions, surmises, doubts ran helter-skelter 1 
 through his mind. 
 
 "Give me some paper," she said imperatively. 
 
 Studying her, curious to see what she would, say 
 or do next, Kelsey took a note-book from his pocket 
 and, tearing out a few sheets, handed them to her. 
 
 She began to write words, half-words, dots, dashes, 
 anything. Her head was bent over the paper. Any 
 one watching her would have thought her absorbed
 
 72 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 in her task. But, while she wrote, she talked in a 
 rapid undertone. 
 
 "You are an actor," she said accusingly. "I over 
 heard some of the things he said to you. Perhaps you 
 were only acting when you spoke of him to me ? And 
 yet oh, no" she clutched her pencil and paper tight 
 "I can t believe that. I saw your face. You 
 couldn t " 
 
 "I never was an actor," he interrupted harshly. 
 "That s Bristow s little game. I am what I told you, 
 George Kelsey, a physician who has specialized in 
 mental diseases. But who are you? That s more to 
 the point just now. I made a snap diagnosis of you, 
 when I saw you first, as a drug-addict your pallor, 
 your eyes. But they don t admit them here. Am 
 nesia, then? That means your memory of past 
 events is blotted out. Yet I don t believe, for all you 
 say, that yours is even touched. 
 
 "No! No!" Her voice was anguished, but her 
 meaningless scribbling went steadily on. 
 
 "Aphasia was a possibility, saying table-cloth 
 when you mean newspaper and all that. You said 
 you did, but I have noticed no lapses of the sort. 
 Paranoia? Dementia praecox?" He shook his head. 
 "You would have confided to me your persecutions or 
 delusions. But your own ego is far from uppermost. 
 You have been studying mine, trying to draw me out. 
 Why ?" he demanded. "Who are you ? What are you 
 doing here?"
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AN" attendant making his leisurely rounds 
 paused near the rustic bench on which Kelsey 
 and the girl were sitting, and speculatively 
 measured the distance between them and the wall with 
 his eyes. 
 
 Kelsey recognized him as one of the men who 
 had hindered his egress when he tossed his luggage 
 over the gate and attempted to climb after it; and 
 meeting that heavy, suspicious glance, lifted his brows 
 and drooped his mouth simulating a bored and weary 
 resignation which was further borne out by his inert, 
 lounging attitude. 
 
 The attendant, remembering a painful bruise or 
 so sustained in their brief but animated encounter, 
 twinkled his small eyes, grinned and walked on, de 
 riving a malicious pleasure from ignoring what he 
 took to be Kelsey s S. O. S. call for relief. 
 
 The girl paid no attention to either of them. Her 
 head bent over the note-book, she covered its pages 
 with a racing pencil apparently oblivious to every 
 thing about her. 
 
 "He s gone," murmured Kelsey when the guard 
 had moved out of ear-shot. "Now tell me." 
 
 She did not answer at once, and he was intuitive 
 
 73
 
 74 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 enough to grasp that she was wavering between doubt 
 and faith. She had turned to him naturally, instinc 
 tively; but now she was frightened. Bristow s con 
 versation with him had raised a question in her mind. 
 She was no longer sure that he was a friend and ally, 
 and until he had convinced her, she hesitated to give 
 him her confidence. 
 
 This unreadiness to trust him was not flattering 
 to his self-esteem, but it was certainly another proof 
 of her sanity the insane are usually only too ready 
 to discuss the subject of their aberrations. It was 
 proof, too, that she was, or felt she was running a 
 considerable risk in disclosing herself as a mentally 
 normal person; and naturally his curiosity was 
 stirred to learn why a woman in that place was volun 
 tarily assuming the role of a "bug." 
 
 Yet oddly this desire to fathom the puzzle she pre 
 sented was subordinate, he realized, to an eagerness to 
 win her belief in. himself. A sense of vast compassion 
 filled him as he looked at her. Through her pallor 
 and the shadows that lay about her haunting eyes, 
 he could vision the radiance and bloom so lately van 
 ished. Even now there was no suggestion of invalid- 
 ism about her. She had the poised graceful body, the 
 free precision of movement of a girl who had from 
 childhood enjoyed all open-air sports. 
 
 The sunlight flickered in golden discs over her dark 
 hair and her cheek like the petal of a magnolia flower.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 75 
 
 But more than her beauty, the appeal of her charm and 
 spirit moved him. Filaments as tenuous and ethereal 
 as those of a spider s web drew him to her with the 
 impulses of sympathy and protection. 
 
 "It s all rather confusing to me," she said at last, 
 evidently still hesitating to commit herself; "why I 
 am at this place, I mean, and the reason for keeping 
 me here, and all. And I would like to get things clear. 
 Perhaps it would help, if you would tell me first what 
 you are doing here?" 
 
 Balked, he mentally applauded her adroitness. She 
 had met his demand for explanations by deftly turn 
 ing the tables on him* The questioner had become the 
 questioned. 
 
 "Very well," he smiled quizzically; "since you pre 
 fer it that way. But if I stop short at any time, 
 you ll understand that it s because some one is about. 
 
 "I won t go into my first meeting with Bristow and 
 all that." He talked rapidly and in short sentences, 
 moving his lips as little as possible. "I came here as 
 an assistant physician, and liked it. The place is splen 
 didly run and up to date. An invaluable experience 
 for me, for a little while anyway. Then one day 
 no need going into details now I overheard a con 
 versation between Bristow and a visitor. I didn t 
 listen intentionally of course, but I was in such a 
 position that I couldn t help it. This visitor was de 
 scribing the theft of a lot of valuable jewels, and con-
 
 7 6 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 suiting Bristow about the best method of disposing of 
 them. And Bristow made no bones about giving his 
 assistance on a fifty-fifty basis. He laid out a whole 
 scheme, told the fellow just what to do, giving the 
 names of persons and places." 
 
 He paused, as if expecting her to question his state 
 ment. 
 
 "It doesn t surprise me a bit," she said, drawing 
 in her breath sharply. 
 
 "No? Well, I was so flabbergasted that I simply 
 stood there like a tree, rooted. I couldn t believe my 
 ears. My brain seemed numbed. 
 
 "Bristow discovered me of course. He ended the 
 conversation short, and sent the man away. He never 
 turned a hair, I ll say that for him; he s great in an 
 emergency. But his eyes, they went through me like 
 a diamond drill." 
 
 A responsive shiver passed over her shoulders. 
 
 "There was no use acting as if I hadn t taken it 
 all in," Kelsey resumed; "and I didn t hesitate to 
 express myself. I was leaving at once, I told him; 
 didn t care to be hooked up with a bunch of crooks. 
 Bristow didn t bluster any; just smiled in that madden 
 ing, superior way of his and when I finished, conde 
 scended to explain. He had been humoring a lunatic, 
 he said; my experience should have taught me the 
 necessity of sometimes doing that. The story of the 
 stolen jewels was pure dementia, but interesting as
 
 SWALLOWED UP 77 
 
 an example of unusual coherence. He had been trying 
 to draw the patient out by pretending to play confed 
 erate, had in fact rather enjoyed exercising his in 
 genuity at it. If a little amusement was to be extracted 
 now and then from the dreary recital of delusions 
 one had to listen to, why not take it? 
 
 "He made the thing plausible enough, but it didn t 
 sink in as he expected. I d heard the two of them talk. 
 There wasn t any make-believe about it; they were 
 right down to business. Actual names and addresses 
 were given and written down. And the alleged 
 patient was allowed to depart, free". 
 
 "So I stood my ground, and bluntly told him that 
 I didn t consider the circumstances open to misinterpre 
 tation. 
 
 "Bristow was thinking hard by this time. It s no 
 use continuing such a discussion, he said shortly. 
 When you have had a chance to come to your senses 
 and realize the absurdity of these suspicions, I shall 
 expect an apology/ 
 
 " Not from me, I said. I am leaving as soon as 
 I can pack my things. 
 
 "He began tapping on the arm of his chair, but he 
 was as cool as ever. It looks as if your usefulness 
 here is over/ he agreed. I regret it. You would have 
 been a valuable man/ 
 
 "Speak a little lower," she cautioned. 
 
 "Thanks; I forgot for the moment. Well, I left
 
 78 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 him then, and went up to my room. I ve told you 
 how I attempted to get away and failed. After that, 
 I tried to get to Bristow again, but he wouldn t see 
 me. So I turned to Morton." 
 
 "Morton?" she repeated interrogatively. 
 
 "Yes; the other house physician. He s a quiet, 
 non-committal sort of a fellow. I didn t go into the 
 whole thing with him; just told him I d had a falling 
 out with Bristow and resigned, but that when I at 
 tempted to leave the place, I d been prevented. 
 
 "He didn t show any surprise. He d been primed. 
 Just listened, and said now and then, Tm sorry, or 
 Too bad. I didn t get his attitude at the time. My 
 idea then was, that he was too keen on his job to take 
 sides. But I gained a clearer light on him when I 
 finally talked to Bristow. 
 
 "He was all ready for me, and didn t waste any 
 time in laying his cards on the table. 
 
 " It s for your own sake that I have taken these 
 restrictive measures, he said in his best professional 
 manner. Tm not easily fooled, yet I confess I had 
 no suspicions of you. But your violent outbreak 
 and the persistent way you have clung to your de 
 lusions leave only one course open to me. Let us be 
 reasonable, Kelsey. Whatever opinions you hold con 
 cerning my nefarious activities, he smiled as if he 
 thought that supremely amusing, you will at least 
 concede my standing and experience as a physician. 
 So I urge you to regard me simply in that light, and
 
 SWALLOWED UP 79 
 
 give me your confidence. Do you remember any great 
 shock or accident in your life? 
 
 "I saw where he was heading, and boiled over. 
 
 "No shock like finding you a scoundrel and a thief ! 
 I jumped up from my chair. Of course I see your 
 game, Doctor. I know too much for my health, and 
 therefore you are prescribing a rest for me here under 
 your eye. 
 
 "He looked at me without moving a muscle, patient 
 still, but a little stern. 
 
 In the last few days, he said, I ve gathered con 
 siderable information about your past life. You 
 are, I find, an Australian, an actor born in Melbourne. 
 Your name is not Kelsey but Haworth, James Ha- 
 worth. 
 
 "That was a bit too thick, and I told him so. The 
 devil listened to me quietly, never altering his expres 
 sion. He was the grave, kind medical adviser. 
 
 You say, "What rot!" and say it quite seriously, 
 he came back at me ; for yours is a case of dual person 
 ality. You started life as a young physician. Some 
 thing occurred, a shock of some sort. Your secon 
 dary personality asserted itself, and you became an 
 actor. This continued for a time and then the doc 
 tor personality reasserted itself and you came to this 
 country. In neither of these states is there any re 
 membrance of the other. There may eventually 
 occur and I think I can help you in such a crisis
 
 8o SWALLOWED UP 
 
 a struggle between the two personalities, and it will 
 then devolve upon you to decide which one you wish 
 to retain, definitely putting the other away. In the 
 meantime, I feel it my duty to keep you under obser 
 vation. " 
 
 While he talked, Kelsey was aware that the girl 
 was following his narrative with an almost feverish 
 intentness, and he wondered again at her self-control; 
 for she wrote steadily without pause, never lifting 
 her eyes from the note-book, never by the slightest in 
 advertence of movement or expression giving to an 
 unseen observer a hint that she was conscious of her 
 neighbor s presence. 
 
 "You may not understand this about dual person 
 alities," he interrupted himself to say; "but there are 
 such cases, and it was uncommonly clever of Bristow 
 to tag me with that type of psychic disturbance. For 
 although I might appear perfectly all right, my best 
 friends would hesitate to question this expert, author 
 itative verdict on a neurotic condition so outside their 
 ordinary experience, and would agree that a hospital 
 was a proper place for me." 
 
 "I see," she murmured. "Go on, please quickly. 
 Some one may come before you finish." 
 
 "Well, of course I told him that he couldn t put 
 anything of the kind across. There were too many 
 people in Chicago who remembered me from baby 
 hood, not to speak of my college years.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 81 
 
 "It didn t feaze him. He advised me to keep cool 
 and accept the situation gracefully. Insubordination 
 would only make it harder for me. He absolutely 
 refused to take the responsibility of permitting me at 
 large. 
 
 "High-handed, wasn t it; and yet fairly safe. I 
 had talked pretty freely to him before our row, and 
 he knew that I had no close relatives to bother about 
 me, and my friends would take it for granted I d 
 moved on somewhere, and that they would hear from 
 me when I got ready. 
 
 "There; that s my story. Do you Are you sat- 
 tisfied that I am neither a lunatic, nor a tool of Bris- 
 tow s?" He held his breath while he waited for her 
 answer, wondering that it should mean so much to 
 him. 
 
 "Yes," there were no reservations in her voice now; 
 "I do trust you. I did from the first, but I had to be 
 sure. Oh, if you knew what it means to me to find 
 some one in this place on whom I can rely!" 
 
 The relief, the fervor in her tone stung him. He 
 had not regretted the stand he had taken with Bris- 
 tow even in the grip of the consequences it entailed. 
 But now he saw that if he had adopted a more tem 
 perate, politic course, he might still be a house physi 
 cian and in a position to be of real service to her. 
 
 "I ve been a hot-headed fool !" He was moodily 
 abject in his self-condemnation. "I should have pre 
 tended to believe Bristow s explanation of his deal-
 
 82 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 ings with that crook. Then I wouldn t be caught here 
 like a rat in a trap. I would be able to help you." 
 
 He saw a smile the first he had seen on her face 
 dent her cheek. 
 
 "I think I like you better that you didn t," she 
 whispered. "And you can help me as it is. You 
 will get away, I am sure. You must get away." Her 
 voice was still low but passionately vehement. "You 
 must take a message from me. I will " 
 
 "Careful!" he warned quickly. "Miss Copley has 
 come out and is looking for you." He slouched back 
 on the bench, looking more bored and gloomily ab 
 stracted than ever. 
 
 The nurse crossed the lawn swiftly, her face darken 
 ing as she caught sight of the two on the rustic seat. 
 
 "Verna!" she called. "Verna!" There was an 
 anxiety bordering on panic in her harsh, unmodulated 
 voice. 
 
 The girl did not respond at once. Then she started 
 and looked about her, as if she had just returned from 
 a far country and the present surroundings were un 
 familiar. But at another, "Verna!" she rose obe 
 diently and held out the note-book and pencil. 
 
 "Look," she said; "see all I ve written. He," with 
 a gesture toward Kelsey, "gave me the book and 
 pencil." 
 
 "How nice." The nurse was composed again. 
 "Now give them back to him dear, and come in the 
 house. I have a hat I want you ta try on."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 JUAREZ CHARLIE was beginning to feel op 
 pressed and uneasy. Three days had passed since 
 the hat was taken out of Ranger s car, and there 
 had been no succeeding developments. Again and again 
 he had explored the straggling neighborhood where he 
 lived, searching each fence-post and hoarding for an 
 other of those cabalistic communications, but without 
 results. 
 
 On the fourth morning as, after another fruitless 
 hunt, he brought out the motor-cycle which Ranger 
 had insisted on his accepting in order to facilitate his 
 movements, and prepared to start for town, he had the 
 air of a discredited prophet who has lost honor even 
 with himself. The very brim of his hat drooped on 
 either side like the ears of a friendless cur. 
 
 Not that he had any misgivings on his own part. 
 He was sure that sooner or later the Combine would 
 show its hand. To achieve its end, it had to follow 
 definite platted lines. But Ranger was a more uncer 
 tain quantity. He had no fixed trajectory. He could 
 zig-zag; and with his patience growing thinner every 
 hour, or under the influence of ill-advised friends, was 
 apt to do so. Ranger was the sort of man who if he 
 did not see the wheels going around fast enough, 
 always itched to run the engine himself. Another 
 
 83
 
 84 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 negative report might start him off on a tangent that 
 would wreck all chances of recovering the missing 
 girl. 
 
 Responsibility and Charlie had always been at odds ; 
 and now it seemed to him as if all the cares he had so 
 sedulously side-stepped had piled themselves in an ac 
 cumulated load upon his shoulders. His light spirit 
 sagged under the burden. 
 
 Like a schoolboy bringing home an unfavorable 
 report and lagging on the way, he trundled slowly 
 through the maze of Brooklyn s streets and found fre 
 quent excuse to stop and tinker with his motor. When 
 he finally crossed the river and was pointing up town, 
 he was a little startled to notice by a street clock he 
 passed that it was twenty minutes after one. 
 
 Perhaps, came the suggestion, Loring might have 
 left the factory it was not uncommon for him to go 
 home early these days in order to be with his wife 
 and thus Charlie would be spared that dejected shake 
 of the head, that weary sigh of deferred hope which 
 he knew would greet his lack of news. On the chance 
 of this reprieve, he notched up his pace and shifted to 
 a more direct course. 
 
 But he was out of luck. As he drew up before the 
 entrance the outer guard to whom he was now a 
 familiar figure waved him along toward the office with 
 the jocular announcement that the boss had been just 
 on the point of sending out a general alarm for him. 
 
 Glumly he pushed up the corridor and opened the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 85 
 
 office door; then stopped short on the threshold and 
 began awkwardly to back away. 
 
 Inside, Ranger and Eustace Higby, the attorney, 
 were in earnest discussion over a letter which Higby 
 held in his hand ; while over by the window stood Mrs. 
 Ranger intently studying a photograph, moving it to 
 catch the most favorable light, hungrily seeking in it 
 more than the camera revealed some clue in the flat, 
 featureless background, some message in the pictured 
 eyes which she alone could divine and translate. The 
 tears were rolling down her cheeks, but on her lips was 
 a tremulous, ecstatic smile. 
 
 The slight noise made by Charlie s intrusion and 
 his mumbled apologies for blundering into a family 
 group roused the three from their preoccupation; 
 and Ranger, stepping quickly over, caught the re 
 treating Juarez by the arm and drew him into the 
 room. 
 
 "It s come, Charlie !" His eyes were shining. 
 "Just as you said it would, old boy. A photograph 
 and the demand for money. Found them on my desk 
 when we came back from lunch." In his excitement 
 he kept on pumping Charlie s arm up and down and 
 patting him on the shoulder. "You called the turn, 
 not a doubt of it. It s Hope beyond a shadow of 
 question. She s alive, man; alive and well! Look, 
 you can see for yourself." 
 
 He pulled Charlie across the room to his wife. 
 
 "Mary Lou, this is Charlie."
 
 ! 86 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 She dragged her gaze from the snap-shot, and held 
 the picture up for him to see. 
 
 "It s the hat all right." He tried to throw some en 
 thusiasm into his voice; but this atmosphere of jubi 
 lation left him feeling dry and meager. It was, as he 
 told himself, too darned premature. Charlie had his 
 superstitions. 
 
 "Yes; and it s Hope too," Ranger declared. "We 
 couldn t be fooled on that point." 
 
 "Oh, yes; it is certainly Hope." Mrs. Ranger s 
 voice trembled with emotion. "How can we ever 
 
 thank you, Mr. ?" She hesitated, flushing faintly. 
 
 She felt that she ought to know his name, and yet she 
 could not remember ever having heard her husband use 
 it. She compromised hastily on, "Mr. Juarez." 
 
 Charlie grinned. On the whole, her choice rather 
 appealed to him. That, "Mr. Juarez," had a wealthy, 
 impressive sound. It smacked of Cuban sugar, or 
 Mexican oil wells, or something of the sort. He rose 
 to it, slightly inflating his chest. He liked Mrs. 
 Ranger. 
 
 "I m mighty glad to have the chance of meeting 
 you, too, Mr. Juarez." Higby held out his hand. 
 "You ve been the sole person to throw any light on 
 the puzzle." 
 
 Charlie shook off the praise with a twist of his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "It s no more than any snub-nosed messenger boy 
 could have done if he knew the hobo language. Be-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 87 
 
 sides, it s too soon to be handing out any croix de 
 guerre. We ve got a long, rocky road before us." 
 
 "But we ve got a start on it," Ranger refused to be 
 dashed; "something definite to go on, instead of the 
 blank, horrible uncertainty." 
 
 Charlie s glance flicked over the three sanguine 
 faces turned toward him. He had tried to make Ran 
 ger understand in advance how little any communica 
 tion from these tricksters meant as a guaranty of 
 Hope s safe return; but evidently he might have saved 
 his breath. The mere certainty that the girl was still 
 living had brought such a mercurial rebound from their 
 previous despondency and suspense, that none of them 
 could see anything but clear sailing ahead. 
 
 In Ranger the change was startling. The furrows 
 in his face seemed miraculously ironed out; his voice 
 was fuller, stronger; his shoulders were thrown back 
 with something of his old robust assurance. And his 
 wife s gaze was glowing, uplifted. Even the spare, 
 self-contained lawyer showed his relief from the 
 tension. 
 
 He was no crape-hanger, Charlie told himself; yet 
 what real encouragement could he offer? He shuf 
 fled his feet in embarrassment and, bending over the 
 photograph again, pretended to study it closely. 
 
 "It s the hat all right," he repeated. 
 
 "That absurd hat! Mrs. Ranger smiled depreca- 
 tingly. "And yet you were right about it, Mr. Juarez. 
 It does prove conclusively that the picture was taken
 
 88 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 within a day or two, doesn t it?" She hung over his 
 shoulder as if she could not bear the likeness from her 
 sight. "And see; she is looking well, not at all as if 
 she were ill-treated, or or deprived of anything. 
 She is actually laughing. Laughing! How can she, 
 when she must know what we have suffered?" 
 
 "They snapped her when she wasn t expecting it, I 
 guess," Charlie explained; "and she s laughing at her 
 self in that sky-piece. Who wouldn t? You don t 
 want to think anything of that, ma am." 
 
 "Oh, I don t. I don t. I am only too rejoiced to 
 know that it is she. Hope! Hope!" She crooned 
 the name. "And it will be only a little while now 
 until she is home in our arms. You believe that, don t 
 you, Mr. Juarez?" 
 
 "Sure." Charlie tried to throw a full, round note of 
 absolute conviction into his voice, and didn t quite suc 
 ceed. To his relief Ranger reminded him just then 
 that he had not yet read the letter. 
 
 He took it, ran over it perfunctorily, and laid it 
 back on the desk without comment. 
 
 "Well, what do you think?" Ranger was growing a 
 little impatient at this indirectness. 
 
 Charlie cocked his eye at the ceiling, and made an 
 heroic attempt to look thoughtful. 
 
 "Seems fairly plain," he said. "They tell you, if 
 you leave one hundred thousand dollars under a rail 
 road crossing on the Lone Hill road at four o clock to 
 morrow afternoon, your daughter will be returned;
 
 SWALLOWED UP 89 
 
 and they warn you that if you fail, or try 10 double- 
 cross them in any way, you ll never see her again. 
 That s about all there is to it, so far as I can see." 
 
 "I know. I know. But it s struck me that some 
 thing might be gleaned from it beyond the mere mes 
 sage. It s typewritten and on a plain paper; but an 
 expert might find a clue in the typing, or from a water 
 mark, or something of the kind." 
 
 "Maybe," Charlie agreed uninterestedly. He knew 
 the Combine would never be caught in any such puer 
 ile lapses. 
 
 But the suggestion brought an agitated protest from 
 Mrs. Ranger. 
 
 "No ! No !" she cried. "I will not listen to it, Lor- 
 ing. I will not allow any risks to be taken. Their 
 conditions must be met to the letter. Don t you agree 
 with me, Mr. Juarez?" 
 
 Charlie evaded. He was no detective, he muttered. 
 He was only too glad to give any aid he could, but it 
 was up to Loring and herself to decide the course that 
 should be followed. 
 
 Higby, more astute than the others, realized that he 
 was not going to be led into expressing his real opinion 
 in the presence of Mrs. Ranger, and tactfully succeeded 
 in getting her to leave with him. 
 
 With a sigh of relief, Charlie sank into a chair and 
 busied himself in rolling a succession of cigarettes. 
 
 "Perhaps a finger-print man could help us ?" Ranger 
 was still dwelling on this theme. "That letter and the
 
 9 o SWALLOWED UP 
 
 photograph must have been handled by the person who 
 put them in the envelope, and it might be ?" 
 
 At last Charlie could unleash himself. 
 
 "For heaven s sake, Lorry, come down to the solid 
 old earth, and stop floating around in the clouds like a 
 balloon. How do you expect me to think, while you 
 are shooting that dear Watson hokum at me ? We ve 
 got to plan something, and plan it quick." 
 
 "Just what I was trying to do," defensively. "I m 
 excited of course. This news means everything to us. 
 Hope s alive ! She s in the same world we are ! It s 
 like lifting a weight of tons from us. But I m not 
 forgetting the anguish those scoundrels have caused us, 
 and, by God, they ll pay for it. This message means, 
 they re beginning to get scared, and " 
 
 Charlie leaned forward. 
 
 "Good Lord, Lorry!" There was actual entreaty 
 in his voice. "Won t you understand? Won t you 
 realize what we are up against? You talk about 
 making those people pay, and sit here weaving kinder 
 garten schemes to trap them ; and all the time they ve 
 got you sewed up tighter than a drum. They ve got 
 your daughter in their hands, and they tell you plainly 
 that if you don t come across with a hundred grand by 
 to-morrow and play square with them too you ll 
 never see her again. What are you going to do about 
 that?" 
 
 Ranger flinched for a moment before this vigorous 
 presentation, but he rallied.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 91 
 
 "Why, if I can t do anything else, I ll deposit the 
 bonds as directed, and then have enough men close at 
 hand to nab whoever comes after them." 
 
 "And you expect em to walk unsuspectingly right 
 into your bunch of nabbers? Lorry! Lorry! A 
 Wop kidnaper from the East Side would know better 
 than to fall for a game like that. Do you know this 
 place where you re supposed to plant the bonds?" 
 
 "Certainly. Behind a loose stone in the archway 
 where the Lone Hill road runs under the railroad 
 tracks." 
 
 "Got a picture of the locality in your mind?" 
 
 "I know it well ; travel that way every time I motor 
 out to our place in Westchester." 
 
 "So do I know it." Charlie s mouth widened comi 
 cally. "Got chased through there once by a farmer s 
 watch-dog. And, if you ll remember, you ve got to be 
 pretty nearly inside the archway before you can tell 
 what s going on there. So, with dozens of automo 
 biles of all kinds passing along that road all the time, 
 your watchers would have to be planted practically in 
 plain view to see the one that stops and gets the jack." 
 
 Ranger, when he gave it thought, could not well 
 deny the strength of the objection. His head dropped, 
 the worried lines began to reappear in his face. 
 
 "And now, this." Charlie caught up the letter from 
 the Combine. "You say, you found it on your desk 
 when you came back from luncheon. Any idea how 
 it got there?"
 
 92 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "I meant to speak about that." Ranger s mouth 
 tightened ominously. "I ve had everybody in the 
 building questioned, but no one admits being near the 
 office." 
 
 "What does Bryan say?" 
 
 "I haven t had a chance to talk to him yet. He left 
 before I did to go to Newark, and hasn t got back yet. 
 I don t see " He shook his head perplexedly. "But 
 anyhow," he grew grim again, "I m going to give him 
 his walking papers on suspicion." 
 
 "I wouldn t," Charlie demurred. "You want a 
 fellow of that kind where you can keep an eye on him. 
 Show him this letter and consult him about it. You 
 won t learn anything, but it will make him feel easy. 
 Then raise his salary. Tell him you want to show 
 your appreciation of his faithful services." 
 
 "Not on your life! Instead, I m going to have him 
 grilled by the police. He ll \veaken, you ll see ; and 
 we ll probably find out something." 
 
 "From Bryan?" contemptuously. "Don t ever 
 dream, Lorry, that he s anything but a mere blind tool 
 for these people, a cat s-paw. They re not taking lads 
 of Frank s caliber into their inner councils. As I 
 told you before, it s brains we re up against; big, ex 
 ecutive, conscienceless brains. So don t imagine you ll 
 ever trip them up with any cute, little, detective-story 
 wrinkles. This isn t a paper-chase; it s war. I told 
 you they were out for your whole roll; and this de 
 mand for a hundred thousand is only their opening
 
 SWALLOWED UP 93 
 
 gun. You ll see. We re facing a campaign where 
 every chance has been foreseen and every move 
 planned down to the last detail by a staff of experts. 
 All that you can do is get your packet of bonds ready 
 and kiss them good-by." 
 
 Ranger struggled up to his feet. 
 
 "Are you telling me that I ve got to make a present 
 of a hundred thousand dollars to those brutes, with 
 still no chance of seeing Hope?" He began angrily, 
 but ended with an appeal in his breaking voice. 
 
 "You only lose the first trick to them, that s all." 
 Charlie meant to be consoling. "And maybe we can 
 save that." But his thoughts were plainly far away. 
 He rose, and walked up and down the room, motion 
 ing Ranger to silence. 
 
 "I ve got an idea, Lorry," he said at last; "but I 
 don t want to talk about it, even to you. You just 
 follow instructions you ve got to anyhow, Airs. 
 Ranger won t stand for anything else and place those 
 bonds as they ve told you. Then leave the rest to me." 
 
 "But you will need help of some sort?" Ranger 
 puckered his brows. "You re not going to tackle this 
 crowd alone, single-handed?" 
 
 "Well, not exactly," drawled Charlie. "You used 
 to go to the races considerably, I remember. Then, 
 if you don t mind, I d like to borrow a stop-watch and 
 a pair of field-glasses."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHERE the Lone Hill road, one of West- 
 chester County s main traveled thorough 
 fares, dips under the railroad tracks, it 
 passes through an archway of masonry between fifty 
 and seventy-five feet long ; and as this archway is high 
 enough to accommodate a load of hay, and the sur 
 rounding country is one of level fields, the approach on 
 either side is through a steep, walled cut. 
 
 Moreover, since both north and south of the cross 
 ing the road curves almost at right angles so as to run 
 parallel with the tracks, the Combine showed undeni 
 able strategy in designating this as a cache for the 
 ransom. 
 
 As Juarez Charlie had pointed out to Ranger, any 
 one to see the packet of bonds removed would have to 
 be practically inside the tunnel-like archway. There 
 was no place along either approach, or any spot com 
 manding a view of the interior where a watcher could 
 conceal himself. And of course the presence of a 
 loiterer in the neighboring fields or along the tracks 
 would only serve to warn the spoilers off. 
 
 But Charlie thought he saw a way to get around even 
 these unpromising conditions. He did not go home 
 that night after leaving Ranger s office, but instead 
 registered at a cheap East Side hotel where he spent 
 
 94
 
 SWALLOWED UP 95 
 
 the evening in an exhaustive study of an automobile 
 road-map of Westchester County. 
 
 About two o clock he came down stairs and passed 
 out, casually remarking to the night clerk that he was 
 wakeful and thought he would take a walk before he 
 turned in. 
 
 At a garage eight or ten blocks away where he had 
 left his motor-cycle, he got it, and chugged briskly over 
 the Williamsburg bridge as if heading for his lodgings. 
 On the other side, though, he deviated from the direct 
 route, and twisted aimlessly through a succession of 
 ill-lighted, tenement streets until he was sure he had 
 thrown off any one who might be trying to trail him, 
 when he turned north, and crossed back to Manhattan 
 by way of the Queensboro bridge at Fifty-ninth street. 
 
 Speeding up then, with the assurance that there was 
 no further need for caution, he took a straight course 
 out through the Bronx and up into Westchester. 
 
 Dawn found him at a little patch of woods along the 
 railroad track about half a mile distant from the arch 
 way at the Lone Hill road crossing, where the ashes of 
 a burned-out camp-fire and a scattered litter of rags, 
 newspapers, old tin cans and worn-out shoes betokened 
 a hobo "jungle." 
 
 Beside it ran a back road, little more than a wagon- 
 track, crossing the railroad here on the level, and fork 
 ing into the Lone Hill road a quarter of a mile beyond. 
 From his study of the map, he knew that this by-way 
 again intersected the main road about a mile and a half
 
 96 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 above, and he remembered that it was marked as rough 
 and bumpy but passable for machines in case of 
 emergency. 
 
 The wise campaigner, though, leaves nothing to 
 chance. In order to make sure that it was open and 
 without obstructions, Charlie rode out to the inter 
 section with the Lone Hill road and circled back by 
 way of this to his starting point. 
 
 In the archway at the railroad crossing he dis 
 mounted to take a look at the place designated as a 
 depository for the Liberty bonds, and from the in 
 structions in the letter found no difficulty in locating 
 it Just about midway of the tunnel and at the height 
 of a man s shoulder, there was a discolored streak on 
 the masonry caused by dampness, and the mortar had 
 crumbled from around one of the stones, leaving it 
 loose. 
 
 Testing it with his fingers, Charlie found the 
 block easy to lift out. Behind it was a crevice, shal 
 low but still large enough to hold a package of se 
 curities. 
 
 The operation of opening up this makeshift vault, 
 seizing the contents, and putting the stone back in 
 place could all be accomplished within a minute ; and 
 owing to the peculiar conditions of the place, without 
 risk of interference or detection. One had only to 
 choose a moment when no one else was near the arch 
 way. 
 
 Satisfied at this confirmation of his previous con-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 97 
 
 elusions, Charlie climbed back on his motor-cycle, and 
 returned to the "jungle." He appeared, as he had 
 expected, to have it wholly to himself. This was a 
 season when its nomadic habitues were more apt to 
 be in the West, following in the wake of circuses and 
 street fairs, or answering the need for harvest hands. 
 The ashes of the last camp-fire were at least three 
 weeks cold. 
 
 Nevertheless, as a proper measure of precaution, he 
 scouted through the entire patch of woods, and as the 
 light grew stronger climbed a tree to reconnoiter the 
 surrounding country. 
 
 There was nothing to suggest that he had been 
 followed or observed. He had not met or seen any 
 one on his tour of investigation, and now the only 
 sign of life or motion he could discern was the rousing 
 up of some cows in a pasture to the left and a blue 
 spiral of smoke from a farm-house chimney, indicating 
 the lighting of the kitchen fire. 
 
 He slid down from the tree, and after hiding his 
 motor-cycle carefully under a pile of brush, laid down 
 in a sandy hollow and pulling his hat over his eyes, 
 prepared to sleep. 
 
 "Old home week," he muttered drowsily. "Been 
 quite some time since I stretched myself on one of these 
 gay-cat chaise tongues; but I ll bet the sand sifts 
 down the back of your neck and the crickets crawl into 
 your ears, just in the same old way." 
 
 His grumbling, though, was like that of an old
 
 98 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 soldier, more a matter of habit than of actual dissatis 
 faction. Within five minutes he was snoring. 
 
 When he awoke several hours later, the sun was 
 warm on him, and he lay luxuriously for a while 
 listening to the varied and various wood sounds, all 
 long familiar to him. Finally he rolled over and 
 pulled out his watch. It was almost eleven o clock. 
 
 "Ah, Gibbs!" he addressed an imaginary valet. 
 "Time to get up, eh?" 
 
 Charlie was inherently loquacious. It was as 
 natural and necessary for him to talk as to breathe; 
 and in lieu of other companionship, he often fell back 
 in his hours of solitude on characters of his own cre 
 ation. The valet, an old favorite, was a composite of 
 the many gentlemen s gentlemen Charlie had seen on 
 the stage or met in fiction, and was, as might be ex 
 pected, conventional almost to the point of gaminess. 
 
 "And what sort of a morning is it, Gibbs?" he now 
 inquired. 
 
 Gibbs in the person of Charlie replied that, begging 
 his pardon, it was fair and warmer. 
 
 "In that case," Charlie decided, "you need not bother 
 to fill my tub for me this morning. Just hustle in the 
 grapefruit, will you, and start the percolator going. 
 Then, while I am breakfasting, you may lay out my 
 dark morning suit. Yes; the dark one," as if meet 
 ing an objection. "I know the light gray or the mixed 
 is more in harmony with the weather, but I have a spe 
 cial reason for wishing to appear unobtrusive to-day."
 
 SWALLOWED UP 99 
 
 As he talked, he was munching at a sandwich he 
 had taken from his pocket, and washing it down with 
 draughts of coffee from a thermos bottle which was 
 a part of the equipment of his motorcycle. 
 
 "Excellent grilled kidneys," he observed; "but this 
 brew is hardly up to the mark. Somehow, it doesn t 
 have the kick that the jungle coffee used to have near- 
 lye boiled in an old tomato-can. But I am forgetting, 
 Gibbs ; how could you be expected to know bo cuisine? 
 Hand me my stick and gloves, will you, my good fel 
 low, and we ll say nothing more about it. I must be 
 on my way to an appointment in a rather elevated 
 quarter." 
 
 He folded up his package of sandwiches, corked the 
 thermos bottle; and rising, swung himself up with 
 a good deal of agility into the tree under which he had 
 been sitting. 
 
 It was a tall maple out in full leaf, and Charlie 
 climbed from branch to branch until he found a crotch 
 where well concealed by the thick foliage he could yet 
 look over the tops of the surrounding trees and gain 
 a clear view of the Lone Hill road as it ran to the 
 railroad crossing and beyond on the other side. At 
 this hour, although the traffic was not what could be 
 called thick, the motors were flashing by in a fairly 
 regular procession. 
 
 Unslinging his field-glasses, which he carried on 
 the opposite side from the thermos bottle, and taking 
 out his stop-watch, Charlie fell to studying these care-
 
 ioo SWALLOWED UP 
 
 fully, timing them over a stretch marked off by tele 
 graph poles. 
 
 "You may think I m in training for the tin star of a 
 country constable, Gibbs," he confided, for on second 
 thought he had decided to take the convenient valet 
 with him to his watch-tower ; "a Nemesis for speeding 
 motorists. But you d be wrong, old thing. I m 
 merely clocking these birds to find out how long at the 
 gait they are traveling it should take them to negotiate 
 the crossing under the railroad track, from the time 
 they disappear into the cut on this side until they show 
 up again on the other. 
 
 "Take that lad coming along now for instance." 
 He bent his glasses on a yellow roadster. "Stepping 
 on her a bit, I ll say. Yes," as the roadster completed 
 the marked course; "he s hitting pretty close to fifty 
 miles an hour. Now let s see how long he takes to the 
 cut." His thumb pressed the stem of the stop-watch 
 as the yellow car dipped down into the hollow, and 
 pressed again as it reappeared. "Thirty-seven and a 
 fifth seconds," he announced. 
 
 "And now let s test the sedan," as a more leisurely 
 driven car appeared from the other direction. "She s 
 running at twenty. And," as it came up out of the 
 cut, "she took just exactly a minute and a half. 
 
 "You begin to catch the idea now, don t you, Gibbs? 
 If any car stays longer in that cut than its speed 
 warrants, there s going to be some question in our 
 minds about it, don t you think; especially if it chooses
 
 SWALLOWED UP 101 
 
 a time when it has the road all to itself. Old Mr. 
 Combine is pretty smooth," he plumed himself vain- 
 gloriously; "but I ll bet they never took this into their 
 calculations. It needed a Juarez Charlie to figure that 
 out. Some bean, eh, Gibbs? 
 
 "Of course," he continued, "what we re doing now 
 is only practise. Loring hasn t planted the bait yet, 
 and there won t be any real trout-fishing until after 
 that s been set. But I ve tried the thing out enough 
 to know that we ve got the right dope. We re going 
 to land em, young fellow, me lad. You mark my 
 words, we re going to land em !" 
 
 The hours passed on. The sun had crossed the 
 zenith and declined toward the west. With the aid 
 of the fictitious Gibbs, Charlie in his leafy retreat dis 
 posed of an almost equally fictitious luncheon, his 
 remaining sandwiches and what was left of the coffee 
 in his thermos bottle glorified into an elaborate menu. 
 
 The rest of the time he put in at timing automobiles. 
 
 With the wearing on of the afternoon, the number 
 of these increased. The cars came sometimes in flocks, 
 or in long, almost unbroken strings; yet there were 
 often intervals when for a while none would pass. 
 
 "It s on occasions like these, Gibbs," Charlie admon 
 ished, "that we want to keep our eyes peeled the widest. 
 Then s when they ll do their collecting." 
 
 At half -past three, Ranger s big touring-car came 
 along from the direction of town. Through the 
 glasses, Charlie could recognize the figure of the manu-
 
 102 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 facturer himself in the driver s seat. He was quite 
 alone; and as he neared the crossing, seemed to be 
 glancing to right and left. 
 
 "Wondering what I m up to, I guess," chuckled 
 Charlie. "He never dreams, Gibbs, that we re cozily 
 perched up here, piping off every little move that he 
 makes. And since Loring is nobody s fool, it follows 
 that the Combine won t dream it any more than he 
 does." 
 
 Yet his complacency did not keep him from very 
 carefully timing the pace of the car as it swept along 
 over the marked course. 
 
 As it happened there was nothing else in sight when 
 Ranger reached the cut, and he drove straight ahead. 
 
 "At the rate he s traveling, he ought to be out in 
 one minute and seventeen seconds," Charlie calculated. 
 "We ll get a line now, Gibbs, on just how long it takes 
 to pull out that stone and put it back again." 
 
 But it was almost five minutes before Ranger re 
 appeared on the further side of the crossing. 
 
 "He d be careful and a little slow," Charlie reflected; 
 "so that s no fair criterion. I d say, though, Gibbs, 
 that anything that stayed down there longer than two 
 minutes was a pretty safe bet to follow up." 
 
 He settled down now to unrelaxed watchfulness. 
 A long string of cars came along from out of town, 
 then an almost equally long string from the opposite 
 direction ; a couple of trucks ; and then from the north 
 a lone flivver containing two men.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 103 
 
 At the sight of it, some instinct seemed to warn 
 Charlie. He crouched to a keener attention and never 
 took his eyes off it. 
 
 Just before it reached the cut, a trio of motors 
 came up from the south and the flivver stopped, its 
 driver getting out to fuss with the engine. 
 
 The three cars came up and passed. Nothing else 
 was in sight in either direction. The driver of the 
 flivver climbed quickly back into his seat and started 
 for the cut. 
 
 "Two minutes is all I can allow them at the most," 
 Charlie whispered excitedly. 
 
 The long indicator of the stop-watch swept around 
 its circle. One minute gone. Another round, and 
 still the car staid down in the cut. Before it came into 
 view again, there had elapsed exactly three minutes 
 and twenty seconds. 
 
 Hardly did the top of it appear over the edge of 
 the dip before Charlie, slipping the stop-watch into his 
 pocket, swung down through the branches. 
 
 "Come on, Gibbs!" he panted. "That s our meat 
 for sure!" 
 
 He rushed across the "jungle," and jerking his 
 motor-cycle out from under its concealing pile of brush, 
 pulled it into the road. But when he attempted to 
 start, he found the mechanism gone dead. Impatiently 
 he leaned over to see what was the matter, and found 
 to his amazement that the spark plug was missing. 
 Hastily he rummaged in his tool-bag for another ; but
 
 104 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 although he would have sworn he had three spare plugs, 
 there was none to be found. 
 
 Then he suddenly froze. On the flap of the tool- 
 bag was chalked a rude "X" within a circle the 
 sign of the Combine. 
 
 Staggered and dismayed, he sank down at the edge 
 of the roadside, and buried his face in his hands. 
 Never in all his irresponsible, vagabond life, had 
 Charlie known such a sense of utter, crushing defeat, 
 such a feeling of raw incompetence. 
 
 The thing was plain enough to him now. In 
 spite of all his efforts at camouflage, his artful twists 
 and turns, the agents of the Combine had evidently 
 succeeded in trailing him to the "jungle," and there 
 while he slept, had effectively put him out of the run 
 ning. All that day, as perched in the tree he had 
 boasted his cunning, they had held him contemptuously 
 scratched from the need of consideration. Mentally 
 he crowned himself, "King of the Boobs." 
 
 "Leave it to me," he had told Ranger. And now 
 the hundred thousand dollars was gone, sunk without 
 a trace ; and worse, a precious chance was lost to solve 
 the enigma of Hope s whereabouts. What was he to 
 say to Loring, how tell him of this miserable failure? 
 
 Charlie cast up his eyes, as he himself would 
 have expressed it, like a dying duck, and wretchedly 
 shook his head. He was facing down the by-road to 
 ward its junction with the Lone Hill road on the other 
 side of the railway; and now there swept across his 
 field of vision the suspected flivver.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 105 
 
 Driven hard in its progress toward town, it had 
 covered the distance down from the archway during 
 the two or three minutes that he had spent in lamenta 
 tion. Charlie s plan had been to lead it along the 
 highway on his motor-cycle and let it overtake and pass 
 him, so as not to give the suggestion of pursuit. Now 
 the sight of it, spinning triumphantly by, only added 
 poignancy to his humiliation. 
 
 Then suddenly his fingers went fumbling at the 
 leather case which held his field-glasses. He noticed 
 that the rear left wheel of the flivver carried a new 
 tire, and remembering that the Lone Hill Road had 
 just been freshly oiled, it gave him a new idea. 
 
 He jumped to his feet and leveled his glasses on the 
 flivver s whirling wheels. A little thrill of hope woke 
 in him. His eyes had not been mistaken. The three 
 old tires had a smooth tread; that of the fourth was 
 corrugated. Perhaps perhaps it might be possible 
 to follow that spoor on the oily roadway. 
 
 He bent another look through the glasses at the back 
 of the receding car to ta ke the number on its license- 
 board. It was 2,155,633. 
 
 "You never can tell." He screwed up his lips. 
 "Chances are that it s a false number but they mightn t 
 have forgotten to shift. Anyhow, that and the tire- 
 tracks are the only clues I ve got, and I ll take em for 
 what they re worth." 
 
 So, pushing the crippled motor-cycle beside him, he 
 hurried on in the flivver s wake.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DR. BRISTOW was sitting at his desk in the 
 outer office of his suite going over a pile of 
 letters. It was here that he received visitors 
 who came to make arrangements for the accommo 
 dation of relatives or friends, and conducted the ex 
 amination of prospective patients. 
 
 A handsome room, almost stately, with warm, sub 
 dued tones blending in a rich harmony. The massive 
 pieces of furniture were of old Welsh oak beautifully 
 carved. Everything the fine rugs, many books, 
 and admirably chosen pictures and ornaments 
 showed a cultivated taste and a nice appreciation of 
 values. It gave the Doctor, as he knew perfectly, 
 exactly the right background, dignified, successful, 
 confidence-inspiring the background of a scholar 
 and a gentleman. 
 
 The clock on the mantelpiece had just struck nine, 
 and Bristow s brows puckered as he surveyed the 
 accumulation of mail yet to be considered. He had 
 sat down to it immediately after dinner and was still 
 not half through. Any sort of literary composition, 
 even the answering of a letter, was a job he detested, 
 and he would put it off until the last possible moment. 
 
 As he picked up the next envelope and drew out its 
 enclosure, there came a tap on the door. Before he 
 
 106
 
 SWALLOWED UP 107 
 
 could respond, this was pushed open and Anita Copley 
 entered. 
 
 "Ah, Anita!" He leaned back in his chair. 
 "Strictly on time, and I ve scarcely begun. Vile nui 
 sance, this sort of thing. No more of it for me to 
 night anyway. Well," he thrust the pile of letters 
 away from him and turned toward her, "how is the 
 little sister to-day?" 
 
 "Just the same." She helped herself to a cigarette, 
 lighted it, and sank far down in an easy-chair, stretch 
 ing her feet out before her. "I ve put her to bed and 
 locked the door on her; she won t stir. She doesn t 
 even get up in the morning until I tell her to. She 
 seems slower, stupider every day. Her writing, too, 
 is awful more incoherent." 
 
 He nodded. "She s strong physically, though. 
 By the way, has she been hanging around Kelsey any 
 more? I found her sitting under the trees with him 
 the other day. I didn t like the combination, although 
 I don t believe anything had passed between them." 
 
 "She s forgotten him," Anita was positive. "No 
 tices him no more than she does any one else. He 
 gave her a pencil and paper that day, and she 
 staid put because she hadn t sense enough to move 
 on." 
 
 "That s all right then." Bristow dropped the sub 
 ject; his mind had turned in another direction. 
 "Speaking of Kelsey, though, I think I can use him." 
 
 He picked out a letter from among those he had
 
 i o8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 read, and tossed it across the desk to her. It was a 
 request from a well-known magazine for a series of 
 popular articles covering modern methods of dealing 
 with the insane, and named a handsome figure as 
 payment. 
 
 "That is worth considering," he said, "not only for 
 its advertising value, but because it gives me a prestige, 
 a cachet of high authority that it is wise to cultivate. 
 A reputation of that sort might stand us in very good 
 stead one of these days. 
 
 "But, Lord!" He scowled. "I d rather be hung 
 than tackle it. It means no end of research, consult 
 ing the authorities, taking reams of notes, and then on 
 top of it all, the work of writing. Not for me ! I 
 had just about decided to write and refuse, when I 
 happened to think of Kelsey. He is fresh from the 
 schools, up in all the new theories, and in addition has 
 a knack of expressing himself on paper. I could 
 bring him in here, and 
 
 "Kelsey?" Anita sat bolt upright, her eyes dilating 
 
 incredulously. "In here? With With people 
 
 coming and going, your letters, your private papers, 
 a thousand chances ?" 
 
 "My private papers are not here," he said crisply. 
 "This room is restricted solely to the business of the 
 hospital. I do not leave loose ends ; you should know 
 that by this time. And the correspondence will be 
 looked after by Ward as always; he may have his 
 faults as a secretary, but I challenge any one to swerve
 
 SWALLOWED UP 109 
 
 him from his set routine, or tamper with anything 
 that gets into his hands. 
 
 "As to Kelsey s unbosoming himself to visitors?" 
 He flipped his thumb and finger. "He knows, one 
 word from me would settle that; owing to a press of 
 work, I am employing as an amanuensis a patient, 
 clever, harmless, but hopelessly unbalanced." 
 
 "But Kelsey wouldn t take the job," she cried im 
 patiently. "He wouldn t help you out that much. 
 He hates you like poison." 
 
 "Of course he hates me," Bristow returned equably; 
 "and he d die before he d do me a favor. But it s 
 bound to strike him that the position would offer op 
 portunities. He might happen on something incrimi 
 nating that would serve to corroborate his story. He d 
 think of the chances to communicate with the great 
 outside. My dear Anita, you are a remarkable woman, 
 but you are astonishingly weak on psychology, no 
 judge of human nature." 
 
 "Oh, don t begin one of your philosophical lectures." 
 She spread her palms out flat. "Do as you please 
 about it. You will anyway, so what s the use object 
 ing. All the same, I think you re foolish to trust that 
 morose hound so far, even if he is yellow. Lord!" 
 She curled her lip. "If I was a big, strapping brute 
 like him, I d soon beat my way out of here." 
 
 "You d have a fine time doing it." He showed the 
 even line of his strong teeth. "He s wiser than you 
 in that respect. And never fear about Kelsey. I
 
 no SWALLOWED UP 
 
 know his kind. Thin-skinned, quick on the trigger, 
 if they don t get a thing on the first dash, they lose 
 heart and give up." 
 
 She shrugged indifferently, as if having said her 
 say she was tired of the theme. 
 
 "How does the alderman feel about the way things 
 are going?" she asked interestedly. "I saw him when 
 he got in this afternoon, but it was only for a moment, 
 and we didn t have a chance to talk. He s looking 
 better for his trip." 
 
 "Oh, yes," Bristow granted; "and he s pleased, very 
 well pleased indeed with the way everything s been 
 handled. Why shouldn t he be? He wants to see 
 us both at half-past nine for a conference," he glanced 
 at his watch; "so you d better look in on sister now, 
 and then go on up to his rooms. I must stop to give 
 Morton some instructions about those new commit 
 ment forms before I join you." 
 
 She slowly drew herself up from her chair and 
 then stood waiting, submissive and yet hotly imperious. 
 
 "You ve forgotten something." 
 
 "Yes? What?" He looked as if he had not an 
 idea what she meant, but over his face was a glimmer 
 of what at that moment she would have heartily agreed 
 with Kelsey was his maddening smile. "Ah, I see; 
 a kiss." He repaired his omission, but lightly. 
 
 She threw her arms about his neck and pressed her 
 cheek to his.
 
 SWALLOWED UP in 
 
 "Run now." He gave her a little push. "The 
 alderman hates to be kept waiting, you know." 
 
 "Damn you!" she said through her shut teeth, the 
 angry fire in her eyes drying her starting tears. And 
 then, with head thrown up, she walked out of the room. 
 
 Bristow left by another door to hunt up his assist 
 ant and give the instructions of which he had spoken. 
 As he finished and turned to go, he paused. 
 
 "If I m needed for anything important, Doctor," 
 he said, "you ll find me up in Alderman Higgins s 
 apartments. But don t disturb me unless it is imper 
 ative." 
 
 Hardly had he passed out and gone his way before 
 the door opened again, and Kelsey strolled in. Mor 
 ton s sanctum, a small cluttered office at the rear of 
 the building, was not an especially inviting retreat, 
 but Kelsey had fallen into the way of drifting in there 
 almost every evening. 
 
 There was no other companionship for either of 
 them ; for Morton was an odd, mousy, little man who 
 left the hospital but rarely even when off duty. He 
 was a night-hawk, sitting up until all hours, and 
 Kelsey often wondered when he slept. With a taste 
 for long discussions, usually on some scientific subject, 
 he would go on interminably, sometimes until the 
 dawn showed at the windows; and only too glad to 
 have a listener, he winked at the infraction of the 
 rule which required a patient to be in his room by 
 nine o clock.
 
 ii2 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 Just at first he had been a little nervous over Kelsey s 
 visits; but after he became satisfied that the other was 
 not going to air his grievance against Bristow, he 
 rather encouraged them. Bristow must know all about 
 it of course; nothing escaped his attention. And since 
 he had not interfered, it was evidently all right. 
 
 He had accepted the Superintendent s diagnosis of 
 Kelsey s condition implicitly; but since Kelsey s medi 
 cal personality was congenial, he was willing to ignore 
 any other phases he might be harboring. Only he 
 hoped the actor personality would not soon get the 
 upper hand; in that case, he was sure he would be 
 sadly bored. 
 
 But on this especial evening, Kelsey was seeking 
 Morton s company for something more than mere 
 sociability. That morning the girl who had so at 
 tracted his interest had managed to hold another brief 
 conversation with him, and in it had asked him a 
 question on which she seemed to lay considerable stress. 
 Unable to answer it himself, he had promised to secure 
 the information she wanted; and he planned to glean 
 it from Morton, if he could only succeed in weaning 
 the little man from his abstract theories and specu 
 lations long enough to indulge in a morsel of gossip. 
 
 In the two or three days following that talk of 
 theirs under the shadows of the old beech tree, Kelsey 
 had been careful not to approach the girl again. 
 Caution was necessary for one thing; and for an 
 other, he had the feeling that when she was able to
 
 SWALLOWED UP 113 
 
 communicate with him, she would find some way of 
 letting him know it. 
 
 Until she did so, he would remain in the offing so 
 to speak, near enough to be summoned even by the 
 lifting of a finger, and yet sufficiently aloof not to 
 stir up an increased surveillance. Whenever she was 
 in the grounds, he always by one shift or another 
 secured a position where, if she chose to give the 
 signal, she would have no difficulty in catching his 
 attention. 
 
 But she only sat listless and mute on the porch, 
 sometimes scribbling on a pad, sometimes staring be 
 fore her with dull, apathetic eyes; or else she walked 
 aimlessly about the lawns as one wandering without 
 purpose in some darkened maze. Miss Copley was 
 always with her, strolling at her side, or seated near 
 at hand busy with a piece of knitting. 
 
 He knew the girl was acting, but the way she held 
 her pose, never relaxing for a moment into the normal:, 
 roused him to wonder and admiration for her courage 
 and strength of will; and the pathos of that courage 
 stirred his heart. 
 
 He was no longer so intent on his own escape. 
 His prison held an attraction for him the attraction 
 of fathoming the mystery that surrounded her, and 
 helping her avoid the menace, whatever it might 
 be, that hung over her. But what was that 
 menace ? 
 
 Kelsey liked mathematics and was a fair chess-
 
 n 4 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 player, but never before had he grappled with so 
 contradictory and baffling a problem. 
 
 On the surface, it was easy. A nurse in the hos 
 pital had brought a mentally deranged sister to be 
 under Dr. Bristow s care. Simple, quite ; but also the 
 most complex thing he had ever encountered. For 
 the girl was not deranged. She was shamming and 
 doing it uncommonly well. That could only mean one 
 thing, that she considered herself in a difficult, even 
 dangerous position, surrounded not by friends but by 
 enemies. 
 
 Why had she been placed in the sanitarium? It 
 might be such things have happened for fam 
 ily reasons; a question of money, or perhaps some 
 entanglement, a love affair. Kelsey rebelled rest 
 lessly at that suggestion. He preferred the other hy 
 pothesis. If there was an inheritance which her rel 
 atives did not wish to fall into her hands, what more 
 likely than that they should take steps to prove her in 
 competent ? 
 
 But if this were so, why was she playing their game 
 for them? 
 
 Kelsey gave it up; a dozen times he gave it up. 
 There was no rhyme or reason in it. And instantly 
 his mind would revert to it again. 
 
 Revolving the riddle as he mused on the porch in 
 the sunshine, his glance strayed from under his down- 
 drawn hat brim to where she sat, the ever-present 
 elder sister knitting beside her.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 115 
 
 How alike the two were, and yet how different. 
 Anita, beautiful in a way, but to him repellant a 
 woman pursuing the course of her perverse, un 
 scrupulous will. Behind that ingratiating mask one 
 sensed depths of experience, dark, unsavory. Those 
 murky eyes, embers smoldering in their depths that 
 hard, deflected glance. He remembered the lovely 
 topaz lights in the eyes of the younger sister. Her 
 gaze, when not purposely obscured, was clear and 
 direct. 
 
 But the points of distinction lay deeper still. Verna 
 breathed a different air. About her was the atmos 
 phere of one reared in ease and freedom and beauty. 
 She had all the simplicity of good breeding; Anita s 
 veneer was specious. Manners, speech, the into 
 nations of their voices betrayed the gulf between them. 
 
 While he pursued the puzzle never getting any nearer 
 to a solution, a big, luxurious limousine turned 
 in at the gates and drew up before the entrance. A 
 ponderous, bent old man emerged, carefully assisted 
 by his valet. Some one important it was without a 
 doubt ; for Bristow came down the steps to meet him 
 and shook his hand heartily, accosting him with jovial 
 camaraderie. There was an amount of luggage which 
 was hastily unloaded and carried upstairs. The new 
 arrival gave some directions to his valet and his chauf 
 feur, and then preceded Bristow into the house, as 
 if perfectly familiar with the place. He stopped at 
 the head of the steps, though, to speak to Anita Copley
 
 n6 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 who had hurried forward with smiling, almost sy 
 cophantic deference, and Kelsey got a fair view of 
 him. 
 
 Heavy of body and shuffling of gait, he leaned on his 
 stick and seemed to feel his way with it, as if his sight 
 were impaired. His face had probably once been 
 broad and ruddy, but now the flesh dropped from it 
 in sallow, dew-lapped folds. A tower tottering to 
 its fall; but still a tower, arrogant in decay. 
 
 "So Alderman Higgins has come back," Kelsey 
 heard the comment of some one behind him. "Won 
 derful how he holds on." 
 
 Miss Copley had followed the old man and Bristow 
 into the house; and with her presence removed, he 
 looked about for the girl. She had risen from her 
 chair, and was standing at the far end of the porch. 
 As her eyes met his, they ordered, besought him to 
 come to her. 
 
 Avoiding an appearance of haste, he moved down 
 the porch and paused near her, leaning on the railing 
 while he lighted a cigarette. 
 
 "Who is the old man that just came?" she asked. 
 He wondered a little at the note of urgency in her 
 voice over so immaterial a matter. 
 
 "Alderman Higgins, I heard some one say," he told 
 her. "That is all I know." 
 
 She drew in her breath quickly as he mentioned 
 the name. It seemed to confirm a conjecture on her 
 part and carry considerable significance.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 117 
 
 "Find out all you can about him," she bade hurriedly, 
 "and let me know." 
 
 "I will," said Kelsey. "But why?" 
 
 "Don t stop to talk now. We haven t time. She 
 will be right back." 
 
 With her usual languid, uncertain step, she moved 
 away toward her chair; and Kelsey returned to the 
 other end of the porch, perplexed to understand the 
 meaning of her request, yet rejoicing that she should 
 have called upon him for a service. 
 
 He was a bit uncertain as to how he was going to 
 carry out the promise he had made. He might in 
 quire among the attendants, but it was doubtful if 
 he would receive much satisfaction, and his catechiz 
 ing would probably be reported to Bristow. Over- 
 curiosity in regard to the affairs of the institution 
 was not encouraged. 
 
 Morton, then? Yes; Morton was the one by all 
 odds an accurate and voluminous source of infor 
 mation, if only he could be induced to talk.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE house physician, when Kelsey dropped 
 into his office that evening, happened to be 
 in a voluble mood. A medical journal lay 
 upon his desk in which he had just been reading an 
 article that controverted one of his pet theories; and 
 he seized upon the opportunity to refute the fallacy, 
 citing authorities and giving his reasons at length, 
 while he puffed indignantly at his old, black pipe. 
 
 Kelsey was pleased to find that he could genuinely 
 concur in the little man s views ; and by his advice 
 and with his assistance a letter was composed to the 
 publication, which they were convinced left the of 
 fending author not a leg to stand on. 
 
 So delighted was Morton with the vigor of the re 
 joinder and so grateful, that he expanded into un 
 accustomed warmth ; and Kelsey took quick advantage 
 of the propitious moment to strike. 
 
 "By the way," indifferently, "who was the old 
 rooster that arrived this morning in such state?" 
 
 Morton looked at him in surprise. 
 
 "Why, you know Or, sure enough ; you didn t 
 
 come here until after he d left for Bermuda. That, 
 my son, is Ex-Alderman Willam Higgins. Mean 
 to say you never heard of Hobo Bill ? Well," as 
 Kelsey shook his head, "a half dozen years ago he 
 
 zx8
 
 SWALLOWED UP 119 
 
 used to be a power in New York ; about the same type, 
 I guess, as some of your picturesquely named politi 
 cians out in Chicago. He started out in life as a 
 tramp, they say ; but somehow he managed to edge into 
 politics, and cleaned up big; worth anywhere from 
 seven to ten millions, I guess. He stays here when 
 he s not off on one of his periodical trips. Funny old 
 codger." 
 
 "I should say so," Kelsey agreed. "It s the first 
 time I ever heard of a man voluntarily making an 
 insane asylum his headquarters." 
 
 "Oh, he s no bug. Half blind, pretty well broken 
 down physically, but mentally keen enough ; shrewd, 
 devilish shrewd, let me tell you. And as to his being 
 here, why, he had some nervous affection, you see, 
 used to go on fierce sprees and all that, and Bristow 
 got him into shape. They re like brothers." 
 
 "So?" Kelsey was mildly interested. "I saw the 
 two of them out together this afternoon in Bristow s 
 new Rolls-Royce." 
 
 Morton filled his pipe and looked over it at Kelsey 
 with a humorous, contemplative smile and a wag of 
 his head. 
 
 "Yes; some car. I ve seen the days when Bris 
 tow had to hoof it all the way to the station, if he 
 wanted to get into town." 
 
 "Times have changed, eh?" Kelsey was stretched 
 out in his chair. "Not always so prosperous?" 
 
 "Not always." Morton s reminiscent smile still
 
 120 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 lingered. "When I first came here, seven years ago, 
 things were so far from prosperous, that we never 
 knew from one week to another whether we could 
 keep going or not. Bristow did wonders even then, 
 but I was in a cold shiver all the time. I guess I m 
 naturally timid, and I know I m like a cat; once set 
 tled, I hate to change my quarters. Then, all of a 
 sudden, we were on easy street. Bristow began put 
 ting all sorts of improvements on the place, buying 
 more land, throwing out new wings, installing modern 
 appliances, re-furnishing, re-decorating, splurging on 
 cars, turning himself out like the lilies of the field, and 
 making the old dump one of the highest-priced ref 
 uges for fashionable nuts in the whole East." 
 
 "Found the buried treasure under the old mill, 
 what?" Kelsey yawned slightly. 
 
 Morton chuckled. "Where the money came from, 
 I never knew. Bristow s close-mouthed and it would 
 take a bolder man than I am to question him about 
 his affairs. My own opinion is, that he made a lucky 
 turn on the market. He s interested in Wall Street, 
 I know; I sometimes take telephone messages from 
 his broker. 
 
 "You see," he explained, "all this happened after 
 Hobo Bill came into our lives, and I ve always be 
 lieved that he gave the tip that was responsible for 
 our rise to greatness. Still Bristow s clever. He 
 would have got there anyhow. He was bound to go 
 ahead. He s got brains and a determination that
 
 SWALLOWED UP 121 
 
 The bell of the telephone jingled, and Morton in 
 terrupted himself to answer the call. 
 
 "Yes, Doctor," he said; then reluctantly, as he 
 turned round eyes toward Kelsey: "Ye-es Yes, 
 he s here, Doctor." After a moment, he hung up the 
 receiver. 
 
 "It s Bristow," he said ; "he wants to see you in 
 his office right away." He couldn t keep the trepi 
 dation out of his voice. 
 
 "To see me ? Now ?" Kelsey looked up at the clock. 
 "Why, it s after eleven. What on earth does he want 
 with me at this hour?" 
 
 "He didn t say, but I suppose it s for your being 
 out of your room. I m afraid," ruefully, "we re 
 both of us in for it." 
 
 With a burst of invective at what he termed, "pure, 
 damned malevolence," Kelsey flung himself out of 
 Morton s room and down the hall to meet his antici 
 pated wigging. But when he pushed open the Super 
 intendent s door, he found no stern martinet bent on 
 enforcing discipline. 
 
 Sleek and shining, Bristow lounged on the hearth 
 rug, looking down into the clear flame of a birch- 
 wood fire. The early summer nights were chilly down 
 there on the Long Island shore, and he liked the warmth 
 and glow. 
 
 The conference upstairs from which he had just 
 come had left him in the best of humors, and he felt 
 in the mood to play a cat and mouse game with
 
 122 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 Kelsey whom he regarded as lamentably lacking in 
 finesse. 
 
 "Ah, Kelsey?" he said pleasantly, taking a chair 
 himself and waving hospitably toward another one. 
 "Sit down and have a cigarette." He pushed across 
 the table a humidor containing various brands in the 
 different compartments. 
 
 Kelsey stiffly declined both the chair and the cigar 
 ette. This unwonted cordiality made him wary. 
 But Bristow s smiling geniality was proof against the 
 rebuff. 
 
 "Rather late," he said; "but I was anxious for a 
 little talk with you about yourself." He was grave 
 now, but kindly. "Although I may have seemed to 
 neglect you, you have really been very much in my 
 mind. To speak frankly, your present manner of life 
 is not good for you; it leaves you too much time to 
 brood. You are naturally active and vigorous, and 
 you are simply running to seed. Occupation is the 
 best medicine in the world for you. I realized this, 
 but the form that occupation should take has so far 
 stumped me. However," he put his finger-tips to 
 gether and tapped them gently, "something came up 
 to-day which I think offers the solution." 
 
 Kelsey s hard, blue eyes never left the alienist s 
 face. He was following every word, and at the same 
 time trying to think ahead and fathom the purpose of 
 these remarks. 
 
 Bristow lifted the letter containing the magazine
 
 SWALLOWED UP 123 
 
 offer from the table, and getting up handed it to the 
 younger man. 
 
 Kelsey rapidly glanced over it, but before he could 
 speak, Bristow took up his thread again. 
 
 "I have neither the time, nor," with a mellow laugh, 
 "the inclination to undertake it. Too much research; 
 too much work altogether. But it struck me that it 
 would be just the thing for you. I would have to 
 sign the articles of course, but that is a detail. You 
 must be rather fed up on idleness by this time, and 
 as I shall be generous in the matter of terms, I think 
 we should come to an agreement." 
 
 Kelsey laughed outright. That air of blandly con 
 ferring a favor when he was actually asking one, was 
 so essentially Bristowish. 
 
 The man s vanity! He wanted to see himself in 
 print, to have his name attached to some brilliant and 
 erudite articles. He knew he couldn t do the work 
 himself, and so he proposed to utilize his victim s gifts 
 to his own greater glory. Kelsey saw himself pulling 
 Bristow s chestnuts out of the fire! Not for a king 
 dom. 
 
 "Do I understand," he asked with exaggerated hu 
 mility, his mouth still twitching, "that you wish to en 
 trust, not that hypothetical quantity, your honor, but 
 your name, your scientific reputation to my unworthy 
 hands?" 
 
 The shaft glanced off, without leaving a scratch. 
 
 "Don t belittle yourself, my boy," benignly. "You
 
 i2 4 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 are, I know, an excellent and well-informed writer. 
 You have been around a good bit, and you know what 
 they are doing at other places as well as what we are 
 aiming for here. You have the new authorities and 
 theories at your ringer ends. It s all fresh in your 
 mind, considerably more so than in mine." 
 
 "I m sorry," Kelsey s tone was elaborately satirical, 
 "but it will be impossible for me to oblige you. My 
 engagements at present are so numerous, that I have 
 no time for philanthropy." 
 
 "Think twice before you refuse," Bristow urged 
 persuasively. 
 
 He went on, clothing the same arguments in fresh 
 phrases ; but all the time he was covertly scanning Kel 
 sey s face, watching for that quick gleam of the eye 
 which would show that the other had awakened to the 
 latent possibilities within his proposal. 
 
 It came at last. Kelsey had been so intent on dis 
 covering some underlying motive in the request, that 
 he had not seen the advantage to himself. It was a 
 great light, but still he could not divest himself of 
 doubt. 
 
 "What s your game, Doctor?" he asked bluntly. 
 " Will you walk into my parlor, said the spider to the 
 fly, of course. But why?" 
 
 Bristow lifted his hands. "Kelsey! Kelsey!" 
 humorous, but a little grieved. "I offer you a chair, 
 and you suspect a trap-door; a cigarette, and you im 
 agine poison. Don t you see, that by encouraging
 
 SWALLOWED UP 125 
 
 these suspicions of me, you only retard your own 
 cure? Come; be a good sport, and help me as well 
 as yourself." 
 
 Kelsey s hands grasped the back of the chair before 
 him until the wood cracked; his eyes blazed. 
 
 "I wouldn t pull you out of the water if I saw you 
 drowning, or rescue you from a burning house. But it s 
 foolish for a man to cut off his nose to spite his face ; 
 and, as you say, I m pretty well fed up on loafing. 
 Perhaps, on the understanding that I take over this 
 work solely for my own diversion and advantage, and 
 not in any sense to aid you, I might ?" 
 
 "Put it on any grounds you please," Bristow inter 
 rupted with a significant movement of the head. 
 "Shall I expect you here to-morrow morning?" { 
 
 "Yes," curtly. "I ll draw up a sort of schedule 
 to-night of the subjects to be covered, and have it 
 ready to submit to you." 
 
 But, although he went at once to his room and tried 
 to settle himself to the work before him, he could not 
 give it his undivided attention. 
 
 As Bristow had foreseen, the opportunities of this 
 new position, one after another, unfolded before him 
 chances of whispering a word to a friendly visitor, 
 chances of smuggling a message into the outgoing 
 mails, chances of discovering evidence that would nail 
 Bristow as the criminal he knew him to be. 
 
 The ethics of the matter didn t bother him. It 
 was pull-devil-pull-baker between Bristow and him-
 
 i26 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 self, and Bristow was too shrewd not to realize the 
 risk he ran in employing an open enemy. The only 
 thing that did bother him was, that this new employ 
 ment would curtail his opportunities for seeing the 
 girl. 
 
 He must try and get a word with her to-morrow, 
 and let her know of this latest shift in his affairs, as 
 well as to inform her what he had learned of "Hobo 
 Bill."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 DAYS very seldom go exactly as planned. 
 Bristow hovered about all morning, helping 
 lay out the work, consulting books, offering 
 suggestions, keeping Kelsey so busy, that he did not 
 have a moment to slip away from his desk and look 
 for the girl, and the afternoon was not much better. 
 It was almost five o clock before he felt free to leave 
 the office and seek her. 
 
 A rapid survey of the porches and lounging rooms 
 showed him that she was not in the house, and he 
 went on to the grounds, ostensibly for a breath of air 
 after his day s work. 
 
 Most of the patients, he saw, with their attendant 
 nurses, were clustered over at the side of the lawn, in 
 terestedly watching the destruction of a wide section 
 of the wall beyond the encircling hedge. Already a 
 considerable gap showed, and the workmen were busy 
 still further tearing down the masonry. He made an 
 inquiry or two, and learned that the seepage caused by 
 an old spring carelesly filled in had undermined the 
 foundation at this point and made it necessary to 
 rebuild. 
 
 He stood looking on with the others, but his eyes 
 were less engaged with the wall than in sifting the 
 
 127
 
 128 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 group of spectators for a sight of the girl ; and he had 
 about made up his mind that she was not present, when 
 he finally saw her sitting on a stone bench a little re 
 moved from the rest. 
 
 She was alone, the light of the sinking sun behind 
 her. A pad of paper was on her knee, but for once 
 she was not writing. Instead, her dreamy eyes were 
 fixed on the gap in the wall, and the vista of freedom 
 beyond. 
 
 Kelsey looked about for the omnipresent nurse, but 
 she was nowhere in sight; so he walked boldly over 
 and seated himself on the bench. 
 
 He felt the girl start and turn, but he did not glance 
 at her. With his elbow on his crossed knee, chin in 
 hand, he sat watching the demolition of the wall. 
 
 "Where is Miss Copley?" he asked under his 
 breath. 
 
 She edged a little nearer him, and began to write on 
 her pad. 
 
 "Ill," she answered. "She s got a sick headache. 
 Another of the nurses is supposed to be looking after 
 me, but she s busy now. 
 
 "Oh," she went on in a fervent whisper, "I ve prayed 
 that you would come to-day. I ve dared so much on 
 the strength of it. It was so necessary that I should 
 see you." 
 
 "And also, that I should see you," he broke in. "I 
 have news. Bristow has engaged me to help him in 
 the preparation of some magazine articles. I will be in
 
 SWALLOWED UP 129 
 
 his office, in a position to know everything that goes 
 on. Perhaps ?" 
 
 "Wait!" she interrupted. "Before any one comes, 
 I have something I want to give you." 
 
 She cast a searching glance about ; and then slipped 
 a folded paper from between the sheets of her pad, 
 letting it fall on the seat between them, screened by 
 her frock. 
 
 He dropped his hand over it, and with deft sleight- 
 of-hand transferred it to his pocket, bringing up in its 
 stead a cigarette. 
 
 "It s safe," he assured her. 
 
 "And now tell me about your work with Bristow," 
 she said. 
 
 He did so briefly, explaining the features connected 
 with it that might inure to their benefit. 
 
 "Also," he went on, "I have found out about Hig- 
 gins as you asked me to." 
 
 "Oh, yes?" But the interest she had shown the day 
 before in the decrepit old man seemed to have waned. 
 
 "He s hand in glove with Bristow," said Kelsey, con 
 cluding his sketchy report. "And I have no doubt is 
 just as big a crook." 
 
 "And Copley, too," added the girl with conviction. 
 "They re all three crooks together." 
 
 Kelsey himself had much the same idea, but he 
 hadn t wanted to say it. Strange, that she should 
 speak so of her sister. 
 
 But already her thoughts seemed to have turned in
 
 1 30 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 another direction. She was gazing again at the gap 
 in the wall. 
 
 "Do you know anything of Dr. Bristow s engage 
 ments?" she asked unexpectedly. 
 
 He shook his head. "Only, that I heard him tell 
 his secretary, he would be attending a dinner of the 
 Medical Society in town to-morrow night." 
 
 "To-morrow night!" For some reason, this seemed 
 to her extremely important. 
 
 "And Copley s sick headache will last two or three 
 days; they always do." She spoke musingly as if the 
 two facts to her held some connection. Although he 
 did not look at her, he was conscious that her whole 
 frame was tense. She seemed miles away from him. 
 
 Fearing that he had already staid too long with her, 
 and knowing of nothing else to be said, Kelsey rose to 
 go ; but she detained him with a quick gesture. 
 
 "Wait!" He could see that her fingers were trem 
 bling as she guided her pencil ; there was an excited tre 
 mor in her voice. "I must see you to-morrow. Don t 
 let anything prevent. I have an idea. We may be 
 able to get away." 
 
 He nodded. A nurse was moving toward them, 
 and he dared not linger. 
 
 "I will lay off about noon, and find you." 
 
 For one moment he forgot the restrictions upon 
 them, and looked at her. And she forgot, too, and 
 looked back at him. Then they remembered, and he
 
 SWALLOWED UP 131 
 
 moved off hastily toward the wall, as if to take a closer 
 view of the work. 
 
 But he did not even see the shorers at their toil ; they 
 were mere blurred shadows against the sunset s gold. 
 Her face lived before him; her voice still fell thrillingly 
 upon his ear. That was reality. 
 
 He was eager of course to see what the message she 
 had given him contained, but he deliberately held him 
 self in check. He ate his dinner, talked an hour or so 
 with Morton, and it was not until he was safe in his 
 room and had taken every precaution against surprise, 
 that he ventured to look at it. 
 
 "I was brought here," it began without preamble, "I 
 don t know how. The next day it must have been the 
 next day Dr. Bristow told me that I had been very ill 
 and was in a hospital, but that I would see my father and 
 mother soon. I believed what he said for a little while. 
 But when the effects of the drug wore off I must have 
 been given a drug I felt well and strong. My parents 
 did not come, there were excuses. I insisted on going 
 home. Dr. Bristow and the Copley woman wouldn t let 
 me. When I tried to go, they prevented me by force. 
 I screamed and struggled. Then the Doctor put a drug 
 into my arm. These scenes happened several times, and 
 always ended in the same way. They never let me get 
 out of that one room. Then one day when Copley thought 
 I was asleep, I heard her talking outside my door to 
 another nurse. 
 
 "This woman said : Is your sister getting any better? 
 and Copley answered in a weep-y voice : No ; she ll 
 never be any better, I m afraid. They talked a while, 
 and then the other nurse said: Tf you were a little
 
 1 32 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 younger, dearie, and hadn t been here for years, I d try 
 and get the hundred thousand dollars reward for that 
 missing Hope Ranger. You re almost a dead ringer for 
 her. 
 
 "Then it all flashed over me, what they were doing; 
 why I, Hope Ranger, was in this place " 
 
 The sheets of the letter shook in Kelsey s hands. He 
 looked blankly down at the page before him, over 
 whelmed by a feeling of loss and desolation as if the 
 lights had been turned out suddenly and something 
 beautiful had vanished from his life. 
 
 So the problem was simple after all obvious, as it 
 appeared. A pity. What a pity! That wonderful 
 girl. And this was her delusion, her fixed idea. She 
 imagined herself to be Hope Ranger, the girl whose 
 name was on everybody s lips. Perfectly sane in 
 every other respect, mentally above the average all 
 this gallant effort of hers for nothing. 
 
 He lifted the paper again, and read on: 
 
 "After I heard those women talking, and understood 
 what it meant, I nearly went mad, trying to think what to 
 do. I had already tried to bribe Copley, but she is in 
 love with Bristow and absolutely ruled by him. So I 
 just sat thinking; plans, plans seething through my 
 brain " 
 
 "I know all about that," muttered Kelsey, as he 
 paused to turn the page. Then he quickly resumed : 
 
 "I was so furious, so despairing, so bent on finding 
 some way out, that I wouldn t even look at those two, the 
 only persons I saw. I wouldn t speak to them, or notice 
 them in any way. They couldn t understand the reason
 
 SWALLOWED UP 133 
 
 for the change in me, and were surprised. I saw them 
 exchanging glances. And then it came to me, I don t 
 know how, that if I pretended to be silly and not remem 
 ber anything, they might let me out of that room and go 
 about as I saw the others doing from my window. 
 
 "I worked up another scene with Copley, when I 
 knew the Doctor was away. I fought to get out the door, 
 and when she gave me the drug to quiet me, I accused 
 her of having given me an over-dose in her excitement. 
 She denied it, but was bothered. Then I pretended to 
 lie in a stupor for almost an entire day. When I came 
 to, I acted as if I were stupid, as if I were some one else. 
 I said I was a writer and asked for pencils and paper, and 
 wrote pages of nonsense. 
 
 "I heard Bristow talking to Copley. Shamming, he 
 said at first, but she was convinced by this time that she 
 had given me an over-dose, and finally got him to think 
 ing so too. I heard him explaining to her about shock 
 and something about, a congenitally weak brain. She 
 was upset about it all, but he told her, Better so, if it s 
 true. 
 
 "He put me through all kinds of tests surprises, 
 everything. It was dreadful, but my nerves are strong, 
 and I was fighting for my life. He talked to me about 
 my parents, my home. I was indifferent. Then he got 
 to trying to make me remember things that aren t true. 
 He told me my name was Verna Copley, and I repeated it 
 after them like a parrot. I have only forgotten my pose 
 with them once. That was when Copley tried a hat on 
 me and I caught a glimpse of myself and burst out laugh 
 ing. But it was so grotesque that even an imbecile would 
 have laughed. 
 
 "I have been afraid to make myself known to any one. 
 To say that I am Hope Ranger would only convince most 
 people that I am the lunatic I appear. But I am Hope 
 Ranger, I am. And I know that you will believe me, just 
 as I believed you."
 
 i 34 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 When he had finished the last words, Kelsey me 
 chanically, thoroughly tore the letter into tiny frag 
 ments, threw them into an ash-receiver and set a match 
 to them, watching them until nothing remained but 
 ashes. Then he dropped into a chair. 
 
 It seemed to him that there were tiny hammers in 
 his brain, reiterating with every beat, "Hope Ranger ! 
 Hope Ranger!" 
 
 His memory reverted to that scrap of newspaper he 
 had found on the lawn. Did he still have it? He 
 rose and searched through all his pockets, but without 
 success. It must have been destroyed. Neither, was 
 he able to recall very distinctly the pictures it had con 
 tained of the missing girl. He had certainly not been 
 struck at the time by any marked likeness between 
 those pictures and the girl who came and sat with him 
 under the beech tree. 
 
 But then one couldn t go much on mere newspaper 
 illustrations ; and anyhow he had not been especially 
 interested. What he had wanted was news, and he 
 had been disgruntled to find the thing only a sheet 
 from a Sunday supplement. 
 
 He dropped that phase of the evidence, and turned 
 instead to his own observation of her as a trained alien 
 ist; and as he did so, the excited chaos of his brain 
 was succeeded by a surprising, flooding relief. 
 
 She was sane. He knew it. He could not be de 
 ceived. The idea that a person of her self-control, 
 her clear percepton, was harboring a delusion was
 
 SWALLOWED UP 135 
 
 nonsense. And if she said she was Hope Ranger, it 
 was so. He believed her. He -required no proof be 
 yond her simple word. 
 
 Doctor-like, though, he kept mentally buttressing 
 his decision with arguments from the books, and it 
 struck him that he had read only a day or two before 
 a passage which seemed to have a direct application. 
 He reached over to his book-shelf to take down the 
 volume he wanted, and as he did so, a folded, yellow 
 piece of newspaper dropped out that fragment of 
 Sunday supplement. He had thrust it in there as a 
 book-mark. 
 
 Spreading it out on the table, he studied its array 
 of portraits. There could no longer be any doubt. 
 The hair was arranged differently, but the features, 
 the contour, the expressions were the same as Verna 
 Copley s. He had all the confirmation he needed. 
 Still he was glad that, "not seeing, he had yet believed." 
 
 His eye ran down to the text of the newspaper story- 
 below the pictures, and as he read it over again, his, 
 face took on a perplexed scowl. 
 
 Why, when such widespread efforts were being 
 made to recover the lost girl, was she held here a, 
 prisoner ? 
 
 Kelsey believed, as he had said, that Bristow was 
 capable of anything. The man was a crook. That 
 many-sided brain of his was a criminal brain. If he 
 would deal in stolen jewels,. he would engage in. or. cpn r - 
 niv.e a,t adduction,.
 
 136 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 But what was -his motive? How did he expect to 
 get away with it ? What could he gain ? 
 
 Suddenly the conversation between Miss Copley 
 and the other nurse, which the girl had reported in 
 her letter, recurred to him: "If you were a little 
 younger, dearie, and hadn t been here for years, I d try 
 and get the hundred thousand dollars reward offered 
 for that missing Hope Ranger. You re almost a 
 dead ringer for her." 
 
 He sprang to his feet and brought his hands sound 
 lessly together. It was a carefully conceived plot, 
 based upon the remarkable resemblance between the 
 two women. By bringing Hope Ranger there as the 
 demented sister of Miss Copley and adopting a few 
 other simple subterfuges, she could be held in perfect 
 safety. No one would ever dream of suspecting her 
 true identity, or crediting it, if told. 
 
 And the object of course was to extort money from 
 the girl s wealthy father. But what then? The time 
 must come when Ranger would either refuse or be 
 unable to comply with further demands. In that 
 case what? Bristow and his associates could not 
 release their prisoner. She knew too much. They 
 would not care to keep her, a constant source of danger 
 on their hands. 
 
 Good God! He clenched his fists. She was in 
 peril actual, deadly, imminent peril. And he was 
 powerless to aid or protect her.
 
 THROUGHOUT the night Kelsey sat in his 
 chair. The thought of going to bed did not 
 even occur to him. It was the dark of the 
 moon and he had no light in his room ; but the shadows 
 about him were nothing beside the heavy, dense black 
 ness that invaded his spirit and seeped through his 
 brain. 
 
 On only one paint could he think clearly, or come to 
 a decision he must see the girl without delay, at the 
 earliest possible moment. He must warn her to be on 
 her guard, to question every move or suggestion of 
 those about her. 
 
 Perhaps, too, by consulting together, he and she 
 might evolve some plan for her escape. That was 
 now far more imperative than his own. But he did 
 not have much hope. He had thought and thought all 
 night, but without striking anything that offered any 
 promise of success. He remembered that she had 
 hinted of some idea of her own; but he took small 
 stock in that. It was doubtless only one of the many 
 expedients he had already considered and discarded. 
 At any rate, he must see her. 
 
 As the day broke, he eagerly scanned the morning 
 sky, and thanked fortune that it was fair. If the 
 weather were rainy or threatening, she would not be al- 
 
 i37
 
 133 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 lowed on the grounds. The sun, though, was rising 
 on a model June day, rare enough for any poet s 
 praise. 
 
 He knew that there was no chance of her appearing 
 before ten o clock; and so after breakfast he went to 
 the office and pretended to be deep in his research work, 
 although his eyes were constantly seeking the clock. 
 
 On the stroke of ten, he hurried out, but only to find 
 her closely attended by the nurse who had been with 
 her the day before. The same thing was true at 
 eleven, and again at twelve. 
 
 At half-past twelve the patients permitted the liberty 
 of the grounds were recalled to the house for luncheon, 
 and Kelsey knew that under the exact routine of the 
 place none of them would be allowed out again until 
 two. 
 
 He was in the depths by this time. If that nurse 
 stuck to her like a chestnut burr all afternoon, there 
 would be no opportunity for him. Somehow he must 
 force one. 
 
 But when he made his next reconnoissance, his 
 heart leaped. Hope, as he called her now to himself, 
 was sitting alone on the stone bench where he had 
 talked to her the day, before. She was writing on her 
 pad as usual, and/the nurse had turned her attention to a. 
 more difficult patient. 
 
 Kelsey sat down a foot or two away from her, and 
 pretended to watch the men pulling down the wall. It 
 rjlain. fcnom the progress, of the. work that the;
 
 SWALLOWED UP 139 
 
 faulty section would be completely down by night, and 
 the workmen ready to lay a new foundation the next 
 day. 
 
 The girl went on scribbling, her face turned a little 
 away from Kelsey; but as he seated himself she began 
 talking low and fast. 
 
 "I saw you looking for me this morning, but it was 
 impossible to get rid of that woman. I was in despair. 
 It is so absolutely necessary that we should talk to 
 gether to-day." 
 
 "It is, indeed," he said earnestly; "more so than you 
 think. I want to tell you " 
 
 "Let me talk first," she interrupted. "I ve got to 
 make clear to you my plan for getting away, while I 
 the chance. Dr. Bristow is going to town this 
 
 ig?" 
 
 , asked the question so anxiously, that it distressed 
 
 Poor child! Did she think that the mere fact 
 
 Bristow s being away from the sanitarium for an 
 Fening was going to help the situation? 
 
 "Oh, yes," he answered. "I heard him on the tele 
 phone this morning telling the chairman that he would 
 be* at the meeting without fail." 
 
 "Then we can manage it!" There was a thrill in 
 her voice. "Listen." 
 
 And while she scribbled, she unfolded to him a plan 
 so simple and yet so supremely audacious that it took 
 his breath. Before she had half-finished, he had 
 caught her idea and was on fire with it.
 
 1 40 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Careful!" she warned. "Your face is shouting 
 our secret." 
 
 He drew his cap down over his eyes, and clasping 
 his hands behind his head, stretched his feet out 
 lazily. 
 
 The nurse came toward them, and Hope with a 
 swift movement slipped her pencil beneath her on the 
 bench. She looked nervously about and then as the 
 woman stood before her, she glanced up with troubled 
 appeal. 
 
 "I ve lost my pencil," she said. "I was writing 
 a beautiful story, but what can I do without a pen 
 cil?" 
 
 Kelsey, as if he hadn t noticed her before, took a 
 pencil from his pocket and handed it to her. She 
 thanked him and began to write again. 
 
 "She ll keep that up for hours," the nurse smiled at 
 Kelsey. "Not a word out of her, and never moving 
 from the spot. Lucky for me, too. Her sister is on 
 the sick list and I ve got charge of Verna, but my 
 hands are full this afternoon with Miss Susy Doane. 
 She s seeing mashers peeping out from behind every 
 bush, trying to flirt with her." 
 
 "Nothing serious the matter with Miss Copley, I 
 hope?" Kelsey murmured politely. 
 
 "Oh, no; just a headache. She s up this afternoon, 
 but she s a little shaky yet, and doesn t want to go on 
 duty until to-morrow." 
 
 She was interrupted by a scream. The patient she
 
 SWALLOWED UP 141 
 
 had just left was backing away in terror from a pas 
 sing gardener. 
 
 "All right, Miss Susy," called the nurse. "He won t 
 speak to you. I ll be right there and protect you." 
 
 She turned to the girl on the bench. "Now you ll 
 stay here, dear, until I come for you, won t you?" 
 Then she hurried away. 
 
 "There s only one thing that bothers me," Hope 
 resumed the discussion of their plan, "and that s the 
 question of time. They force us to go in at six 
 o clock, you know, and you may not be able to do 
 your part so soon. If not, I must stay behind." 
 
 "I will never leave without you," Kelsey declared 
 firmly. 
 
 "You must. To-night is our one opportunity. 
 Promise me that, whatever happens, you will go. It 
 doesn t matter if I am left behind for the short time it 
 will take you to reach my father." 
 
 "It matters so much," he returned, "that I would 
 never dream of leaving you alone with these people 
 But that is not all. I not only won t leave you behind, 
 but I can t." And he told her why. 
 
 "That makes it more complicated." Her voice fell. 
 "But never mind," she said resolutely. "We re going. 
 Nothing shall stop us." 
 
 They talked a moment or two longer, and then Kel 
 sey giving a start as if he had just awakened from a 
 reverie, got up and walked back to the house. 
 
 There was a hard smile on his lips as he passed
 
 1 42 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 through the hall. By the irony of circumstances he 
 was booked to play the role which Bristow had fas 
 tened on him. For the next two or three hours, his 
 "actor personality" was to have a chance, and catching 
 a glimpse of himself in a mirror at the end of the 
 corridor, he reflected that he needed no make-up for 
 his part. Nature had provided that. 
 
 His sleepless night, the full realization of the dan 
 gers that threatened Hope, the feeling that he was 
 about to embark on the most momentous adventure of 
 his life had left him haggard and pale. 
 
 Back in the office again, he worked steadily for a 
 few minutes, and then dropped his pen and pressed his 
 hands to his temples with an uncontrollable groan. 
 
 "Something the matter, Doctor?" Bristow s secre 
 tary who was working across the room looked up sym 
 pathetically. 
 
 "A touch of my old enemy, neuralgia," Kelsey 
 answered. "I slept in a draft last night." 
 
 "Why don t you lay off?" urged the secretary. 
 "I ll explain to Dr. Bristow." 
 
 "No," said Kelsey drearily; "I ll stick. It s rather 
 important to get these notes off this afternoon. I had 
 a pretty bad twinge just now, but it may pass away." 
 
 But again and again during the afternoon, he 
 writhed in unmistakable pain. After the secretary 
 left at five o clock, he made hardly any pretense at 
 writing, but sat with his head in his hands, twisting 
 about in his chair as each fresh paroxysm seized him.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 143 
 
 At about ten minutes of six Bristow came in, wear 
 ing a cap and a motor coat over his evening clothes, 
 ready to start for town; and he at once noticed the 
 condition of his collaborator. 
 
 "What s wrong, man?" he asked quickly. "You 
 look done up." 
 
 "One of my ghastly neuralgia attacks." Kelsey 
 tried to suppress another groan. "I m afraid I haven t 
 been able to accomplish much this afternoon. The 
 darned thing has been growing worse all day, and 
 although I ve tried all my usual remedies, I don t seem 
 to get on top of it. I m wondering if you will give me 
 a shot of morphine a good stiff one?" 
 
 "Surely." Bristow laid down his gloves, and pas 
 sing into a lavatory just off the office, prepared his 
 hypodermic. 
 
 Kelsey with his eye on the clock waited, barely able 
 to control his impatience. The precious minutes were 
 racing away. How slow the beast was. Would he 
 never come ? 
 
 At last, the Doctor was back. Kelsey had already 
 taken off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeve, and 
 now he apathetically extended his left arm. 
 
 But as Bristow bent over to apply the needle, Kel- 
 sey s right shot up in a quick, wicked smash to the 
 Doctor s jaw. A good boxer in his college days, he 
 had never driven to the button with a better aim. The 
 blow landed squarely on the side of the chin, and 
 backed by the nervous tension behind it, and Kelsey s
 
 144 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 overpowering hatred of the man, almost with force 
 enough to split an oak plank. 
 
 Bristow s head snapped back, and lifted fairly off 
 his feet, he went backward to land across a leather 
 couch several feet away, where he lay dead to the 
 world. 
 
 Kelsey snatched the hypodermic from the floor, and 
 jerking open the cuff of Bristow s shirt, pushed it 
 back and drove the needle into his arm. 
 
 "There, I guess that will hold you for a while!" 
 
 As he straightened up, the clock was on the stroke 
 of six. This was the hour when the nurses and at 
 tendants would be shepherding in the patients, and the 
 veranda would be deserted. With .one vindictive 
 glance at the unconscious Bristow, Kelsey walked out 
 of the office and locked the door behind him. 
 
 But all this had taken time. As he hurried through 
 the hall he was tortured with apprehension. If he 
 were too late? If Hope had already been driven into 
 the house? 
 
 A glance from the door, and he saw that every 
 thing else was as he hoped. There was no one about. 
 Even the chauffeur was not in sight, having left the big, 
 gray car in the roadway, while he strolled around to 
 the side of the house to engage in badinage with one 
 of the attendants. 
 
 Kelsey s eyes swept the lawn. Hope was nowhere 
 to be seen. For one terrible second, he thought the 
 game was up and then he saw her. She was clinging
 
 SWALLOWED UP 145 
 
 to one of the porch pillars, obstinately resisting all the 
 efforts of the nurse to disengage her. 
 
 Kelsey took a step toward them, and the nurse saw 
 him. 
 
 "Do help me, Dr. Kelsey," she begged. "I don t 
 know what s got into her. She s usually so amenable, 
 but now she refuses to go in. I ve sent for her 
 sister; but maybe, if you ll speak to her, she ll listen." 
 
 Kelsey waved the woman to stand aside, and laid 
 his hand on Hope s arm. 
 
 As if yielding to a superior will, she let go of the 
 pillar ; and with the manner of soothing her, he led 
 her along the veranda. 
 
 "Now!" he said when they reached the steps lead 
 ing down to the drive ; and catching her hand, he 
 rushed her down, and swung her up into Bristow s big 
 car. As he leaped in after her, she grasped the start 
 ing lever, threw in the gears, and they were off. 
 
 Across the lawn she drove, over the flower-beds 
 and low shrubbery, heading straight for the gap in 
 the wall. 
 
 A man stationed there whirled about, thinking the 
 car was running wild, and scrambled for safety. He 
 was just in time. Through the hedge they smashed; 
 then, with a bump and a lunge, leaped the trench which 
 had been dug for the wall s new foundation, and with 
 a deft twirl of the wheel swung into the road beyond. 
 
 "I couldn t have done that, even if I knew how to 
 run a car," Kelsey gasped. "As I told you, I never
 
 i 4 6 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 drove one in my life. I had to have you with me to 
 get away." 
 
 There had been no sound behind them. Their sud 
 den action, the daring of it, seemed to paralyze the 
 two spectators. Then there came a loud, angry, 
 scream. Kelsey glancing back saw Anita Copley 
 flying down the veranda steps, calling for the chauf 
 feur, and shouting orders as she ran. 
 
 "They ll be after us like a shot!" He knew the 
 woman s ability in a crisis. "Drive like the devil!"
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THERE was no light-hearted conversation with 
 Gibbs, as Charlie plodded along the oil-soaked 
 highway following those elusive tire-tracks. 
 
 One can not always be sportive. Occasions will 
 arise which tend to more serious reflection, and push 
 ing a disabled motor-cycle over an uncertain distance, 
 under a broiling sun, and in pursuit of a long-vanished 
 flivver is one of them. The June afternoon which in 
 his leafy tree-top had seemed a foretaste of heaven, 
 
 out here on the reeking- road was Well, it was 
 
 hot. The sweat ran down his face; the smell of the oil 
 got up his nose and into his throat; the going was 
 slippery, and the motor-cycle yawed perversely on un 
 expected tacks. And, back of it all, was the dismal 
 persuasion that it was a wasted effort, a forlorn hope 
 bound to end in failure that he was a rather ridi 
 culous tortoise outstripped by a wiser hare. 
 
 So Charlie s self-communings were without either 
 espigleric or originality, just the good, old stand-bys 
 usually expressed in print by dashes the same prob 
 ably that were employed by the army in Flanders. 
 
 He swore himself finally to a garage about three 
 miles down the road; and, lo, as he wearily turned in 
 toward it, Gibbs, symbol of all-rightness with the 
 world, was again at his side. For there, leading up
 
 148 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 to the gasoline reservoir and pump in front of the 
 place were four tire tracks, three smooth and one cor 
 rugated, which he had lost for the last half mile in 
 the cross-hatchings of traffic. 
 
 "The only question, old topi," Charlie observed to 
 his shadowy familiar, "is whether they stopped for 
 repairs, or merely for gas? You can t tell, with the 
 tracks running onto that patch of cobblestones just 
 the other side of the reservoir." 
 
 It was quickly settled, though; for as he pushed his 
 motor-cycle in at the door of the garage, the first thing 
 he saw was the flivver shoved back against the wall. 
 No possibility of a mistake, with those tell-tale tires, 
 and the license-plate, No. 2,155,633, staring him in 
 the face. 
 
 Charlie s glance flirted over the interior of the place, 
 seeking the two men who had been in the car; but 
 there was no sign of them. The garage was simply 
 a long, one-story shed with a metal roof and a concrete 
 floor on which oil and water lay about in little puddles, 
 a row of unwashed windows along each side, and wide 
 doors opening at either end. There were no par 
 titions; even the "office" was just a battered desk 
 propped up in one corner. The whole was open to plain 
 view, and the only persons about, besides the proprietor, 
 were a mechanic operating a power-lathe at the back 
 of the shop and a shock-headed, half-grown boy. 
 
 But if the men he wanted were not there, their 
 car was, and undoubtedly they would return. The
 
 SWALLOWED UP 149 
 
 proprietor must know them; he might even be a con 
 federate. For that matter, the bonds might be se 
 creted in the garage. 
 
 As Charlie explained the difficulty with his motor 
 cycle, he took quick stock of the man from the dented 
 derby hat on his head to the soles of his spattered 
 shoes. Whatever the defects in Charlie s education, 
 he could qualify as an expert in what Mr. Alexander 
 Pope once called, "the proper study of mankind." 
 His judgment of persons was apt to be uncannily cor 
 rect ; and he was now inclined to the opinion that the 
 garage-keeper was straight, having neither connection 
 with or knowledge of the affair at the archway. He 
 was merely a surly, taciturn fellow whom it would 
 be hard to pump, even though he had nothing to 
 conceal. 
 
 So far his sole response to Charlie s story of hard 
 luck certain details modified had been an in 
 different grunt. He didn t seem to care why a new 
 spark-plug was required, or for the fact that his cus 
 tomer had been compelled to walk six miles what 
 was the increase of a mile or so between friends? 
 or for any of the rest of it. 
 
 To Charlie impassivity was always a challenge. 
 Wooden stares and bottled-up silences were spurs to 
 his ingenuity. One o<f his favorite mottoes was : 
 
 O r/ 
 
 "The glummer they are, the easier they blow off." All 
 that was needed was to sound the note of self-inter 
 est.
 
 1 50 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 So as his tongue wagged on in the recital of his 
 adventures, he was thinking. The one infallible ap 
 peal to an automobile man was the chance to make a 
 sale and pocket a comfortable commission. 
 
 Charlie had already represented himself as a can 
 vasser taking orders for "put-it-together-yourself" 
 furniture; and he now deftly turned to an account of 
 his fictitious tribulations in this calling. 
 
 "What I need," he said, "is half a dozen or so dif 
 ferent lines of household necessities. Then if they 
 didn t want furniture, I could shift off to silverware, 
 mouse-traps, brooms and brushes, patent fire-escapes, 
 or bungalow aprons. I d be sure to catch em some 
 where along the line. 
 
 "But the trouble with that," he pulled at his lip, "is, 
 that I d have to carry such a raft of samples. I ve 
 been wondering if it wouldn t pay me to chuck the 
 old motor-cycle, and buy me a nice little car that I 
 could load up with my stuff." 
 
 The gleam of venal interest he had anticipated, 
 brightened the garage-keeper s dull eye, and for the 
 first time he unbent to articulate speech. 
 
 "Sure looks like good business to me," he agreed. 
 "An twouldn t really cost you no more to run a car 
 than it does your motor-cycle." 
 
 "Except for the first expense," said Charlie. "No; 
 I don t suppose it would. And I wouldn t want a 
 great, big, high-powered car, you understand." His 
 eye fell as if by chance on the flivver. "Now there s a
 
 SWALLOWED UP 151 
 
 little trick that would suit me first rate. Doesn t 
 happen to be for sale, does it?" 
 
 Shouldn t wonder," the garage man led the way 
 toward it, and threw back the hood for inspection. 
 
 "You know the party that owns it, then?" Charlie 
 could hardly keep the thrill of eagerness out of his 
 voice. 
 
 "Oh, yes; best of friends. Whatever I say, he ll 
 stand for." 
 
 "Wonder if I m acquainted with him? I know 
 quite a number of people around here." 
 
 "Well, you might call it bein quainted," with heavy 
 jocularity; "seein that you re talkin to him right now. 
 I m the owner of this bus, Captain." 
 
 Fortunately he did not see Charlie s face. His 
 mind was bent wholly upon making a sale, and he 
 wanted to present his goods to the best advantage. 
 
 " Course she ain t lookin her prettiest," apolo 
 getically. "She s just in off the road ; and, with this ile 
 all over everything, she s kind of spattered up. Coupla 
 strangers come in here with a big tourin car that they 
 said wasn t hittin right, and asked me if I could let 
 em have a machine to go over White Plains way, 
 while their n was bein fixed. So I rented em the 
 little boat. But, shucks, they might as well have used 
 their own; there wasn t nothin wrong with it that I 
 could see, cept a loose bolt or two. I had it runnin 
 like a watch in three minutes. Guess they re green at 
 the game, an got scared."
 
 1 52 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Likely the two men I saw pulling away from here 
 just as I came in." Charlie was fishing desperately. 
 "One of them hatchet-faced with a black mustache? 
 Had a five-passenger, didn t they, with four 6s in the 
 license number?" 
 
 "Nope." The proprietor shook his head. "Both these 
 boys was smooth-faced; nothin special about em one 
 way or the other, I d say. An twas a seven-passenger 
 they had." He named a popular make of automobile 
 of which there were probably thousands in New York. 
 
 "I didn t notice the license number," he said. "Did 
 you, Sam?" turning to the shock-headed boy. But 
 the latter had been equally unobservant. 
 
 Charlie recognized with a sense of utter frustration 
 that it was useless to probe further. All he could get 
 was a description of the two men so vague that it 
 would fit a million others, and a lack of any identi 
 fying details for the car. The flivver on which he 
 had based such high hopes had been a will-o-the-wisp, 
 leading him deeper into the bog. He was done. 
 
 He let the garage man go on talking, expatiating 
 on the merits of the car in the effort to make a sale, 
 and even offered an occasional comment or question. 
 He did not admit it to himself, but he was staving off 
 the moment when he would have to face Ranger and 
 confess that he had bungled. Like the gambler whose 
 last chip has been swept away, he still lingered at the 
 table and watched the fall of the cards unwilling to 
 believe that he was cleaned out.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 153 
 
 "Wait now," the garage-keeper was saying, "till 
 I turn over the engine for you, and then you can see 
 for yourself that I ain t misstated nothin to you. 
 Come here, Sam, and crank her up for me." 
 
 But as Sam shambled around to the front of the 
 flivver, and Charlie and the proprietor leaned over to 
 watch the test, they were interrupted by a hail from 
 the doorway. A party of people in a touring car had 
 just driven up, and were making signals of distress. 
 The garage man relapsed into his professional phlegm. 
 
 "Hold on a minute," he said. "I gotta see what 
 these pests want. Then I ll be back." 
 
 Charlie leaned back against the wheel of the flivver, 
 and while he waited rolled a cigarette. He was chas 
 ing ideas, trying to invent some way of softening the 
 blow to Ranger. But depressed by disappointment 
 and humiliation, his faculties seemed befogged. He 
 was conscious only of a resentment against fate. His 
 "dope" throughout had been absolutely correct, his 
 strategy faultless ; and yet he had been whipsawed at 
 every turn. Of what use to pit one s self against 
 an organization possessed of such infallible foresight 
 and resource? He gave a little gesture of impotence, 
 and scattered the tobacco he was rolling to the floor. 
 
 With a muttered imprecation at his awkwardness, 
 he reached for his sack; and as he did so, saw the 
 garage man complete his examination of the car at 
 the door, and shake his head at the owner. 
 
 "This here is a job that s going to take a couple
 
 154 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 of hours," he announced ; "and you can t go on in the 
 shape you re in, gears all pulled loose. You folks 11 
 just have to pile out and stick around, till I get it fixed 
 up." 
 
 There were protests, exclamations, remonstrances; 
 but the garage man was firm, and in the end the 
 party, four women and two men besides the driver, 
 with American good humor under trying circum 
 stances, got out of the car and the proprietor and Sam 
 rolled it into the shop. 
 
 Regarding this as a good opportunity to get away, 
 Charlie called to the garage keeper that he would be 
 back presently and started for the door. Without 
 looking at the group of stranded motorists, he pushed 
 his motor-cycle past them, when he was stopped by a 
 high-pitched, faintly familiar voice calling ; 
 
 "Oh, how d y do!" 
 
 He looked up to see a pretty girl in futuristically 
 vivid sport things moving toward him. 
 
 For a moment he was puzzled, and then he remem 
 bered her as the strayed Princess of the smart little 
 millinery shop where he and Ranger had bought the 
 hat. 
 
 On an outing, she had laid aside temporarily some 
 thing of her professional hauteur; but one does not 
 easily discard an habitual pose, and her chin still held 
 its proud angle ; her movements even in the mood of 
 holiday abandon were languidly suggestive of the man 
 nequin on parade.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 155 
 
 "Juliet !" he exclaimed, sweeping off his hat. "To 
 think that you remembered me after all these years !" 
 
 "How could I forget the man who ordered that 
 that lid!" Laughter struggled with statuesque repose 
 and won. "Oh, you men! You re a scream when it 
 comes to millinery. Too bad," her charming mouth 
 drawn down, her eyes full of mocking commiseration, 
 "that your lady friend didn t like the hat." 
 
 At her words, a splinter of lightning went through 
 Charlie and shivered along his spine. In the black, 
 boggy depths of his slough of despond there flashed 
 a ray of hope. It blinded him for one moment, 
 but in the next he was himself again Juarez Charlie, 
 cool, needle-witted the hunting dog catching a scent 
 and steadying to a point.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 IN the twinkling of an eye the humble canvasser 
 of "put-it-together-yourself" furniture became 
 without change of costume or stage properties 
 the sophisticated, world-worn man of affairs. 
 
 Juarez Charlie chose this characterization from his 
 extensive repertoire, because he felt that it would most 
 impress the Princess and impel those confidences 
 which he was determined to win. Also it was one of 
 his best. There was in it a hint of John Drew, of 
 Faversham, their polite polish rather satirically under 
 scored by the Puck-like freakishness of Charlie Chaplin. 
 
 "She didn t like the hat?" he repeated, lifting his 
 shoulders and eyebrows at the same time. "Capri 
 cious, capricious creatures, you women." He shrug 
 ged off the possibility of ever understanding them. 
 "And false, too. She raved about it to me, swore that 
 she was delighted with it." 
 
 The Princess laughed, but looked at him doubt 
 fully. A pretty trick of hers, he found space in his 
 mind to record that way of looking up through her 
 long lashes. 
 
 "You re such a kidder," she said, "I don t quite 
 make you. But, just the same, there s something 
 queer about it all." 
 
 He wanted devoutly to assure her that there was 
 
 156
 
 SWALLOWED UP 157 
 
 something very queer about it all, and that he meant 
 to get to the bottom of the mystery before he parted 
 from her. But a light touch was best now. Her 
 curiosity was aroused; let it seethe a bit until if 
 reached the boiling point. If he showed his anxiety 
 to learn what she knew, she might take a perverse 
 pleasure in withholding her information. Women 
 were like that. 
 
 But he must devise some plan of sticking to her 
 closer than a brother, and the one sure way was to 
 enhance his own importance and thus stir her imagi 
 nation. Against his inclination, he deliberately changed 
 the subject. 
 
 Fancy meeting you here," a flattering touch of 
 sentiment in his smile; "partners in hard luck, one 
 might say, both victims of a break-down. Bless the 
 break-down," with light fervor. "When I had mine 
 I was hurrying back to a board-meeting from my 
 friend Loring Ranger s place over yonder." 
 
 She gave the start he expected. That name was 
 too familiar to readers of newspapers to escape notice. 
 
 "You mean the father of Hope Ranger?" She 
 showed all the blueness of her widened eyes. 
 
 "Yes; poor Lorry!" He was not acting now. 
 "It s a time when he needs all his friends about him. 
 But," back in his role again "as I was about to say, 
 I can hardly regret my accident since it brought me the 
 opportunity of meeting you once more." 
 
 Her coquettish smile was a mere automatic re-
 
 i 5 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 sponse to his gallantry. She saw the possibilities of 
 the situation. Most persons feel a certain relish in 
 being connected even indirectly with those in the 
 world s spot-light. 
 
 "Oh!" With an inflation of her best great-lady 
 manner, she turned to her friends. "I want all you 
 folks to meet Mr. 
 
 "Juarez," Charlie suavely helped her out. 
 
 "Mr. Juarez." Her tone showed that the oil and 
 sugar name had its effect. "Surely! Mr. Juarez 
 shake hands with Mr. and Mrs. Greenberg," motion 
 ing to the driver of the car and his wife. "Mr. 
 Juarez, Miss Schupp, Miss McCarthy, Mr.Dave Green- 
 berg and Mr. Leffler," she ran through the circle. 
 "Mr. Juarez is just back from a visit to the father of 
 Hope Ranger." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Greenberg, Mr. Dave Greenberg, 
 Miss Schupp, Miss McCarthy and Mr. Leffler im 
 mediately became animated interrogation points. 
 Charlie was the target for a bombardment of rapid- 
 fire questions, based on the more sensational rumors 
 in circulation. 
 
 Was it true that Hope had followed a Bolshevist 
 lover to Russia? How about the report that she had 
 been seen in Montreal playing in the chorus of a 
 burlesque company? Had she realty been arrested for 
 shop-lifting and concealed her identity in order not 
 to disgrace her family, the fiction of her disappearance 
 being kept up now to hoodwink the public?
 
 SWALLOWED UP 159 
 
 Charlie answered guardedly, with the air of one 
 who could tell a great deal but whose lips were for the 
 moment sealed. He was the finished diplomat of a 
 Pinero play, urbane, affable, but always elusive. 
 
 While they questioned and commented and ad 
 vanced different theories, he was revolving an expe 
 dient which had suggested itself to him as the best 
 means of separating the Princess from the rest of 
 the party. 
 
 "By the way," he appeared to speak under sudden 
 inspiration, "Lone Hill Inn is only a short distance 
 from here, and you will be held two hours before your 
 car is ready for the road. Won t you all be my guests 
 at dinner? We can probably get some kind of a con 
 veyance to take us over." 
 
 But Mrs. Greenberg thriftily protested. "Na, Na!" 
 she wagged her head negatively. "That would be 
 imposin on good nature, Mr. Woozer. I ve heard 
 how they sting you over to that Lone Hill Inn. My 
 sister-in-law stopped there once, and she says all they 
 had was crabmeat salad and tea for three, and when 
 the check come would you believe it? it was thirteen 
 dollars and forty cents. Posit-ive-ly. Not countin 
 the waiter. 
 
 "Na, Na! If you want to take Miss Da Costa and 
 go, it s all right. We ll wait until you get back. 
 And you needn t mind about us here. We ve got a 
 good lunch in the car." 
 
 The Princess demurred faint-heartedly, and Charlie,
 
 160 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 who wanted to pat Mrs. Greenberg s fat shoulder for 
 this show of tact and sound common-sense, pretended 
 to accept her decision with reluctance. 
 
 "Go ahead, Elsie," urged Miss Schupp and Miss 
 McCarthy. There was no question in their minds 
 that their friend had made the conquest of an eccentric 
 millionaire, and they were generously inclined to help 
 the good cause along. 
 
 Juarez Charlie, fearing a change of mind, hurried 
 the Princess into the garage-keeper s flivver, and they 
 drove away with the shock-headed boy acting as 
 chauffeur. 
 
 His proximity and willingness to overhear every 
 thing that was said permitted nothing but the most 
 casual conversation, mostly in the nature of badin 
 age on Charlie s part the tissue-paper wrapping of 
 the caramel of admiration which the Princess re 
 ceived with appreciative laughter and such comments 
 as, "Quit your joshing," "Better keep that salve; you 
 might stub your toe," and, "Swell line of bunk you 
 carry, Mr. Man." 
 
 But under his lively banter he never forgot his 
 purpose. Yet even after they reached the Inn and were 
 seated at a small table, the gentle flattering third de 
 gree which awaited the Princess had still to be de 
 ferred. 
 
 In that expensive environment, with groups and 
 couples of the new-rich all about them, and one of 
 those intimately attentive waiters hovering over them,
 
 SWALLOWED UP 161 
 
 Miss Da Costa became self-consciously absorbed in 
 her own impersonation the finished cosmopolite 
 viewing the multitude through a non-existent lorg 
 nette. 
 
 In order to recapture her wandering attention, 
 and also to get rid of the too-solicitous waiter who in 
 spired the irritation of a persistently buzzing fly, 
 Charlie began to consult her about the menu, ordering 
 so prodigally that she gasped and remonstrated. 
 And when a girl from an exclusive little shop in the 
 Fifties puts the brakes on a dinner order, the ultima 
 thule of extravagance is in sight. 
 
 If Charlie had not been so engrossed in contriving 
 the best method of securing the last scrap of infor 
 mation the girl had to give, he might have noticed 
 that her pose was as near cracking as his own. Her 
 responses now were forced, and punctuated by sud 
 den silences. 
 
 She seemed to be turning something over and over 
 in her mind. Suddenly she came back to the present, 
 all vivacity, her blue eyes sparkling. 
 
 "Do you know, I ve just been thinking about that 
 hat, and I believe I ve struck it at last. Of course 
 as soon as you spoke of having been to Loring Ran 
 ger s, I knew that it was him who was in there with you 
 that day funny I didn t recognize him at the time 
 but I couldn t see why he had bought that freak of 
 a hat. 
 
 "I ve hit it now, though. Listen." She made
 
 1 62 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 little spears at him with her fork. "Hope Ranger s 
 not missing at all. She s going into musical comedy 
 or the pictures, and this hullabaloo is all a publicity 
 stunt. I m right?" 
 
 Charlie s expression committed him to nothing; but 
 the quick droop of his eyelids seemed at once to shield 
 the secret and admit the possibility. 
 
 "You think fast, little one. Go on, and I ll tell you 
 whether you re getting warm or not." 
 
 "Well, as I take it, Hope didn t like your choice; 
 so she tossed it over to her maid, and the maid saw 
 a chance to make on it and brought it back. I suppose 
 it was the maid, although I d have sworn She 
 
 paused, tapping her white brow with a glittering finger 
 nail. "Say," her face clearing; "is the Ranger girl 
 sick?" 
 
 Charlie, unable to follow her, leaned nearer across 
 the table. 
 
 "But what makes you think that?" 
 
 "Because I simply couldn t place that woman as any 
 thing but a trained nurse. She acted like she d been 
 born in a white cap, and learned her letters off a fever- 
 chart." 
 
 The slight pallor of excitement showed through 
 Charlie s dark skin. He reached for the carafe, and 
 filled the Princess s glass. 
 
 "A tall, blonde woman?" He tried the ruse he had 
 used on the garage-keeper. 
 
 "No; medium-sized and dark. Attractive. She
 
 SWALLOWED UP 163 
 
 wanted to exchange it for a prim, little toque. She 
 knew right where she was, too. I told her, we never 
 made exchanges, and she came straight back, said the 
 ostrich plumes and the paradise were worth half a 
 dozen small hats and she only wanted one. Well, the 
 long and short of it was that I agreed to have a duve- 
 tyn toque made up for her, and send it to her at the 
 hospital." 
 
 Charlie s spoon clattered against his demi-tasse. 
 His hand shook as he recovered it and his self-control 
 at the same time. He lowered his voice confidentially. 
 
 "Mrs. Ranger has not been well. But don t tell any 
 one that she s in a hospital." 
 
 "Oh, that s it? Then I did get it right." She 
 showed a natural pride in having her surmises con 
 firmed. 
 
 "You say the woman left her address?" He looked 
 a little worried. "We have to be so careful about 
 anything getting out." 
 
 "Yes; she wrote it down for me: Doctor Doc 
 tor something s Sanitarium, Barcelona, Long Is 
 land. Wait a minute! I ve got the name. Bris- 
 tow. Doctor Bristow s Sanitarium." 
 
 Charlie felt an insane impulse to get up and wave 
 his arms and shout. The Princess was a mascot. 
 She had turned his luck. Adorable girl ! The best 
 he had hoped for was to get some description of the 
 woman who had exchanged the hat, and that after 
 much circumlocution and adroit questioning.
 
 1 64 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 But here, without an effort, he had been given name, 
 address, every requisite detail to locate her. At last 
 he had in his hands a thread that must lead direct to 
 the missing girl. 
 
 He called the waiter, and begged his companion to 
 order something more, pressing her to think of some 
 ambrosial delicacy not on the card. There was noth- 
 thing too much he could do for the Princess. 
 
 Then, with the waiter suggesting this and that costly 
 bonne-bouche, he made an excuse and hastened to the 
 telephone to call up Ranger, at his country-house in 
 Westchester.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 LORRY, they got away with it." 
 Charlie broke the news without preamble as 
 soon as he had Ranger on the wire. He 
 believed it better to get his bad tidings over first, before 
 he gave a hint of the wonderful new lead upon which 
 he had stumbled. 
 
 "I know that," Ranger returned with biting brev 
 ity. "The other side has already furnished the in 
 formation." 
 
 You ve heard from them again?" 
 
 "Yes. A stick was thrown in the dining-room win 
 dow with a note on it, while we were at dinner." 
 
 "No trace of the person who threw it?" 
 
 "Oh, yes ; one of the gardeners caught a small boy 
 of the neighborhood who admitted that he did it, but 
 that doesn t get us anywhere. The boy, who was too 
 scared to be anything but truthful, says a strange man 
 down the road gave him a dollar to throw the stick. 
 But he can t give any adequate description of the man, 
 or information that amounts to anything." 
 
 "You can bet on that," said Charlie. "They d never 
 leave anything like that open. But what did their note 
 say?" 
 
 "Wait a minute, and I ll read it to you." There 
 
 165
 
 1 66 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 was a pause, and then Ranger s voice resumed : 
 "There is no address; simply three lines of typewrit 
 ing and the usual circle and X* signature. It 
 runs : 
 
 " You have tried to double-cross us, contrary to our 
 explicit instructions ; but we will give you another chance. 
 Deposit two hundred thousand dollars in bonds on Friday 
 afternoon, same place, same time. Failure to comply or 
 any further duplicity on your part will mean your daugh 
 ter s death. " 
 
 "Two hundred thousand?" Charlie s voice supplied 
 the exclamation point. "That s raising the ante with 
 a vengeance. Still, what else ?" 
 
 "I won t do it. I can t raise that amount of money 
 on a moment s notice." Ranger went up in the air. 
 "You don t understand business. Here, I ve just 
 thrown away one hundred thousand on your advice. 
 
 and now Where are you?" querulously. "I ve 
 
 got to talk to you to-night, at once. We can t get any 
 where over the wire. You d better come out here to 
 the house." 
 
 To Charlie s quick ear, it seemed as if there were a 
 slight shift in the telephone connection. He imagined 
 he could detect through their conversation the sound of 
 some one else breathing. 
 
 "Hold on just a second, Lorry. Have.you heard 
 anything new from Philadelphia?" 
 
 The question was a code warning arranged between 
 them to indicate that some one was listening in.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 167 
 
 Ranger gave an impatient, "Humph!" but he did 
 not disregard the caution. "Hold the wire," gruffly. 
 
 An interval of about two minutes passed, and then 
 he spoke again. 
 
 "You were mistaken. I looked up all the exten 
 sions, and the only person who could have done any 
 eavesdropping was Fitch, the footman, who was down 
 in the hall, and he was twenty feet away from the in 
 strument and half -asleep. Anyhow, it s all right now. 
 I ve shut off all the switches except this one, and put 
 Mary Lou on guard. Besides, there s nothing to say, 
 that the whole world couldn t hear." 
 
 "Isn t there?" Charlie couldn t keep the elated ring 
 out of his voice. "Well, let me tell you, Lorry, that 
 I ve dug up a great new clue, the most promising yet. 
 In fact, I don t think it s too much to say that I expect 
 to have Hope definitely located by to-morrow. You re 
 going to get back your daughter, I believe, Lorry, and 
 your hundred thousand too. 
 
 "No," as Ranger stormed him with excited ques 
 tions; "I m not going to say a word more over the 
 telephone. I really ought not to have said as much 
 as this, but I couldn t help it." 
 
 "But, Charlie; listen!" Ranger entreated. "You re 
 not going to play a lone hand again, are you? For 
 heaven s sake, remember what happened to-day. 
 Show a little reason ; at least come here to the house 
 and talk it over with me. Then we can decide whether 
 it isn t wisest to consult Inspector Bailey. If you ve
 
 1 68 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 got such a clue as you say, we can t afford to lose It 
 through amateur bungling." 
 
 Charlie s mobile face hardened as he listened. 
 "Sorry, Lorry," he answered crisply. "But this re 
 quires quick action. I hate to keep you in ignorance, 
 but I ve fooled around too long as it is. I ve got to 
 be moving." 
 
 And deaf to Ranger s expostulations, he hung up the 
 receiver. He had burned his bridges behind him. 
 Unless he made good this time, he was done, discred 
 ited, stamped as a meddling fool. 
 
 For a moment he hesitated. After all, wasn t he 
 taking a good deal on his shoulders ? It was Ranger s 
 right to direct and advise. He was the one who had 
 everything at stake. 
 
 No ! Charlie flung off his gathering scruples. This 
 was too good to be spoiled by interference and the 
 heavy-handed methods of the police. He was the one 
 to whom Fate had cast that thread, and he intended to 
 follow it through to the end. 
 
 With his old confident swagger, he made his way 
 back to the Princess. 
 
 She looked up with a smile as he reached the table, 
 then glanced down at the watch on her wrist. 
 
 "It s been lovely, Mr. Juarez," she said; "but I m 
 afraid I ought to go now. They ll be waiting for me, 
 you know." 
 
 With everything she did, she increased Charlie s 
 good opinion of her. Itching to be off on his quest, he
 
 SWALLOWED UP 169 
 
 had been wondering how long courtesy would compel 
 him to sit there before he could suggest leaving. 
 Women never knew when enough was enough. But 
 she had solved the difficulty. Really, a wonderful girl ! 
 She had brains, and knew how to use them. And at 
 the same time, she was a peach for looks. 
 
 While he was engaged in these pleasing reflections, 
 the waiter laid the check before him. It fully bore out 
 the reputation accorded to the Lone Hill Inn by Mrs. 
 Greenberg; but Charlie would not have quarrelled if 
 it had been twice as extortionate. He felt that he had 
 more than got his money s worth. In his large and 
 generous mood, he gave the waiter a princely tip. 
 Also, he remembered liberally the hat-boy, the door-man 
 and the fellow who opened the door of the flivver. 
 
 On their arrival at the garage they found the tour 
 ing-car repaired, and the party ready to start. Charlie 
 swung the Princess lightly from one car to the other, 
 held her hand a moment in parting, promised to 
 meet them all the next Sunday at Mrs. Greenberg s 
 for dinner; and then stood waving as they drove 
 away. 
 
 With their departure, he shed his role of the 
 moneyed idler. Stern business demanded him now 
 just how stern he did not realize until he started to 
 pay the garage-keeper for the use of the flivver, and 
 discovered that he had only a dollar and thirty-five 
 cents left in his pocket. 
 
 Habitually careless of finances, Charlie had never
 
 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 stopped to reckon the extent of his spendthrift prodi 
 gality at the Inn; and now to find left to him but a 
 single dollar bill and two insignificant silver coins 
 came as a distinct shock. 
 
 However, he did not betray his dilemma; his train 
 ing saved him. He still had his tongue, and it had 
 extricated him in more embarrassing straits than this. 
 Glibly, steadily he talked on to the garage-keeper, 
 while trying to decide on his next move. 
 
 Of course he could call up Ranger and settle the 
 matter in two minutes; but that would only confirm 
 Loring s present estimate of him as a flighty incom 
 petent. No; he must trust to his own wits. 
 
 He surreptitiously explored his various pockets in 
 the faint hope of finding some overlooked currency, 
 and his fingers came in contact with a familiar ob 
 ject. Like a magic talisman, it restored his equa 
 nimity and courage. 
 
 It was an imitation meerschaum pipe, and it or 
 rather, its fellows had for years provided Charlie 
 with what he called, his "little graft." He always 
 carried with him on his journeys an assortment of 
 these, retailing at about fifty cents apiece, and on his 
 arrival in a "hick" town would set out with one of 
 them in his pocket carefully wrapped up in an old silk 
 handkerchief. In the office of the railroad hotel or at 
 the Main Street pool parlor, he would mark down 
 his prospective victim sometimes a lounging patron, 
 sometimes the proprietor of the place and strike up
 
 SWALLOWED UP 171 
 
 a conversation, mesmerizing him with his gift of 
 language. Then at the psychological moment he 
 would draw out his pipe, and handling it as tenderly 
 as if it were some rare treasure, would offer it for 
 inspection. 
 
 "My father put in thirty-two years coloring that 
 bowl," he would affirm, pensively reminiscent, "brought 
 it with him when he came over from the other side, and 
 gave it to me on his death-bed. I never thought 
 that anything could make me part with it, but old 
 Hard Luck is some persuader, and I ve made up my 
 mind to let it go. Of course, if I had time to turn 
 a deal, I could easy get as high as four or five hundred 
 for a pipe like that; but these bum lungs of mine tell 
 me that I can t afford to lose any time getting to 
 Arizona." Here a hollow cough would shake his 
 whole frame. 
 
 "So, if you know of anybody, friend, that s willing 
 to come across with the twenty-five I need to make 
 up my fare to Phoenix, the meerschaum s theirs." 
 
 The listener generally fell for the bargain, and by 
 the time the fraud was discovered and the constable 
 set on his trail, Charlie would be many miles away. 
 
 Of course, with the garage-keeper, he had to vary 
 his story, and adapt it to his character as can 
 vasser for "put-it-together-yourself furniture; but 
 he did it so effectively, that when he closed the trans 
 action, he had paid all charges against him and had 
 eleven dollars to boot.
 
 1 7 2 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "The poor fish," muttered Charlie as he rode away. 
 "He doesn t know it, but I m only accepting a loan 
 from him. I ll have Lorry straighten it out as soon 
 as I get back. Funny about it; I feel almost as if 
 I d been doing something dishonest. By George, it s 
 time for a man of my age to quit this fool roaming 
 about the country, and begin to think of settling 
 down. 
 
 "Mr. Juarez," he repeated thoughtfully. "By 
 Jiminy ! It sounded like music when she said it." 
 
 Then resolutely putting out of his mind the Prin 
 cess, the garage-keeper, Ranger, everything that inter 
 fered with his study of the problem before him, he 
 raced toward Long Island.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 IT was just about the time that Charlie had gained 
 from the Princess the clue which pointed to the 
 Sanitarium, that Hope and Kelsey in Bristow s 
 high-powered car went crashing through the hedge 
 and sweeping down the road. 
 
 Kelsey s plea to drive like the devil had been un 
 necessary. She was getting every ounce of speed 
 out of the motor as it was. 
 
 Their plan had been to drive west, change the car 
 at some garage, first disabling it, and then proceed 
 in another less conspicuous one to New York. 
 
 But Kelsey noticed that she had headed east, which 
 was well as it would lead the pursuit in that direction. 
 Half a mile beyond the hospital, though, she turned 
 into a narrow lane, and he soon saw that by circuitous 
 routes she was now making her way west. 
 
 Some of the ways she took were little more than 
 wheel-tracks through the scrub oak, and more than 
 once he was afraid she had run them into a cul-de-sac; 
 but always there appeared some unexpected bend or 
 cross-road into which she unerringly turned and 
 extricated them. 
 
 He recognized that she had spoken the simple truth 
 when she had said the day before that she knew 
 the Island like a book. 
 
 i73
 
 174 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 It was still broad daylight, their path streaked with 
 the rays of the setting sun. Kelsey wished that it 
 were October instead of June when, encompassed in 
 the shielding, thick, autumnal dusk, they could have 
 pursued a far more direct course. 
 
 Neither of them spoke. Crouched over the wheel, 
 Hope drove a valkyrie of a driver, and for the 
 time nothing more, every fiber of her bent on that. 
 And in the first ecstasy of escape, Kelsey gave no 
 thought to the dangers still before them. His pulses 
 beat to the high measure of freedom. There was 
 intoxication in this wild, onward rush. Action at 
 last, after days of stagnation! The sense of power 
 thrilled through him. He had matched his strength 
 and his wits against Bristow, and had won he and 
 she together. 
 
 How could they fail? He looked at her, and felt 
 that he saw her for the first time. Her face was set 
 straight before her; the wind and excitement had 
 whipped the color to her cheeks. Her eyes, dilated and 
 brilliant were on the road before her, noting, re 
 membering, calculating distances, tracing with the car 
 the devious ways of the map in her brain. He sensed 
 that she too was exalte; but the flame of her spirit 
 was sternly bound by will and purpose. 
 
 Twilight was falling now. As they whirled on, 
 following tangled and tortuous by-paths, he could no 
 longer see ahead of him. The gray, creeping dusk 
 was blotting out space, and time with it. The woods
 
 SWALLOWED .UP 175 
 
 that streamed by them were dim masses of shadow, 
 formless and strangely unsubstantial. The fancy 
 came to him that the earth was no longer beneath them, 
 that they were flying through cloud-banks. 
 
 In the faint chill of the night wind blowing in from 
 the sea, with the blurring dimness about them, his 
 first keen, sharp elation was gradually dulled. The 
 tingle of victory was dying within him. There was no 
 immediate sign that they were followed, and yet 
 there grew on him momentarily an ominous, sub 
 conscious sense of pursuit. 
 
 A vivid picture of what must be happening at the 
 hospital rose before him. 
 
 Morton would be working like mad to revive Bris- 
 tow. They would be pouring black coffee down his 
 throat and walking him up and down the floor. 
 Anita Copley, the embers of her murky eyes strik 
 ing hard points of fire, would be directing, sending 
 telephone messages, her first stormy panic congealed 
 to a steel-like efficiency. The old alderman, drawn 
 from his seclusion by the emergency, would be close 
 at hand, seated with his great, bony knuckles clasped 
 over the head of his stick, bowed vulture-like above 
 it, deadly executive. The systematic order of the in 
 stitution would be disorganized, the nurses whispering 
 in groups heedless of their patients, attendants run 
 ning about in confusion, car-loads of searchers dash 
 ing away from the door. 
 
 Kelsey knew that Hope too must be thinking of
 
 176 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 the craft and energy that would be employed in their 
 pursuit, and his admiration mounted for this slender 
 girl, who under such tension continued to drive with 
 all the ease and insouciance of a Ralph di Palma. 
 
 With a twist of the wheel she brought them out of 
 a lane they had been following through the scrub- 
 oak onto a more traveled highway, and ahead of them 
 he saw the lights of a garage. She slowed down and 
 stopped, rubbing her numb hands. 
 
 "Run ahead and reconnoiter," she said, "and I will 
 get ready to put the carburetor out of commission, 
 if the coast is clear. Then, with another car, we will 
 make a detour around that bend and strike into the 
 main road." 
 
 He was already out of the car, and starting on his 
 way. 
 
 Two or three minutes passed and then he came 
 running back. "There s a car there," he panted. 
 "There were men in it Bristow s chauffeur. The 
 garage men were gathered around it. We haven t a 
 second to lose. They re after us." 
 
 She jumped into her seat, and slewed the machine 
 sharply around. They whizzed down the road and 
 back into the scrub-oak again. He heard shouts be 
 hind them, and the loud honking of a horn, with an 
 answering honk-honk to the right and left the baying 
 of the pack. 
 
 Kelsey felt not the bitterness of defeat, but of re-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 177 
 
 volt. He had hoped from the beginning that if they 
 were taken it might be by some officer of the law. 
 They could then make such a scene, their story would 
 be so sensational, that it would force attention. Hope 
 might even gain consent to speak to her father over 
 the telephone. They would all know her photographs 
 by heart. The resemblance to the lost girl could not 
 fail to strike them, and. any constable or deputy 
 sheriff would take chances on earning that one hun 
 dred thousand dollars reward, no matter how wild a 
 gamble it might seem. 
 
 But Anita Copley had evidently done her best to 
 combat that possibility. It was probable that she had 
 limited the pursuit to the attendants of the hospital. 
 That would mean at most half a dozen cars out after 
 them, and all those men, including Higgins s chauffeur 
 and Bristow s, knew the island as thoroughly as Hope 
 did. 
 
 He had once or twice thought of stopping at some 
 farm-house and requesting the use of the telephone; 
 but he knew that the news would spread like wild 
 fire, and what householder would admit them, two 
 young vigorous maniacs who had just made a desperate 
 escape from an asylum. 
 
 And now what earthly chance had they? Hope 
 might continue to weave through these by-roads and 
 twist and turn on their trail like a fox ; but the hunters 
 were pressing them hard.
 
 1 7 8- SWALLOWED UP 
 
 He looked back, and as he did so, a car shot out 
 from an intersecting road and took after them. It 
 gained steadily. 
 
 "They ve got us pocketed," he said. 
 
 "Not yet," The wind blew back her words to him. 
 
 They had come to a point where the road forked 
 in three directions. She turned into the first one. 
 
 "We ll try for our old house now," she said. "We 
 can get to the back entrance by a short cut through 
 tEe woods just beyond here." 
 
 "Our old house?" He had not heard of it before. 
 "But the car. They will track us by that, no matter 
 where we go." 
 
 "Let them," she said briefly, and with what struck 
 him as remarkable sang froid under the circumstances. 
 
 He looked back again. 
 
 "They ve followed," he said. "They re on us now." 
 
 The words were hardly out of his mouth, when 
 there was a rush of wheels, the purr of an engine, 
 and the pursuing car shot by them to draw up ahead 
 in the middle of the road. 
 
 There was nothing for them but to stop. They 
 could not hope to pass in that narrow lane, and it was 
 equally impossible to turn. 
 
 As the car passed them, Kelsey had made out that 
 there were two men in it. One of them leaped over 
 the side, and came running back. 
 
 Kelsey flexed his muscles and waited. The man 
 hurrying toward him was a big burly fellow, but Kel-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 179 
 
 sey was no lightweight himself. Armed or unarmed, 
 he was ready for him, and then he d take on the other, 
 both at the same time for that matter. 
 
 The man held something in his hand, but it was 
 not a gun. 
 
 "That you, Dr. Bristow?" he said, coming close and 
 speaking in a harsh, husky whisper. He halted, his 
 jaw falling. "What, the!" 
 
 Hope leaned forward. "I am Miss Copley," she 
 said. "I wasn t quite sure of the Doctor s directions." 
 
 "Oh? Miss Copley ?" His truculence gave way to 
 relief. He thrust a bulky envelope into her hand 
 without a word, and turned back to his own car. 
 
 "Better let us get a piece ahead," he muttered over 
 his shoulder. "I ve got an idea we re being trailed. 
 We just shook off a couple of other cars." 
 
 He was gone. The car in front started and whizzed 
 on. There was no time for question or comment, 
 no time to express wonder at this strange incident. 
 Hope had thrown the envelope into Kelsey s lap, and 
 was once more driving at full speed. 
 
 The Merrick Road, wide and smooth, opened out be 
 fore them, and many automobiles were on it. 
 
 "We have to cross here," she murmured. "Pray 
 that our luck holds." 
 
 Kelsey sat taut while she drove down the highway 
 for about a quarter of a mile. Motors passed them, 
 going in both directions, but no one intercepted them. 
 Then she turned off, and soon they were in a tree-
 
 i8o SWALLOWED UP 
 
 lined lane, where the ground was rougher than any 
 over which they had passed. 
 
 They seemed to have thrown off the pursuit. The 
 fog was growing denser. There was no sound but the 
 bumping and creaking of the car over the ruts. Then 
 the stillness was broken by the staccato coughing of a 
 motor-cycle somewhere before them. 
 
 It grew louder. It was coming toward them. 
 Hopelessness pierced their rising hope. No turning 
 here ! This flat feeling of disenchantment. Their adven 
 ture was over. And yet, if it were only one man scout 
 ing for them, Kelsey believed he might manage him. 
 
 The explosive racket drummed on their ears. A head 
 light rayed yellow through the fog. Panic seized Hope. 
 In the open, with a choice of branching roads where she 
 could twist and double, her nerve held; but here, cor 
 nered at last, she yielded to an unreasoning impulse. 
 
 Before Kelsey realized her intention, she jerked the 
 car to the left in so short a turn that they made it on 
 two wheels. 
 
 He saw an open space before him. A tall stump 
 seemed to rise out of the ground. She swerved fran 
 tically to avoid it, and they crashed into a tree. Black 
 ness! He knew no more. 
 
 Hope thrown clear of the wreck struggled for her 
 breath, and then rose uncertainly to her knees. A man 
 was bending over her. 
 
 "You hurt?" She could dimly see his white, fright 
 ened face. The motor-cycle stood at the side of the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 181 
 
 road. "Want to get up? That s good." His hand 
 was under her elbow, helping her to rise. 
 
 She stared blankly at the crumpled bulk of the over 
 turned car, and then ran toward it, stifling a scream. 
 
 "Oh, where, where ?" she cried, and stopped. 
 
 Kelsey lay almost at her feet, motionless, half under 
 the tonneau. 
 
 The man caught him by the shoulders and dragged 
 him out. Hope dropped down beside him, moaning 
 faintly. She lifted his head and it fell limply against 
 her arm. The blood was running down over his 
 temple, clotting his hair. 
 
 Juarez Charlie was running practiced hands over 
 his body. "He s breathing," he said, but shook his 
 head. "Looks to me like a fractured skull." 
 
 She forgot everything, their plight, the probability 
 that this stranger was sent to capture them; and cried 
 out, imploring him. 
 
 "Oh, go! Go for a doctor at once." 
 
 "I ll have one here in no time." He started for his 
 motor-cycle. "Sure you re all right?" 
 
 She thrust out her palms as if to push him on his 
 way. 
 
 "Oh, don t mind me. Hurry! Hurry!" 
 
 He jumped to the saddle, caught his spark almost 
 immediately, and the jerky crackle of his machine was 
 soon lost in the distance. 
 
 Hope made a pad of her own handkerchief, and 
 taking Kelsey s from his pocket folded a bandage of
 
 1 82 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 it and bound it about his forehead. Then with his 
 head on her lap, she waited, bending over him. 
 
 At last he stirred, there was a flutter of his lids, and 
 he opened his eyes. 
 
 "Oh, you re alive!" she cried. He looked at her 
 dazedly for a second, and then tried to sit up. 
 
 "What s happened?" he asked. 
 
 "The car turned over, and you were unconscious." 
 
 "And yon?" 
 
 "Oh, I m all right. I was only shaken up a little." 
 
 His eyes veered to the ruin of the car. "Good 
 heavens ! They ve got us sure. To think that it s all 
 ended so." 
 
 "No!" vehemently. "Not if you can walk. The 
 house is near. It s an old place that my father owns," 
 she explained. "I spent every summer here when I 
 was a child. It s empty now; the old caretaker died 
 about six months ago." 
 
 He got up and took a staggering step or two. 
 
 "Lean on me," she said quickly. 
 
 "I ll have to, I m afraid." 
 
 A hedge loomed ahead of them. With some dif 
 ficulty she guided him to a gap in it, and they slipped 
 through. The house was only a short distance away. 
 
 "Wait!" she ran toward it, and circled to the rear, 
 trying the windows as she went. He followed more 
 slowly. 
 
 "Here s a broken pane !" she called cautiously. 
 
 Joining her, he slipped his fingers through the jag 
 ged hole, unlocked the sash and pushed it up.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 WITHOUT waiting for Kelsey s rather shaky 
 assistance, Hope clambered through the 
 window. Following more slowly, he closed 
 and relocked it. 
 
 The air of the room was oppressively stale, the flat, 
 lifeless atmosphere of an uninhabited house. 
 
 Swaying on his feet, Kelsey reached out for some 
 support and clutched a table. He sat down on it 
 heavily. His ears were singing, his eyes blind. The 
 world was slipping away from him again. 
 
 "George!" Hope s voice was quick with anxiety. 
 She put her arm about his shoulders, and shook him 
 slightly. "George! What is it?" 
 
 That "George" was a spur to his ebbing will. He 
 pulled himself together with a tremendous effort. 
 There was no time for him to sit here nursing his con 
 fused, dizzy head. She needed him. 
 
 She was untying the bandage, and he felt her light, 
 cool fingers on his forehead. It was deliciously sooth 
 ing. He wanted to put his head down on her 
 shoulder, and stay so. But he dared not yield to 
 magic now. 
 
 She moved swiftly away from him, and he heard 
 
 the sound of running water across the room. "I m 
 
 183
 
 1 84 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 going to wet this handkerchief," she said, "here at 
 the sink. This is the kitchen." 
 
 "Wait!" He got up and made his zig-zag way 
 toward her. "Let me get my head under the faucet." 
 
 The cold water was a marvelous restorative, re 
 freshing and stimulating him. 
 
 "Is the cut still bleeding?" she asked. 
 
 "No ; the blood has clotted on it. It s only a scratch 
 anyway. Ah!" He inhaled deeply and stood upright, 
 brushing the water from his face. "I m all right 
 now." 
 
 "But it s dangerous drawing water," he said. 
 "They ll know we ve been here." 
 
 "Let it run a little," she suggested. "It will look 
 as if it had been left so a long time." 
 
 "That s so," he said. "And now we ve got to plan 
 our next move. You know this place, the house and 
 grounds. They ll be here soon, and they re bound to 
 track us to the house. We ve got to get out. Is 
 there any way we can throw them off?" 
 
 "We stay right here. They won t find us." There 
 was an irrepressible, mischievous bubble in her low 
 laughter. "Leave that to me. I know every inch of 
 this place. Give me your matches." 
 
 "You mustn t strike a match here." 
 
 "Not here of course. But in the closet there. 
 Quick give them to me. Oh, don t be afraid. I 
 shall close the door." 
 
 Here, as on their wild drive, she had taken the initi-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 185 
 
 ative, and still protesting, he reluctantly gave her the 
 box. 
 
 She laughed again; and he heard a door open and 
 close. A moment and she came back. 
 
 "Good hunting," she said. "I went after provisions 
 and found a box of crackers and some jam. My father 
 comes down here occasionally for the duck-shooting, 
 and I thought something might have been left. 
 
 "Now come with me." She slipped her free hand 
 in his, and led him through what seemed to be a dining- 
 room into the hall, and then up a flight of stairs. 
 
 Kelsey stopped. "What s your idea?" he asked. 
 "To hide in the attic? That won t do. They ll make 
 for that the first thing. The house is impossible; 
 there won t be a crevice or a cranny overlooked. Out 
 side, we may have a ghost of a chance. The woods 
 will be well beaten of course. But we might hide out 
 on them. With good luck we might reach the coast 
 and secure a boat. If I m not at home in a car, I am 
 on the water." 
 
 "We re not going to the attic. Come on." She 
 tugged at his sleeve. "Don t stand there and argue. I 
 know what I m doing." 
 
 Her certainty, the mysterious elation in her tone, 
 her air of leading him to a new adventure overbore 
 his judgment. And after all, whatever they did was 
 a hazard. Success or failure lay in the toss of a coin. 
 
 He yielded the point, and followed her without fur 
 ther remonstrance into a long, low-ceiled chamber
 
 1 86 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 which he assumed to be directly above the dining-room. 
 
 "Now you can rest for a moment," she said, guiding 
 him to a chair. "Sit down. And, please, the matches 
 again. Oh," anticipating his objection, "there will be 
 no light that can be seen from the outside." 
 
 His eyes accustomed to the darkness made out a 
 great stone fireplace at one side of the room. She 
 passed it, a light, gliding shadow among shadows, and 
 stood before the wall beyond, in front of an old- 
 fashioned cupboard about two feet above the floor. 
 She stepped into it. There was a tiny spurt of light 
 as she struck a match. 
 
 By it, he saw her kneeling figure close to the dark 
 wood which lined the back of the closet. Her hand 
 strangely white in the brief yellow flare focused his 
 eyes with its sure, definite movements. One finger 
 outstretched, she was tapping the boards rapidly. 
 Counting, was she? 
 
 The match went out. He heard her jump down, 
 and she came toward him in an airy rush. Her re 
 surgent vitality brought life to the close, dust-laden 
 room, and in his fancy she filled it with light and color. 
 
 "You think we re caught in a trap like poor little 
 mice, but we re not." She beat her hands lightly on 
 his chest, her feet dancing. 
 
 "Let me tell you," she forced herself to sober co 
 herency. "This is an old, old house, built in the early 
 days of the Colonies, when people had to be constantly
 
 SWALLOWED UP 187 
 
 on guard against the Indians and provide ways of es 
 cape. Can you make out that big, old-time chimney 
 where the fireplace is? It runs up from the cellar 
 and there is a fireplace just like this in the dining- 
 room below, and another back of it in the kitchen 
 which is in an ell or wing not quite so high as the 
 main house. 
 
 "The chimney tapers gradually as it goes up, and 
 so is narrower on this floor than on the one beneath. 
 That leaves a space on either side of it up here, and 
 the colonists utilized this as a hidden passage by 
 which they could get to the rear of the house if the 
 front was taken, or vice-versa. The entrance on this 
 side is through that cupboard where you saw me. All 
 you have to do is to slide back two of the boards, and 
 you are inside. Then by passing around the chimney, 
 you can get out through a similar opening into the 
 attic of the kitchen wing. Once there, you must crawl 
 across the rafters, drop through a scuttle into a small 
 room over the kitchen, and from this down a stair 
 way to the woodshed outside. But it will not be 
 necessary for us to do all that. We shall simply hide 
 in the passage-way until the search is over." 
 
 "Great Scott!" He wanted to shout. It seemed 
 extraordinary banal to hear himself asking: "And can 
 we stand upright in it, and breathe?" 
 
 "Oh, yes; it s pitchy of course, but air gets in 
 through the crevices."
 
 1 88 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 She took up the crackers and jam from a chair, and 
 going back to the cupboard, stowed them in the aper 
 ture. 
 
 "Now I ll get some pillows to sit on. We ll be 
 luxurious." 
 
 She gathered them up from a couch, and stuffed 
 them also into the passage. 
 
 A thought pricked the bubble of Iws exultation. 
 "But surely this is known all over the neighborhood?" 
 
 "No," positively. "My father showed it to me 
 when I was about twelve years old. I had never 
 heard a whisper of it before; and I would have, if it 
 had been gossiped about. The servants would have 
 been full of it." 
 
 "If that s true," he drew himself up, "we ve got a 
 fighting chance." 
 
 "Listen!" she interrupted sibilantly. 
 
 Through the dead quiet of the night they heard 
 the sound of a motor more than one. They went 
 to the window. Along the rough road they had come 
 they saw headlights apfloaching, moons of orange 
 through the fog. There was a stop where their car 
 had crashed. Men piled out, and with electric torches 
 followed their foot-steps through the hedge and to 
 the house. They heard the sound of voices below. 
 A narrow shaft of light was upflung to the window, 
 and they cowered back. 
 
 "Hurry! We must hide now," she urged. 
 
 He stepped up into the cupboard, and crept into the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 189 
 
 passage behind. She closed the cupboard-door and 
 slipped the concealing panel into place. 
 
 "Sit down on the pillows, and we shan t make a 
 sound," she ordered. 
 
 Heavy thuds on a door below, reverberating 
 through the house. Then the tramp of feet and the 
 slamming of other doors. Men were on the stairs 
 now. Passing the chamber door, they went on up 
 another flight to the attic. They made racket enough 
 there. Furniture was flung about; there was the roll 
 of heavy pieces on castors, the scrape and thump of 
 trunks and boxes moved with difficulty. 
 
 They came down at last to begin their search of 
 this floor, and now they were in the room. The cup 
 board doors were jerked open; threads of light 
 streaked through the cracks of the panel. Kelsey 
 and Hope sat motionless, hardly daring to breathe, 
 her hand clasped tight in his. 
 
 "Well, they re not in the attic nor yet on this floor : 
 we know that," said a voice. "And Kelly and Weeks 
 don t seem to have had any better luck downstairs 
 and in the cellar." 
 
 "I never did believe they were in the house," 
 grumbled another voice. "They d have been fools, 
 with that patch of woods before em." 
 
 "Let s go. We haven t overlooked a rat-hole," 
 said the first. 
 
 The sound of their voices grew fainter. Then they 
 heard other voices raised in argument in the hall down-
 
 1 90 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 stairs. There was more movement, and finally the 
 banging of the front door. The men were gone. 
 
 Hope and Kelsey waited in that unearthly silence 
 for a long time; some one might have been left be 
 hind, might even be in the room. 
 
 At last, careful not to make the least noise, she 
 slid back the panel and looked out. 
 
 "They ve left," she whispered ecstatically. 
 
 "Sh-h!" he whispered back, his mouth close to her 
 ear. 
 
 Again they waited and listened. 
 
 "There s no one about," she said finally. "But it s 
 safer to stay here for the present." She leaned nearer 
 solicitously. "How is your poor head?" 
 
 "M-m. Not so good. But it will be all right in 
 the morning." 
 
 "You re hungry. It aches because you are hungry. 
 I am, too." 
 
 She made small, rustling noises opening the cracker 
 box. 
 
 "Good thing I brought a knife. I m a wise, old 
 campaigner. I ve camped out too many times not to 
 remember that a kingdom was lost for want of a knife." 
 
 "Horseshoe nail," he corrected. 
 
 She stifled her laughter. "Knife. But have it 
 your own way. Oh, it s hard to spread jam in the 
 dark. Give me your hand." 
 
 Their fingers touched, and she laid a cracker in 
 his palm.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 191 
 
 "I ve never tasted anything quite so good," he 
 affirmed. 
 
 "Nor I. The crackers are musty, but it improves 
 the flavor." 
 
 "You were wonderful to think of them. But you 
 always are the most wonderful His voice 
 
 broke. He caught her, and held her to him crush- 
 ingly. "You re safe still safe. What a night!" 
 He buried his face in her hair. "But they haven t 
 got you. If they do, they ll have to kill me first." 
 
 Her arms were about his neck, her cheek against 
 his. 
 
 "I almost killed you with that car," she said. "If 
 I had, I shouldn t have cared if they had taken me." 
 She ran her light fingers over his eyes. "His dear, 
 broken head," she said tenderly. 
 
 "Oh !" She drew back with a sudden recollection. 
 "I forgot ; we both forgot. That envelope those men 
 gave us!" 
 
 "By George! Have I got it?" Kelsey thrust his 
 hand in his pocket and brought it out. "It s thick, 
 whatever it is feels like papers. It must be for 
 Bristow. Clever of you to play Anita Copley. They 
 gave it to you without question. Close the panel, 
 and we ll strike a match and see what it is." 
 
 "Matches smell. If they should come back 
 
 "There s air here. The smell will be gone in a 
 minute." 
 
 Her curiosity was as great as his. She struck the
 
 1 92 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 match. The light made them blink. He ripped open 
 the envelope. 
 
 "Liberty bonds!" with a gasp. "A bunch of them." 
 
 "Liberty bonds?" she repeated. "And for Bristow. 
 But why were they so furtive about it that lonely 
 road their fear of being trailed? I believe they re 
 stolen." 
 
 "More than likely. Let s count them. Strike an 
 other match." 
 
 She did so, and held it until it burned her fingers. 
 
 "An even hundred thousand dollars," he said in an 
 awed tone. "Ten bonds of ten thousand apiece." 
 
 "A hundred thous !" She clutched his 
 
 shoulder. "Why, that s my ransom. It must be it. 
 Oh, I m free, free! You can go to Bristow now, 
 and give it to him." 
 
 "My dear! My dear!" He drew her close with 
 protecting arms. "If I went to him with two hundred 
 thousand, he wouldn t let either of us go. He wouldn t 
 dare." 
 
 "That s true," she murmured. He felt her droop 
 against him. "I thought for a moment, we were out 
 of all our troubles." 
 
 "We re going to get out of them," he said stoutly. 
 "They ll be searching the woods for a while yet, but 
 they ll get tired of that. Then will be our chance to 
 slip out. Are you sleepy?" 
 
 "No; I m too excited." 
 
 "Well, I am. No sleep for two nights, and this
 
 SWALLOWED UP 193 
 
 crack over my head. Here, take my watch, and wake 
 me at the end of an hour. Then you must sleep for 
 the same time. We ll need clear heads and all our 
 strength, once we get started." 
 
 "Let me see the time." She struck another match. 
 "It s just eleven o clock. I ll wake you promptly at 
 twelve. Now go by-by." 
 
 Kelsey stretched himself out, and she slipped a 
 cushion under his head. He was hardly conscious of 
 it. A deadly exhaustion had come over him. His 
 lids were like weights of iron pressing down his eyes. 
 Almost at once he was asleep.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 HOPE sat in the cramped dark space beside 
 the sleeper, her chin on her drawn-up knees, 
 her hands clasped about them, listening to 
 his slow, regular breathing. 
 
 Her thoughts drifted back over their brief associ 
 ation. How unerringly she had been drawn to him! 
 How quick had been his understanding, how sympa 
 thetic, how clever his assistance, how strong, how cap 
 able, how tender. 
 
 The paradox of her position struck her. Here she 
 was, a fugitive, hunted like a thief, driven to a pre 
 carious refuge, separated from friends, family, home, 
 and not knowing whether she would ever see any of 
 them again, dangers all about her, her only prop a 
 stranger whose very name had been unknown to her a 
 month before. And yet at this moment life held a 
 savor, a richness, a meaning that all the ease and free 
 dom and luxury she had known had never given her. 
 She loved him, and he loved her. 
 
 She stretched out her hand to touch his hair. Then 
 quickly drew it back. A loud creak in the room out 
 side snapped on her ears like a pistol-shot and brought 
 her to a convulsive attention. She sat there motion 
 less, every faculty keyed to concert-pitch. But there 
 was no further noise. Only the unbroken, stagnant 
 
 194
 
 SWALLOWED UP 195 
 
 silence. At last she relaxed. It was but the settling 
 of the old house. Her vigil would be full of these 
 night noises. She must steel her nerves to that sort 
 of thing. 
 
 How long had she been watching? The hour must 
 be almost up. It would be a shame to wake him. 
 She drew out the watch and glanced at its luminous 
 dial. Only ten minutes after eleven. She could 
 hardly believe that it had not stopped. It seemed to 
 her that ages had passed. 
 
 The black stillness wrapped itself about her like a 
 cloak. Kelsey was sleeping so deeply now that she 
 got the idea he was no longer breathing. In terror 
 she bent closer, and her fingers went fluttering to his 
 face. He stirred slightly at her touch, drew a short 
 breath or two, and then as she withdrew her hand, 
 relapsed into that profound slumber. 
 
 She resumed her musings. Just when she became 
 conscious of the approach of a motor, she could not 
 tell. Its pulsating throb seemed to have been beating 
 on the air for some seconds, before she recognized 
 what it was. She thrust her head forward, listening. 
 Driven at high speed, it was coming nearer. Sig 
 nificant, on this unfrequented road. 
 
 She debated a moment whether to wake Kelsey, 
 but deciding to make sure first that an actual danger 
 threatened them, she softly pushed back the panel and 
 slipped out into the room and over to the window. 
 
 The car, a speedy roadster containing two men,
 
 196 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 whirled in at the gate and up the weed-grown drive, 
 and stopped with a grinding of the brakes almost 
 directly beneath her. 
 
 Out from the shadow of the porch came a man and 
 walked toward it. Kelsey s prudence in not leaving 
 their retreat too soon was justified. The searchers 
 had left some one on guard. The driver of the car 
 jumped out to meet him; and as they moved forward 
 into the glare of the head-lamps, Hope shrank back 
 trembling. The figure in the long, light motor-coat 
 was Bristow. 
 
 The two stood talking, the man evidently giving 
 his report, Bristow breaking in with short, direct in 
 quiries. 
 
 Hope forced herself to conquer her frightened re 
 coil, and again drew as near the window as she dared. 
 If only she could hear what they were saying! Some 
 thing might be dropped which would indicate the scope 
 and nature of their plans. 
 
 Never taking her eyes off them, and with infinite 
 pains, she unlatched the window and raised the lower 
 sash a fraction. By a miracle it lifted easily, and 
 without a squeak. Kneeling on the floor, she laid 
 her ear close to the sill. The voices floated up to her 
 distinctly. 
 
 "No doubt about their having given you boneheads 
 the slip," Bristow was saying. He did not raise his 
 voice nor storm, but the man cringed at his tone. 
 "You re sure, they didn t get into the house?"
 
 SWALLOWED UP 197 
 
 "I don t see how they could have. We went over 
 it with a fine-tooth comb." 
 
 "Then it s no use spending further time here. You 
 say the others have been down in the woods for an 
 hour? That ought to be long enough to look under 
 every bush and behind every stump. Kelsey s too 
 cunning to hope to find cover in that little patch of 
 trees, and he d keep clear of roads and houses, too. 
 He d strike for the shore, aiming to steal a boat and 
 get away in the fog. I ve already blocked that move; 
 we ll have them by morning. But those fellows down 
 in the woods will be more useful on the beach. Call 
 them in." 
 
 The man drew a whistle from his pocket and blew 
 piercingly on it. 
 
 Hope s heart was singing. Within a few minutes 
 the pack would be off on their false scent. Perhaps 
 it might be best to remain in the old house for an 
 other day ; she would consult Kelsey about that when 
 she woke him. At any rate, they would not have to 
 act on the exigencies of the moment. They would 
 have time to decide upon the safest course for them 
 to take, and plan it in detail. 
 
 Bristow was tramping up and down the drive below. 
 She saw him stop short and turn his head toward the 
 road in the direction opposite to that which he him 
 self had come. She caught at the same time the 
 thrumming of another motor. 
 
 "Who s that?" Bristow exclaimed.
 
 i 9 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 He had not long to wait for his answer. The car, 
 a physician s runabout, turned in at the gate and drove 
 up. A thin, elderly man got out and stepped toward 
 Bristow. 
 
 "Ah, Dr. Creamer; you?" Bristow reverted to his 
 more suave and courteous manner, although there was 
 interrogation in his tone. 
 
 "I see you got ahead of me," said the other. "Was 
 it a serious injury?" 
 
 "Injury?" Bristow stared at him. "I don t know 
 what you re talking about. I m out after two run 
 away patients." 
 
 "So?" Creamer clicked his tongue commiseratingly. 
 "But I got a call to come out here to an automobile 
 accident. I was away from my office at the time." 
 His voice like himself was rather mild and vague. 
 
 "Oh, I see." Bristow nodded. "That must have 
 been my two patients. They took my car and made 
 kindling-wood of it just the other side of the hedge 
 there. But their own injuries must have been trifling, 
 if they had any. At least they ve been able to show a 
 clean pair of heels to my men, and But," ab 
 ruptly, "who gave you word of this accident, 
 Doctor?" 
 
 "Well, that was the funny part of it," Creamer be 
 gan in his slow way. "I was out on a call, as I tell 
 you, over to Melville Hawkins s on the Port Jefferson 
 Road, and when I got back my wife told me that Tom 
 Simonds, the garage man, had been trying to get me.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 199 
 
 I called Tom up, and he said that about ten o clock 
 some fellow on a motor-cycle had come dashing up 
 to his place and wanted to know how to get to the 
 nearest doctor, saying there had been a terrible accident 
 out this way car overturned with a man and a woman 
 in it, the woman apparently not hurt but the man 
 either dead or dying." 
 
 "Did Simonds know this man on the motor-cycle?" 
 Bristow interjected. 
 
 "That s the joke I was just coming to. Tom, it 
 seems, had been talking over the wire to his brother 
 Ben not two minutes before. You remember Ben, 
 Doctor ; moved away and started a garage up in West- 
 chester County. Well, he had been swindled earlier 
 in the evening by a slick stranger that came along and 
 sold him an imitation meerschaum pipe. He gave Tom 
 a description of the chap, and asked him to look out 
 for him if he ever happened to come this way. And, 
 sir, Tom had hardly got through talking to him and 
 rung off, when in popped the identical fellow with this 
 story of the accident. 
 
 "Tom s a deputy sheriff, you know, and he walked 
 Mr. Swindler right over to the calaboose. He wasn t 
 inclined to take much stock in anything the fellow said; 
 but the man was so persistent about this accident, that 
 he finally telephoned to me. 
 
 "Of course," he rambled on, "considerable time 
 had elapsed before I got the message, and it was prob 
 able., that the people had already been, attended to.,
 
 200 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 But then again, they might not. It s a lonely section 
 out here. So I came on the chance that I might be 
 needed." 
 
 "You didn t talk to this fellow in the calaboose 
 yourself?" Bristow asked sharply. 
 
 "No; I got the story from Tom." 
 
 "And Simonds didn t say whether this motor-cyclist 
 knew the man and woman in the car?" He put the 
 question with tightened lips. 
 
 "Not that I recollect, although I sort of gathered 
 the impression that they were strangers to him. Why 
 do you ask, Doctor? Think these runaways of yours 
 had help from the outside?" 
 
 "These patients would, have neither the influence 
 nor the money for that." Bristow made a hasty dis 
 claiming gesture. "No; my idea was that they might 
 have babbled something to him something of their 
 plans, I mean. I suppose Simonds will hold his pris 
 oner on this swindling charge?" 
 
 "With his own brother making the complaint?" 
 Creamer cackled derisively. 
 
 "When I get my flown birds, I may drop over and 
 have a talk with the fellow. At present I m too busy 
 directing the search. We tracked them to the point 
 where they had overturned the car, but since then they 
 seem to have vanished into the air. It s certain they re 
 not in the house, and we ve been going through the 
 woods for over an hour without any results. 
 
 "Whistle again for those men, John," he ordered
 
 SWALLOWED UP 201 
 
 impatiently. "They re taking all night to come in." 
 
 Creamer gave a jump as the shrill blast was re 
 peated. He had been staring at the house, lost in 
 thought, piecing together the fragments of some old 
 memory. 
 
 "Look here, Doctor," he laid his hand on Bristow s 
 arm; "wasn t it from the Rose heirs that Loring Ran 
 ger bought this property? Or no; you wouldn t re 
 member. That was twenty years ago, before your 
 time. But no matter; I m sure that it was. And I ve 
 got a sort of a dim recollection of a story I heard when 
 I first started in practice here, that one of the Rose 
 houses it may not have been this one ; it might have 
 been Jim Rose s place over east, or Dave Rose s down 
 on the shore but one of them anyhow, so the tale 
 went, was built with a secret hiding-place in it for 
 escape from the Indians." 
 
 "What?" Bristow s voice was like the clang of 
 steel on iron. 
 
 "But as I say," Creamer maundered on; "it might 
 not be this house at all. And even if it is, how would 
 those patients of yours know anything about it." 
 
 "You never can tell what a lunatic knows," said 
 Bristow darkly. "We ll search the house again. 
 Some one in the neighborhood must know the way 
 to that hiding-place, some of the old people?" 
 
 "They ve all died off. And I don t believe any of 
 the present generation of Roses would know either. 
 They re only distant cousins."
 
 202 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Never mind." Bristow brushed discussion aside. 
 "If it s there, I ll find it. Wherever it is, I ll find it 
 if I have to tear the old barracks apart, board by 
 board. Are those fellows never coming 1 , John? 
 Give them another whistle, and keep at it until they 
 show up. 
 
 "You see," he explained to Creamer, "I ve got to 
 get those two without loss of time. The woman 
 is a sister of my head nurse, Miss Copley. She s in 
 a terrible state about the girl. The man is danger 
 ous marked homicidal mania. He made a murder 
 ous attack on me just before he left. I don t dare 
 to think what may happen." 
 
 Hope knelt at the window frozen into immobility. 
 She had felt so secure, so certain that they had thrown 
 dust into Bristow s eyes, that Creamer s revelation 
 drawn from the dusty pigeon-holes of his memory 
 came like a physical blow on her heart, stunning her 
 into a paralysis of thought and feeling. 
 
 This was the end of their brave adventure. They 
 would be taken. She realized it impersonally, the 
 whole ignominious capture ; but it didn t seem to mean 
 anything to her. 
 
 She looked at Creamer, mild, kindly, no suggestion 
 of the bloodhound about him. They had baffled, out 
 matched Bristow. And then at the last minute he 
 had been led to the scent by this garrulous, old country 
 doctor. 
 
 One great,, heaving s.ob broke through her lios..
 
 SWALLOWED UP 203 
 
 The torpid blood ran scorching through her veins. 
 She had never known what it was to hate, but now 
 she quivered, burned with a savage fury. She wanted 
 to throw herself on this frail, old man, choke him, 
 tear his face with her finger-nails. 
 
 He was to blame. Through his officious tattles, 
 she and Kelsey would be dragged back to that hor 
 rible place. 
 
 No! Her spirit rose in revolt. That should not 
 be. If they could not both escape, one of them must. 
 But how? How? 
 
 Suppose one of them were to surrender, and mis 
 lead Bristow as to the whereabouts of the other? But 
 which one? Oh, not she. It was Hope Ranger they 
 really wanted. She couldn t go back. And yet Kel 
 sey, as a man, had the better chance. He could pass 
 unnoticed where she, a woman, would be stopped 
 and questioned. Yes ; she was the one to go. 
 
 In the pocket of her jacket was a pencil and some 
 of the paper she had used in her senseless scribbling. 
 Hastily she wrote on one of the sheets : 
 
 "Bristow knows there is a hiding-place in the house. 
 I am going to give myself up. Reach my father. Love 
 forever. 
 
 Hope." 
 
 Without giving her impulse time to cool, she hur 
 ried back to the cupboard and crept into the passage, 
 closing the panel carefully behind her. Kelsey still 
 lay in deep, exhausted sleep. She bent over him,
 
 204 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 her lips near to his; then drew back, fearing to waken 
 him. Very gently she slipped the note between his re 
 laxed fingers, and then felt her way along the wall 
 until she reached the other exit. 
 
 She was delayed here for a second or two in man 
 ipulating the panel, but accomplished it ; and through 
 inky blackness wormed on hands and knees across 
 the rafters of the kitchen-loft to the scuttle. Still in 
 blackness she swung herself down through it and 
 dropped. 
 
 Just as she let go, the terrifying thought came to her 
 that the floor might have been removed from the kit 
 chen chamber, and she go crashing down the full 
 depth of the ell. But the next instant she landed 
 with a little thud on the solid boards, and groped her 
 way to the stairs descending to the woodshed in the 
 rear of the house. 
 
 How they creaked ! It seemed to her that every step 
 she took must advertise her to the group out on the 
 driveway. She could hear plainly the blowing of 
 the whistle, and even the crunching of their boots on 
 the gravel. 
 
 The woodshed door grated wheezily, too, as she 
 tried to open it. For all she could do, the rusty old 
 hinges whined in a high, complaining key as she drew 
 it back. 
 
 Outside at last; and still no sign that she had at 
 tracted any attention. Shielded by two or three out 
 buildings, and concealed by patches of shrubbery, she
 
 SWALLOWED UP 205 
 
 reached the gap in the hedge. Passing through it, 
 she made a quick detour to the right to muddy her 
 skirt and shoes in the trickle of a brook; and so 
 at last came to the open space where the wrecked auto 
 mobile lay. 
 
 She heard the men approaching who had been 
 whistled back from the woods, and began dodging 
 from tree to tree as if attempting to hide. 
 
 They saw her as she had intended they should. 
 They stopped, stalked her, closed in about her. Two 
 of them caught her. She made a show of struggle, 
 but they held her fast by the arms. 
 
 In answer to their shouts, Bristow and the others 
 came running through the hedge. 
 
 "Ah!" he said with unctuous satisfaction as if a 
 weight had been suddenly removed from his chest. 
 "Now to get the other one." His eyes were like points 
 of steel as he came close to Hope. 
 
 "Where s Kelsey?" he demanded. 
 
 She looked at him vacantly. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "Kelsey," he repeated, "the man you went away 
 with. Where is he?" 
 
 "That man? He was under the automobile; there 
 was blood on him." 
 
 "Yes, yes. But what became of him?" 
 
 She leaned toward him with the air of imparting 
 a confidence. 
 
 "That man is crazy. He said he wasn t, but I
 
 206 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 know better. I wanted him to hide in the woods. 
 I know these woods." She passed her hand uncer 
 tainly over her forehead. "I don t know how I know 
 them, but I do. I wanted him to hide here, but he 
 wouldn t do it. He talked about getting a boat down 
 on the beach, and when I wouldn t go with him he 
 ran away." She waved her hand vaguely toward 
 the shore. 
 
 "But you were both in the house?" Bristow held 
 her with his compelling, hypnotic gaze. 
 
 "The house? I know the house too. I told him. 
 But," plaintively, "he wouldn t go. I ve lost my pen 
 cil, and I can t write. Please give me a pencil." 
 
 Bristow s eyes bored through her, but she looked 
 beyond him listlessly indifferent. 
 
 Finally he gave a curt order to have her taken 
 back to the hospital. As she took her place in the 
 motor between two attendants, she stole a covert glance 
 at him. His face was impenetrable. Did he believe 
 her? Would he still search the house? Had she 
 saved Kelsey, or really accomplished anything at all? 
 
 Again in the sanitarium, in that muffled atmosphere 
 of secrecy and silence, encompassed by reticence and 
 reserve, she would know only by results. 
 
 The tension to which she had been keyed all evening 
 broke, and the reaction was correspondingly acute. 
 She shivered. Her courage was gone. She felt weak, 
 helpless, afraid. She thought of Higgins, a gray, 
 evil old bird of prey; of Bristow, brilliant, plausible
 
 SWALLOWED UP 207 
 
 to the point of making black seem white, the iron hand 
 in the velvet glove; of Anita Copley, avaricious, poi 
 sonous, unfettered by scruples. 
 
 It came to her with stunning force, that unless Kel- 
 sey were speedily recaptured, these would see the im 
 minent collapse of their whole carefully-built structure 
 of extortion and blackmail, their personal safety and 
 reputation in jeopardy. They would never permit 
 that. They would go to any lengths to obliterate 
 all proof against them. 
 
 Oh, what was before her? What?
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 KELSEY woke up slowly, draggingly from his 
 long, exhausted sleep and blinked his heavy 
 eyes. 
 
 Why, it was daylight! She hadn t wakened him. 
 She had let him sleep all night. But light? 
 
 His whole sleep-fogged brain was roused now. 
 Why was the panel open? Ah! There she stood in 
 it No! It was a man. 
 
 He was on his feet in that narrow space with the 
 sharp leap of an uncoiled spring. 
 
 "Hope?" The cry burst from him. It was at once 
 a call to her and an expression of the consternation 
 that struck through him. 
 
 Then he sprang. 
 
 The man in the opening ducked, and raised one 
 arm to shield himself. 
 
 "I m a friend! he cried, throwing himself against 
 the side of the cupboard. "Honest ; you can believe 
 me. A friend of Ranger s." 
 
 Kelsey loomed above him, still threatening; but 
 his lowering glance had shifted. What was this he 
 was holding in his clenched hand that bit of white 
 paper sticking through his fingers, between the spread 
 ing knuckles? 
 
 208
 
 SWALLOWED UP 209 
 
 Juarez Charlie had dodged; and quick as a cat on 
 his feet, stepped from the cupboard into the room. 
 
 "Come out, and look around you," he invited. 
 "Then you can see for yourself that there s no one 
 here." 
 
 Kelsey hardly heard him. He had unclosed his 
 hand, and was straightening out the paper. He could 
 see that there was something written on it, but the light 
 was too dim and gray for him to decipher it. He 
 was in the room and at the window in two strides. 
 
 Here he read Hope s message. The rain was dash 
 ing against the window-panes, the wind wailing about 
 the house. These were the only sounds. Kelsey stood 
 stiff and motionless, his arms hanging lifelessly, his 
 face the color of ashes and wretchedly haggard. 
 
 "And I slept through it ! I slept while she gave 
 herself up to save me!" 
 
 There was a deep wonder in his self-abasement. 
 He could not believe that he had done this incredible 
 thing. But he had. She was gone. Here was her 
 note. Facts. 
 
 The uprushing blood darkened his face. He whirled 
 savagely, and caught Charlie by the shoulder, shak 
 ing him hard. 
 
 "Who are you? One of their men? Did you help 
 take her?" 
 
 "I did not." Charlie wriggled like an eel from that 
 biting grasp and stood rubbing his shoulder. "I m 
 one of Ranger s men, Juarez Charlie. Do you get that ?
 
 210 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 It s a name that means something among the boys 
 that ride the plates and hang out in the jungles." 
 
 He swaggered, his hands in his trousers pockets, 
 his head at its most impudent angle. But, neverthe 
 less, he made Kelsey feel the serious purpose behind 
 his gasconade. And Charlie recognized this, and took 
 advantage of it. 
 
 "Now, please can the melodrama. We ve got to 
 get down to brass tacks with a hammer. It s the 
 grandest luck in the world, that I came on you this 
 morning. I ve been wandering about with one-third 
 of a picture-puzzle, trying to piece the rest out of the 
 air. And you ve got the other two-thirds. Holy 
 smoke! Between us, we can fit the whole thing to 
 gether." 
 
 "And leave her there? I guess not! You don t 
 know what they re capable of. Even now 
 
 Charlie reached the door ahead of him, and spread 
 his arms across it. 
 
 "I know just what they re capable of, son. Better 
 than you do, maybe. But they can t do things in a 
 minute. They know that I m on their trail, and that 
 I ve been in Barcelona. They think you re drowned." 
 
 "Drowned? Me?" Kelsey repeated. "In heaven s 
 name, why?" 
 
 "She told them you d made for the shore, and a 
 boat. Then, that terrific storm. Lord! Did you 
 sleep through that?" 
 
 "I seem to have slept through everything, but my
 
 SWALLOWED UP 211 
 
 own especial Judgment Day. I m going through that 
 now." 
 
 "But still," Charlie continued, "there s always the 
 chance of your being alive and at large. So, every 
 thing considered, they ve got a new situation before 
 them, something they haven t foreseen. They have 
 to plan new moves, cover trails, and provide bomb 
 proof alibis and excuses. That takes time. They 
 can t manufacture a lot of new machinery and set it 
 going all at once." 
 
 But, my God; if you re what you say you are, 
 one of Ranger s men, all you have to do is to go out 
 now and telephone him and the authorities." 
 
 "Oh, is it?" Charlie retorted with acrid sarcasm. 
 "If you d come down off your high horse and take 
 the road at a jog-trot, we d get along faster. This 
 thing isn t quite as simple as it sounds. You start 
 out to telephone, and you ll be nabbed sure. You can t 
 force me to go till I m ready. I ve got to find out 
 what you know first, and I m going to tell you what 
 I know. We ll have the whole scenario then, and can 
 get out on location, ready to shoot. 
 
 "Oh," seeing the unyielding stubbornness of Kelsey s 
 face. "I m not asking your right eye or left leg; 
 only ten minutes of your valuable time. Buck up, 
 son ; and believe that I know what I m talking about. 
 Here," he held out his sack of tobacco and cigarette 
 papers ; "calm your nerves. You ll want them on ice 
 before we re through."
 
 212 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 Half-convinced, Kelsey gave way ungraciously, and 
 throwing himself in a chair, began to roll a cigarette 
 with awkward, unsteady ringers. 
 
 "What sort of a place is this sanitarium?" The 
 brusque tang of the question gave Kelsey the feeling 
 that Charlie was really heading somewhere, and 
 aroused him from his melancholy abstraction. 
 
 "Bristow s?" He looked up. "One of the best 
 in the country. Only for the very rich of course ; 
 thoroughly modern, splendidly managed. Bristow is 
 an alienist of the first rank, with a criminal twist and 
 a craze for money." 
 
 "What were you doing there?" 
 
 Kelsey told him briefly of his position as assistant- 
 surgeon, and the circumstances of his detention; of his 
 first experience with Hope and of the role she was 
 playing; of their subsequent meetings and the escape. 
 
 Charlie s cigarette burned to ashes in his fingers 
 as he listened, his face sharpened down until it was 
 wolfish ; but he did not once interrupt the story, or ask 
 a question. 
 
 "Bristow!" He held up one of his lightning- 
 rolled cigarettes, naming it. "But," squinting thought 
 fully, as he laid it on the table, "he couldn t swing it 
 alone. Too big. Who else is in it?" 
 
 He shot the question at Kelsey like a bullet from 
 a rapid-fire revolver. 
 
 "Miss Copley. She s a nurse. Looks strikingly
 
 SWALLOWED UP 213 
 
 like Hope. Passes as an older sister in charge of the 
 insane younger one." 
 
 Charlie pursed his mouth in a whistle. 
 
 "A ringer ! Clever. Stops all questions that way." 
 
 He held up another cigarette, and placed it beside 
 the first. 
 
 "Copley! Any one else?" 
 
 "Higgins. An ex-Alderman. An old millionaire. 
 Made a fortune in Wall Street, they say." 
 
 Charlie bounded up with a stifled exclamation, his 
 tongue clicking against his teeth. 
 
 "Hobo Bill ! That does settle it. Hobo Bill ! I might 
 have known it. Hobo The joker in the deck! 
 
 "Made a fortune in Wall Street," jeeringly. "Why, 
 you baby-child, in the good, old days Bill Higgins had 
 a cut-in on every crooked deal turned below Fifty- 
 ninth Street. Dips, strong-arms, wire-tappers, con-men, 
 everybody. They all had to settle with him ; and 
 believe me, he didn t take no short end. Plain hog. 
 
 "He resigned just before the Hooplaw graft inves 
 tigation. Had to. Then he went abroad. I haven t 
 heard of him for five years. Thought the old goofer 
 had cashed in. 
 
 "Why, Thaddeus," he brought his hand down on 
 Kelsey s knee, "a bunch that was wised up to only 
 one-tenth of what Hobo Bill could tell em wouldn t 
 have to be hunting a gold mine. They could line up 
 the crooks, and live the life of Reilly."
 
 2i 4 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 He bobbed about the room like cork, snapping his 
 fingers, muttering broken phrases under his breath. 
 
 "The hobo messages! This booby-hatch for a 
 head-quarters ! The nurse, a ringer ! I ve got 
 the whole thing!" 
 
 A third cigarette rolled quicker than the eye could 
 follow kept the other two company. He stopped by 
 the table and held up the three, touching each as he 
 checked them off. 
 
 "Bristow! Copley! Higgins! My boy," his voice 
 was solemn, his unreadable eyes glistened, "you ve 
 done what no one else ever could. You ve found the 
 Combine." 
 
 Kelsey made a violent gesture. "What difference 
 does it make what I ve found, when we haven t found 
 her? If you don t do something pretty quick, I will. 
 I can t stand this any longer, sitting here talking when 
 it s easy to free her. They should be raiding the place 
 now." 
 
 Charlie surveyed him with one of his most darkly 
 contemptuous glances. 
 
 "Get the picture," he said roughly. "I go out 
 and telephone to Ranger. He informs the police. 
 The minute he does that, Higgins is tipped off. 
 Oh, yes," emphatically; "that will be all provided 
 for. Every little thing s provided for, you can be 
 sure of that. Ranger and his crowd of flatties go 
 there. Bristow s surprised. Oh, very. He throws the 
 place open to them. No girl. Nothing in the least
 
 SWALLOWED UP 215 
 
 suspicious. Don t ask me how. I only know that s 
 the way things ll be. They ll come through clean. 
 
 "And you and me, Laddie," he blew scornfully into 
 the air. "What about us? I ll appear in Ranger s 
 eyes and every one else s as the wild goose that started 
 a crazy chase that led nowhere. And you? Well, 
 you ll be a dangerous lunatic in close confinement for 
 the rest of your more than likely brief life. One slip 
 on the ice and we re gone. We ve got to work fast; 
 I agree to that. But we ve got to work right. One 
 slip just one and we re over the precipice, and so 
 is the girl. I m telling you." 
 
 Seeing that he had at last made some impression on 
 Kelsey, Charlie went on in a less severe tone. 
 
 "You think I m a free agent, who can scout around 
 as I please. Nothing to it. I m not. When you 
 hear what happened to me last night and this morning, 
 you ll see. Then we can get down to our brass tacks 
 and decide just where to nail them." 
 
 "All right. But make it short. Begin begin." 
 
 "Brevity is my middle name, Oswald. But see that 
 you don t get restless again, and make another dash 
 for that noose that s waiting to be slipped around your 
 neck." 
 
 Kelsey stirred irascibly, but made no retort; and 
 Charlie with a deliberation which his companion felt 
 sure was to try him further, lighted the cigarette he 
 had named, "Bristow," and began the story of his 
 adventures.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 "TTN the first place," said Charlie, "I ve known Ran 
 ger ever since I was a boy, and when I heard 
 -*- about his little girl, I started out on my own to 
 find her. I know crook psychology better than old 
 Byrnes ever did; but this gang that are holding her 
 fooled me forty ways from the ace. No use saying I 
 haven t made a mess of it so far, because I have. But 
 last night I got a tip that led straight to Bristow s Sani 
 tarium. 
 
 "I rode as fast as my motor-cycle could race from 
 Westchester to Barcelona, taking all the short cuts. 
 It was on one of them that I came on you two. Lord !" 
 Charlie gritted his teeth. "If I d only dreamed! 
 
 "But I didn t. And so I rtished for a doctor, 
 thinking you were ready to kick in; and as soon as 
 I reached the village, I got pinched. I ll tell you the 
 whys of that later." 
 
 Kelsey signified his approval of this consideration. 
 
 "Of course," Charlie explained, "I could have got 
 out by telephoning to Ranger. But for one thing, I 
 didn t want to get in touch with him until I had gained 
 the information I was after; and for another and per 
 haps more important reason, my brutal jailer wouldn t 
 let me. So I just turned in and went to sleep; that 
 
 216
 
 SWALLOWED UP 217 
 
 is, as much as that fierce storm would let me. 
 
 "But in the meantime, my mascot had got busy. 
 Gee ! And again, Gee ! I ve always looked on women 
 as trouble-makers in an otherwise bright and care 
 free world. But that girl; she simply scatters luck 
 germs. She it was who gave me the lead to Bris- 
 tow. I d had dinner with her, and put her back in 
 a bus with her party. They all went on to spend the 
 evening with some friends, and as they came back about 
 midnight, they stopped at the Lone Hill garage for 
 some gas. Up steps the garage man s assistant, a 
 shock-headed lunk, that had driven me and my queen 
 to the Inn. He was all twittering with excitement, 
 and tells her that I ve been arrested over here at Bar 
 celona. 
 
 "Ah, Clarice and Mary Ann! What a headpiece 
 that girl s got. She thinks quicker than unchained 
 lightning. This is the way I figure out how she came 
 to do what she did the one perfectly right thing. 
 
 "Here s her friends kind of giggling at her for being 
 took in. She don t believe that; for she saw me with 
 Ranger. And Barcelona is the tip she gave me. But 
 she wants to make sure. So what does she do but call 
 up the man whose name s been in all the papers as 
 Ranger s attorney, Eustace Higby. 
 
 "He tells her that I m all right, and then he routs 
 out Frank Bryan, Ranger s private secretary, and 
 shoots him down here on the morning train to get me 
 out.
 
 2i 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Talk about the great women of history! Boy, 
 she s got em all left at the post." 
 
 Kelsey bore these laudations with what grace he 
 could ; but he looked harassed and weary. 
 
 "Now this is where you sit up and listen." Charlie 
 tapped Kelsey twice on the chest with a hortatory fore 
 finger. "While I was eating breakfast, an unexpected 
 caller dropped in to the jail to see me, an old bird that 
 I sized up for a doctor. I win. He is one, named 
 Creamer, the original man who wandered all around 
 Robin Hood s barn. When he talks, he starts to go 
 north, shifts to sou -west, twists around to due east, 
 and finally comes back to north again, giving you all 
 the family history and every detail of village life since 
 the first settlers in sixteen hundred and something. 
 But what I made out of it was, that my man-eating 
 constable had got word to him about your accident, 
 and Creamer d doddered off to the scene of disaster 
 about three hours late. 
 
 "There he finds Bristow, who has recovered from a 
 desperate attack made upon him by a violent homicidal 
 maniac. That s you." 
 
 Kelsey looked it at the moment. "I wish I d killed 
 him," he said with profound sincerity. 
 
 "Worse mess for us, if you had. Well, of course 
 Creamer had to get all the gruesome facts; and then 
 he remembered he s Main Street s walking histori 
 cal society that this place, the old Rose house he 
 called it, had some nook built into it, where in the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 219 
 
 cheery, old times the family used to hide when the In 
 dians wanted to put a kick in their parties by having a 
 friendly little massacre of the palefaces. 
 
 "That sets Bristow afire. He s all for finding it, 
 when just then the girl turns up. No doubt but what 
 she s been trailing around through the woods ; her skirt 
 and shoes were wet and muddy. She was sort of 
 dazed and imbecile, but Bristow did get out of her 
 that the man had made for the shore. Bristow had 
 been thinking that way anyhow, and she bolsters up 
 his opinion. 
 
 "Creamer says, you stole a boat and got off, and 
 must have capsized in the storm. Several boats were 
 found adrift this morning, two of them bottom up. 
 Bristow still has his lines out for you, although there s 
 hardly a chance that you could have been picked up." 
 
 "Good God!" Kelsey was shaking as if in a nervous 
 chill. "Think what she did! Gave herself up, so I 
 could go free. And I m sitting here. Sitting here !" 
 He sprang up, beating his hands together as he walked. 
 "Why wasn t I awake to prevent her? Why ?" 
 
 "Yes, and they d have you both now ; the girl showed 
 sense. But I m not done yet. Leave me resume. 
 Creamer would be talking still, if Frank Bryan hadn t 
 blown in. Then with a little careful shooing on my 
 part, the old bozo reluctantly took his leave. 
 
 "Bryan explained how he happened to be there 
 which made me say my prayers to little Goldilocks 
 and tells me that he has arranged for my release, as
 
 220 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 soon as Tom Simonds can get his Westchester brother 
 on the wire and have the charge withdrawn. 
 
 "No," as Kelsey looked at him inquiringly; "I can 
 see you don t know what I m talking about. But that s 
 not important just now ; Bryan is. 
 
 "The minute that Frank came in I saw that he was 
 in bad shape. He s a cold fish, and I couldn t flatter 
 myself that he had worried to skin and bones over 
 night about my fix. I d been nursing a hunch about 
 him for some time, though, and this looked like a 
 moment to put the screws on him. It worked. I d 
 hardly started in, before he broke down and when an 
 efficiency machine of a man goes to pieces, he scatters 
 bolts and cogs and what-not all over the place. 
 
 "There he sat, shaking and crying, calling himself 
 bad names and muttering about suicide. 
 
 "I told him that was all right; go to it. But first, 
 tell me what he knew. Little by little, I got it out of 
 him." Charlie s thin mouth clamped. "Kelsey, he 
 was in on that damned abduction." 
 
 "What?" Kelsey cried. "Mr. Ranger s private sec 
 retary?" 
 
 "Yes; just that. Yet Frank s not bad, nor is he 
 particularly weak, either. Oh, stop glaring at me, 
 Kelsey, as if I was an accessory after the fact. I 
 am, and not ashamed of it. I ve lived too hard and 
 long to curse a brother for his sins. Frank was 
 caught with all four feet in a trap. He s the good 
 young man, with the bad younger brother.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 221 
 
 "The Combine that s the gang that s got Hope 
 needed him ; so they framed the brother, which wasn t 
 hard to do as the goods on him were there to get. 
 Then they closed down on Frank. He was told that 
 all they wanted was fifty thousand dollars, which Ran 
 ger would never miss, and the girl would be held 
 in comfort until it was paid. If Frank didn t care to 
 assist, brother would go to Sing Sing for thirty or 
 forty years. Frank caved. Some dope was slipped 
 into Hope s ice-cream soda while she and every one 
 else in that fruit shop was watching a row in front of 
 the cashier s desk. And when she walked out, the 
 drug was beginning to work. She was growing 
 groggy, and naturally when Bryan came forward she 
 let him help her into the limousine at the curb. Frank 
 hated it, but he thought it would be all over in a week 
 or two ; and no one any the worse. Then when he re 
 alized how he d fteen played, he was hog-tied. He d 
 just about reached the breaking point when Higby sent 
 him down to Barcelona and me." 
 
 "But I still don t see " Kelsey had followed every 
 word, his brow growing more furrowed as Charlie 
 went on. "How could they know that she would go 
 into that shop, and order the soda?" 
 
 "They didn t. But a thing like that wasn t pulled 
 off in a hurry. They had an inside man, Bryan says, 
 named Fitch, whose business it was to find out about 
 Hope s movements, and tip them off when she was to 
 be out alone. Then they were ready to spring any
 
 222 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 one of half a dozen schemes, whichever was the best 
 under the circumstances. 
 
 "Well, to go back, I told Frank about the escape, 
 and them getting her again ; and he said it was funny, 
 if the girl really was Hope, that she didn t make for 
 the hiding-place in the old house, instead of taking 
 to the woods. I got keyed up then, and he tells me 
 all about it. Ranger had showed it to him once, when 
 they were down here together. Then he falls to moan 
 ing and sobbing again, and I tell him that I am going 
 to get the girl, but I don t want Ranger in on it yet; 
 and if he ll keep his mouth shut about what he knows, 
 I ll padlock mine about him. Silence for silence. 
 
 "He weeps some more, and tries to kiss my hand, 
 or something; and just then Simon Legree breezes in 
 and unwillingly releases me." 
 
 Charlie, having finished the "Bristow," and "Cop 
 ley," cigarettes, began on "Higgins," picking up his 
 story again heedless of the fuming Kelsey. 
 
 "Just as we were stepping out into the blessed sun 
 light of freedom only it was raining my eye fell on 
 a high board fence across the street from the hoose- 
 gow; and there, life-sized and prominent, a glad mes 
 sage of Welcome to Our City, stares back at me. It s 
 chalked up in hobo language; and let me tell you, that 
 he who read was very apt to run. It said: Beat it 
 for the Far West at once, or you ll have your throat 
 slit.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 223 
 
 "There was a nice little knot of on-lookers there, 
 waiting to see the prisoner shake off his chains; and 
 I knew the Combine would have some innocent by 
 stander on hand to make sure I got the friendly word. 
 So I fell over against Bryan, acting scared to death, 
 and a minute later told Simonds that he wouldn t see 
 me again in these parts, as I was off for sunny Cali 
 fornia, and intended to stay there. 
 
 "Then I went with Bryan to the train, checked my 
 motor-cycle to New York, rode up the line for three 
 stations, hopped a freight back again, dropped off, and 
 making my way through these rain-soaked woods, 
 sneaked into the house. 
 
 "And now we ve got the whole thing." He tossed 
 the butt of his "Higgins," cigarette into the fire-place. 
 "You see, don t you, why I can t lope into the village 
 and summon Ranger?" 
 
 "Ye-es," Kelsey conceded. "But " 
 
 "Stop talking," said Charlie shortly, "and let me 
 think. Look here, Kelsey, is there one human soul in 
 that hospital you can trust, or think you can?" 
 
 Kelsey reflected. 
 
 "Morton," he said, "the house physician. I could 
 trust him, if we were ever able to convince him that 
 Bristow is crooked." 
 
 "We ve got to get him here then, without his know 
 ing who we are; and I ll undertake to convince him. 
 You see, we must have some one inside the place who ll
 
 224 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 find out for us what they re planning. Think hard, 
 Kelsey; what will bring him here? Some girl he is 
 interested in?" 
 
 Kelsey dismissed this, palms down. "That wouldn t 
 bring him ; science is all he cares for. Wait a minute," 
 a light flashed over his face. "I helped him write a 
 letter to one of the medical journals, rebutting the 
 statements in an article by a Dr. Jonas Crayshaw. 
 He was tremendously worked up about it. Why 
 couldn t we get word to him that Dr. Crayshaw is 
 down here writing an answer, and would like to have 
 a talk with him?" 
 
 "Great! Charlie thumped Kelsey between the 
 shoulders. "I ll take a chance and sneak out to the 
 nearest farm-house, and telephone him in the character 
 of Dr. Crayshaw, asking him not to mention my pres 
 ence here to any one as I am working against time 
 and must have the strictest seclusion." 
 
 "But it s dangerous for you to show yourself 
 around here," Kelsey said. "Maybe, I ?" 
 
 "I ll show just as little of myself as possible, believe 
 me," Charlie answered. "And if I don t come back, 
 you d better just lie low here until night, and then try 
 to reach Ranger." 
 
 He paused, and ran his hands through his hair. 
 
 "I don t know but what I d better call up Lorry 
 after all." He wavered. "We ve got to have 
 money. Morton may need it in the hospital to buy
 
 SWALLOWED UP 225 
 
 a spy or so. Lord! I hate it. Lorry might queer 
 everything." 
 
 Kelsey gave a little jump, and smiled for the first 
 time. 
 
 "Don t let the lack of funds worry you," he said; 
 and drew from his pocket the package of bonds, spread 
 ing them fan-wise on the table. 
 
 "A hundred thousand dollars!" Charlie gaped at 
 them. "Jumping Jehosophat! Why, it s Ranger s 
 ransom-money. Where did you get it?" 
 
 Kelsey told him, Charlie jigging the while and 
 cutting fantastic pigeon-wings. 
 
 "Heeled! Heeled like princes!" he chuckled. "Oil 
 to smooth our way!" 
 
 He took up his hat with great dignity. "Dr. Mor 
 ton, this is Dr. Crayshaw speaking," in deep, rich tones. 
 
 Juarez Charlie again, he folded a $10,000 bond and 
 placed it in his pocket. 
 
 "I may have to do some buying up myself outside, 
 if I see them before I m sniped. So long, my Prince 
 of Finance!" 
 
 He vanished through the door.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 WHEN Hope drove back through the hospital 
 grounds and walked between two men up 
 the steps, down which she had flown a few 
 hours before palpitating with her splendid dreams 
 of freedom, she* was hardly conscious of the ignomini 
 ous contrast. 
 
 Her ears were straining for the sound of a motor 
 behind her, the car which would bring Kelsey. 
 
 But the night stillness was broken only by the rust 
 ling of trees in the wind which had risen and was 
 blowing the fog before it, and the constant, increas 
 ing mutter of thunder. 
 
 Anita Copley met her in the hall, and in that full 
 dazzle of light surveyed her gloatingly, a cruel sweep 
 ing glance that took in the girl from head to foot. 
 Then she peered -past her through the open door. 
 
 "Where s the man?" she asked one of the guards. 
 
 "They haven t found him yet. He made for the 
 shore." 
 
 Her mouth pinched. She was showing the effects of 
 the night s strain. There was a bluish tint in the pallor 
 of her face. 
 
 She asked no more questions, but dismissing- the two 
 men, caught Hope by the arm and led her upstairs 
 
 226
 
 SWALLOWED UP 227 
 
 to her room, thrusting her in through the door before 
 her. 
 
 Hope tottered to a chair and fell into it. With an 
 instinctive impulse to strengthen by every act her 
 story of wandering through the woods with Kelsey, 
 she was feigning a weariness greater than she felt. 
 Her head dropped against the back of the chair, she 
 closed her eyes. 
 
 Anita knelt before her and tore off her shoes. 
 Carrying them over to the light, she examined them 
 minutely. They were wet and encrusted with sand. 
 Then bending over the inert girl, she unfastened her 
 skirt and drew it off. She gave it the same close in 
 spection, holding it up to the light. Its bedraggled 
 condition seemed to satisfy her. 
 
 There was a white flash of lightning, a jarring 
 burst of thunder; and Hope, startled, opened her eyes. 
 
 "Come, get undressed," Anita ordered. 
 
 Hope twisted petulantly, and let her head fall back 
 again. But Miss Copley caught her by the wrist and 
 jerked her to her feet. 
 
 Whimpering, Hope rubbed her arm. 
 
 "So dark in the woods," she sighed. "We walked 
 and walked, and ran and ran." 
 
 "Where did he go, pet?" asked Anita in tender 
 tones, pressing Hope into a small chair and beginning 
 to take down her hair with gentle fingers. "He s a 
 bad man to go and leave you." Anita was all indig 
 nant sympathy.
 
 228 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "I knew the way," Hope said resentfully. "I knew 
 everything back there. But he pulled me along and 
 wouldn t listen. I got away," proudly; "I wouldn t 
 go to the water." 
 
 "You re mighty bright to-night," Anita muttered 
 under her breath. 
 
 Aloud she asked in soft surprise: "And he wanted 
 you to go down to that black, cold water?" 
 
 Hope stared at her own image in the glass, and 
 drooped against the side of the dressing-table. 
 
 "Boats," she said dreamily. "Boats." 
 
 Anita was brushing the girl s hair with long, gentle 
 strokes, an unwonted attention. 
 
 "And he said there were boats, dearie?" 
 
 "I don t know," vaguely. I m tired." 
 
 Anita plied her with more questions; but Hope 
 either repeated, "I m tired," or said nothing. Her 
 eyelids fell over her eyes; she raised them with 
 difficulty. 
 
 "Idiot!" The coo was gone from Miss Copley s 
 voice. She hauled Hope up, and gave her a push 
 that sent her stumbling tow r ard the bed. 
 
 "Get in there, and go to sleep." 
 
 Hope lay down docilely, and almost immediately 
 seemed to fall asleep. 
 
 Anita, after lowering the light, seated herself where 
 she could keep her eyes on both her charge and the 
 door. She sat upright, nerves and muscles rigid, 
 listening for some activity below. Once she rose preci-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 229 
 
 pitately and stepping softly past Hope s bed, opened 
 the door and listened. Coming back, she took up the 
 same waiting attitude, and pressed her hands dis 
 tractedly to her temples. 
 
 Hope wondered how she could expect to hear any 
 thing. The wind was furious now; sheets of lightning 
 alternated with the roll and crash of thunder. Anita s 
 nervousness was visibly increased by the uproar ; but 
 Hope was not affected. What was this disturbance 
 of the elements compared to the storm within her heart? 
 
 She lay there, stirring a little at the reverberations 
 of an especially loud peal, and watching. Time, which 
 had resolved itself into suspense, had never gone so 
 slowly. 
 
 Over an hour, surely almost two, must have passed ; 
 and they had not brought Kelsey back. She dared 
 not allow herself to hope. They might be holding 
 him in the old house until the storm abated. But, 
 nevertheless, they had not come. She felt sure of 
 that. If they had, Anita Copley, showing by the 
 perpetual tapping of her foot, the constant gnawing 
 of her lip, her whole strained attitude, the wear and 
 torment she was enduring, would either have heard 
 them or been summoned. 
 
 At last the woman could bear her vigil no longer. 
 She got up again, bent over Hope to assure herself 
 that she was asleep, then turning down the light to a 
 spark, went out, locking the door behind her. 
 
 The storm was lessening in violence, and Hope
 
 2 3 o SWALLOWED UP 
 
 propped herself up on her pillows, determined to listen 
 for any indications that might betoken Bristow s 
 return. 
 
 But although she was not conscious of physical 
 fatigue, she was mentally and emotionally exhausted, 
 and before she knew it she slept. 
 
 When she awoke the next morning, a heavy gale 
 was blowing from the sea, and the rain was coming 
 down steadily. She was glad of that. It would ob 
 literate any trace of Kelsey s and her footprints about 
 the house. But she was angry with herself for 
 sleeping. 
 
 Yet her brain felt clearer for the rest. She was 
 calmer, more able to keep at elbow length the black, 
 hopeless despair that threatened to engulf her. 
 
 If they had Kelsey and for the present, she clung to 
 the belief that they had not she would know it as 
 soon as she saw Anita Copley. The woman would 
 not be able wholly to conceal either her relief or her 
 anxiety. 
 
 But if Kelsey were free, then she knew that he 
 would in some way reach her father. He would 
 have to be very wary, though, infinitely cautious in 
 doing so ; for these people would not leave a stone un 
 turned to prevent him. 
 
 It might be days before he could find the safe way. 
 And every hour, every moment of delay meant an 
 increase of danger to herself. Again she struggled 
 with panic. Terrific questions assaulted her brain.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 231 
 
 What would they do with her? She would have to 
 wait, utterly passive, a prisoner in this room, while 
 that dreadful, silent menace crept nearer, closer, until 
 it struck. 
 
 Cold to her finger-tips, nauseated, shaking from head 
 to foot, she buried her face in the pillows, praying 
 wildly for strength, for courage, for time. Oh, most 
 of all, for time! 
 
 She sat up in bed, and pushed her hair back from 
 her face. Give her time, and she ! What could 
 she do? 
 
 But now the query was not a cry of despair, but a 
 call a trumpet-call to her spirit. She had circum 
 vented them once, fooled them. Was there no way 
 she could do it again? Was any one ever entirely 
 helpless? She could not, would not admit it. 
 
 The iron in her nature, that refusal to accept an 
 ultimate defeat which she had inherited from the father 
 who started with nothing but his hands and his brain, 
 asserted itself. There must be something she could 
 do to gain delay. Somewhere in this chain of cir 
 cumstance which bound her, there must be a weak link. 
 
 But what was it? She was one, in a fixed place, 
 this room ; the others were three, and moved about at 
 will three acting in concert. Acting in concert! 
 With the repetition of the words, a thrill ran over her 
 from head to foot, and there came a flash of illumin 
 ation. 
 
 If that unity, that close concord could be broken,
 
 232 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 if they got to arguing and disagreeing among them 
 selves, it would inevitably mean postponement of action. 
 That was all she asked, if Kelsey had not already 
 been taken postponement of action. 
 
 But how precipitate this dissension? What weapons 
 had she, whom they regarded as an imbecile? 
 
 She was up now, walking about the room, seeking 
 in movement the clarity of vision that would show 
 her the way. 
 
 She stopped before the mirror, gazing fixedly yet 
 almost unseeingly at her own reflected face and figure. 
 Suddenly, while her mind still grappled with the 
 question, she awoke to a vivid consciousness of that 
 image in the glass, and a deep feminine intuition sup 
 plied the answer. 
 
 Her beauty! Woman s greatest weapon since the 
 world began. It was all that was left her. With it, 
 backed by her wits, she must play a last desperate 
 game with her three antagonists. 
 
 She looked at the little clock on the dressing-table. 
 It was growing late. Miss Copley would be in at any 
 moment now. She must dress and be ready for her. 
 
 She was just putting the finishing touches to her 
 toilet when the nurse entered with the breakfast tray. 
 Hope s heart stopped, and then beat madly. Anita 
 looked as if she had not closed her eyes through the 
 night. They were weary, hollow, rimmed with 
 shadow. Her cheeks were wan. Signs plain as 
 print that Kelsey had not yet been captured,
 
 SWALLOWED UP 233 
 
 As she saw Hope standing there fully dressed, she 
 halted so abruptly that the dishes rattled on the tray. 
 She put it down hastily, and looked at her patient 
 with unconcealed amazement. 
 
 "You re not usually so spry," she said sourly. 
 "What did you fix your hair that way for?" 
 
 Hope affected astonishment at the question. 
 
 "Why, I always do it this way." 
 
 Anita scowled, but seemed unable to take her eyes 
 off the girl. 
 
 "Eat your breakfast," she said peremptorily, and 
 walking over to the window stood with her back to 
 Hope, looking out on the rain-soaked grounds, biting 
 her raw lip in absorbed cogitation. 
 
 Finally she turned, as Hope was finishing her coffee. 
 
 "I ll get your pencil and paper for you." 
 
 Hope objected, pushing out her hands pettishly. 
 
 "I never want to see them again," she said. "What 
 would I do with pencil and paper? I have no one to 
 write to." 
 
 Miss Copley gave her another long look, a peculiarly 
 sinister one this time, and left the room. 
 
 A little later, Dr. Bristow knocked, unlocked the 
 door, and came in. He was tubbed and dressed with 
 his usual meticulous care, but he had not been able to 
 obliterate the traces of worry and fatigue. He looked 
 even more worn and harassed than Miss Copley. 
 
 As she saw this, Hope s eyes brightened, her color 
 bloomed,
 
 234 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Good morning, Doctor," she said blithely. 
 
 "Good morning." He stood gazing at her from 
 under his heavy brows; the searching, comprehensive 
 glance of the born diagnostician. 
 
 "I was tired last night, but I feel as fresh as paint 
 this morning." Her tone was buoyant. "I remember 
 things." 
 
 His remarkable eyes pierced her through and 
 through, an inquisition; but she bore it unwaveringly. 
 
 At last he forced a smile. 
 
 "That s good," he said with an effort at heartiness. 
 "What do you remember?" 
 
 "I remember going away with that crazy man. He 
 told me not to go in to supper, to stay on the porch 
 and wait for him. Then he took my arm, and 
 ran down the steps and jumped into the car. I 
 took the chauffeur s place, I don t know why. I 
 didn t know I could drive. But I can," delightedly. 
 "It s as easy as that!" She turned her hand over. 
 "And I knew all the roads as well as if I d been over 
 them hundreds of times." 
 
 He rubbed his chin, still studying her. 
 
 "Did any one stop you?" he asked so suddenly, that 
 if she had not been on guard it might have confused 
 her. 
 
 "Yes; two men. They ran their car in front of us, 
 and one of them came back. The crazy man told me 
 to say, I was Miss Copley. I am, too; Verna Copley. 
 But the strange man thought I was Anita and gave me
 
 SWALLOWED UP 235 
 
 a package. The crazy man wouldn t let me keep it. 
 He put it in his pocket, and told me to drive to the 
 shore. 
 
 "Oh, it was fun! He said there were people after 
 us, and I mustn t let them get us. And then we heard 
 some one coming, and he told me to turn off, and we 
 ran into a tree and were thrown out. I thought he 
 was dead. But a man on a motor-cycle came along, 
 and pulled him from under the car, and said he would 
 go for a doctor." 
 
 "Did the man on the motor-cycle ask you any 
 questions?" 
 
 "Yes; he asked me if I was hurt." 
 
 "Anything else? Sure?" as she shook her head. 
 
 "Sure," she answered, looking at him wonderingly. 
 
 "And what happened then?" 
 
 "The crazy man opened his eyes, and got up. He 
 said we must run to the shore, and find a boat. But 
 I knew the woods and the house, and I wanted to stay 
 where we were. He wouldn t let me. He was rough 
 and pulled me along. I m afraid of the water at night, 
 and I screamed. Then he swore, and let me go. 
 And I hid until the men came along, and brought me 
 home. I was glad, when I saw you. I was frightened 
 out there in the dark. He might have come back and 
 killed me. Crazy people do." 
 
 "What makes you think he is crazy?" 
 
 She drew back, and looked at him with a cunning, 
 superior smile.
 
 236 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Any one would know that. He talked crazy. He 
 said I was some one else. He didn t tell me who ; but 
 he said that he d discovered things, and that I must go 
 away with him. He acted crazy, too." 
 
 You say, you knew that old house?" Bristow s 
 tone was casual, but very winning. 
 
 "Yes. I wanted to go in it. But he wouldn t. He 
 called it a trap." 
 
 "Didn t you live there once?" 
 
 "I don t know." Her forehead creased, as if the 
 effort to recollect were painfully difficult. "But," 
 positively, "I do know that house some way. There s 
 a big attic full of boxes. It was nice to play there. 
 Still I was glad to get home. Only," lowering her 
 voice, and looking apprehensively toward the door, 
 "she was cross. I don t like her. I hate her. Why 
 don t you send her away, and let me stay with you?" 
 
 She came nearer, coaxing, entreating, her lips ador 
 ably pouted. 
 
 "You re so wise and kind. I like to be with you. 
 I like to look at you. You wear such beautiful 
 clothes." 
 
 She stroked the sleeve of his coat, as if its touch 
 gave her a luxurious pleasure. 
 
 "And your neckties. That s the loveliest black 
 pearl I ever saw." She touched it with her finger, 
 and bent closer, so near him that her hair brushed his 
 cheek. 
 
 "You ve seen others then?" he asked.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 237 
 
 "Somewhere." She looked up at him, the per 
 plexed pucker once more between her eyebrows. "I 
 know them, I don t know how. Oh," she caught his 
 hand, "do let me stay with you ; I d be happy all the 
 time then. But you d have to send her away." She 
 glanced once more at the door, and spoke in a whisper 
 close to his ear. "She d be jealous. She s in love 
 with you. But you won t marry her, will you? She s 
 terribly common. And you re so different." 
 
 Bristow s lips curved ironically. 
 
 "Don t worry about that," he said lightly, and yet 
 with a certain emphasis. 
 
 He sat down, the irony of his smile changing to a 
 fleeting indulgence. He was looking beyond her, 
 seeing a new perspective, reckoning other possibilities, 
 calculating other chances. His eyes had the pre 
 occupied, yet alert look of one who has stumbled upon 
 a new and better solution to a laboriously worked out 
 problem. 
 
 "You won t let that crazy man take me away again?" 
 Hope s magnetic appealing voice broke in on his 
 meditations. 
 
 The recall from dreams was unpleasant. "Kelsey?" 
 involuntarily, ugly lines marking his face. "No; I 
 will not." 
 
 "And I can drive your car with you soon?" she 
 begged. 
 
 "Eh? Drive my car with me ? I think so, my dear. 
 I am very much inclined to think so."
 
 2 3 8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Oh!" She clasped her hands on her breast, the 
 picture of happy expectancy. 
 
 A glorious creature ! Bristow s breath came a little 
 faster. Young, lovely, rich. How could he have been 
 so blind, so obtuse to the possibilities of the situation? 
 
 And at this moment, Anita Copley chose to return 
 to the room. 
 
 She stood inside the door, glancing from one to the 
 other, varying emotions depicted on her face. Sur 
 prise. Suspicion deepening to comprehension. And 
 then jealous anger. 
 
 It seemed to stir a sardonic amusement in Bristow. 
 "Why, here is our dear Miss Copley!" he cried. "Sit 
 down," offering her a chair. "I m just leaving!" 
 
 He paused by Hope and patted her lightly on the 
 cheek. "Try to love her, my child." His eyes, mirth 
 fully malicious, were on Anita s darkly flushing face. 
 "I know it s hard, but never give up trying." 
 
 Hope laughed gaily, as at some joke they shared to 
 gether, and clung to his hand. He smilingly released 
 himself and left, without another glance at Anita. 
 Hope ran to the door after him; but the nurse caught 
 her and dragged her back with vicious force. 
 
 Hope wriggled away. "I m going to drive Dr. 
 Bristow s car with him," she said joyously. "He s 
 promised me." 
 
 Anita gave her a savage look, but made no answer. 
 
 "He came to see me this morning. You think he 
 likes you. But he doesn t; he doesn t."
 
 SWALLOWED UP 239 
 
 The woman wheeled with uplifted hand and started 
 in pursuit; but Hope was too agile for her. Anita 
 stopped, panting, her hand on her chest. 
 
 "You shut up," she said hoarsely. "I ve heard 
 enough out of you." 
 
 "You re in love with him." The girl s face was 
 elfishly acute, as she taunted her jailer. She knew 
 that she was going beyond the danger-line, but she took 
 that risk. The further she could goad Anita the better. 
 "And he doesn t care that for you !" She brought her 
 fingers together and then opened them, blowing 
 off an imaginary speck. "He likes me! He likes 
 me!" 
 
 She kept up the chant until Anita s frayed self-con 
 trol snapped. The nurse lunged forward and caught 
 her tormentor by the shoulder; but Hope jerked away 
 and danced across the room, continuing her sing-song. 
 
 "He likes me! He likes me better! I m younger 
 and prettier. Younger and !" 
 
 She made an unexpected rush, and propelled Anita 
 toward the mirror. 
 
 "Look at us! Look," her chin on the woman s 
 shoulder. 
 
 Anita stood trance-like for an instant, enthralled by 
 the two faces so like and yet so different, with all the 
 terrible difference in Hope s favor. It fascinated 
 while it seared her, burned into her soul. 
 
 And then before the younger woman could realize 
 her purpose, she whirled. There was one stinging
 
 240 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 blow on the cheek that sent Hope staggering. Others, 
 a rain of them, followed. 
 
 "Now, you crazy loon!" in a gasping, threadlike 
 snarl. "Keep still, or I ll give you worse. Keep still, 
 I tell you," as Hope crouched and whimpered. "I ll 
 see about this ! I ll see about this." She rushed from 
 the room. 
 
 Hope caressed her bruised cheek, and smiled.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 HOBO Bill sat in what he called the "parlor" 
 of his suite in the sanitarium, an old man in 
 a worn, velvet dressing-gown. A steamer- 
 rug lay across his shrunken knees; his big, knotted 
 hands rested inert on the padded arms of his chair; 
 his head was sunk forward on his breast. From time 
 to time, his heavy lids lifted and his bleary, dim-sighted 
 eyes turned toward the clock. 
 
 These rooms of his in their opulent bad taste were 
 reminiscent of New York s vanished Tenderloin. A 
 crimson velvet carpet, thick crimson hangings, furniture 
 upholstered in crimson plush, the mahogany carved with 
 nymphs and satyrs. On the walls in heavy gilt frames 
 were great twelve and fourteen foot canvases, mostly 
 studies of the feminine nude. Gilt-surrounded mir 
 rors reflected the glaring whiteness of marble Venuses 
 on red-draped pedestals. The mantel-piece and tables 
 were a jumble of signed photographs; prize-fighters 
 of the day when Higgins s Sixth Avenue saloon was 
 the rendezvous of the sporting world, famous race 
 horses, ladies whose forgotten names were once a toast 
 in the red-light district. 
 
 Higgins amid his splendors was a figure of old age 
 that inspired no veneration; his decrepitude excited 
 
 241
 
 242 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 no pity. He was like some gray, old cobra lurking 
 motionless under the red roses of an Indian garden, 
 sinister, obscene, remorseless. 
 
 His valet moving noiselessly about the room stepped 
 to a buffet, and measuring out a dose from a medicine 
 bottle held it to the old man s lips. He gulped it down 
 automatically, without comment or any change in his 
 position. His mind was miles away. He was facing 
 a crisis; but he showed no sign of perturbation. 
 Waiting, he betrayed no impatience except for that oc 
 casional glance at the clock. 
 
 At twenty minutes after three, Bristow and Anita 
 Copley came in together. Their entrance was hurried ; 
 and one had only to glance at them to see that the 
 storm-signals were flying. He was calm enough, but 
 the grooved lines from nose to mouth deepened his 
 faint, sarcastic smile. 
 
 An ill-suppressed hysteria showed under Anita s ef 
 forts at composure. Two scarlet spots burned high 
 on her cheek-bones. There was a constant spasmodic 
 movement of her mouth. 
 
 Higgins peered at them through his heavy-lensed 
 spectacles. 
 
 "You re late," he croaked coldly. To his valet he 
 gave a curt order : "Get out." 
 
 "Sorry," Bristow said, "but I had to wait for that 
 potterer, Morton. He very seldom leaves the place, 
 but to-day of all days he chose to depart on some er 
 rand of his own, and staid over two hours. The time
 
 SWALLOWED UP 243 
 
 passed excitingly, though. Anita," contemptuously, 
 "saw fit to become temperamental." 
 
 She pulled at her handkerchief as if she would tear 
 it to shreds, but shut her teeth and said nothing. 
 
 "Humph !" the old man grunted uncouthly. "You 
 damn fools don t understand that this is no time for 
 child s play. We re in a bad fix, I tell you. A damn 
 bad fix." 
 
 "I don t see it," Bristow said coolly. "We ve got 
 the girl, and Kelsey s very happily drowned." 
 
 "Ain t no body been washed up yet, is there?" 
 
 "No; and there probably won t be for several days. 
 If he isn t at the bottom of the Bay, where is he? He 
 may have wings now, but he didn t have them last 
 night. The girl s story, the fact that they were un 
 doubtedly making for the shore, his utter disappear 
 ance under a most exhaustive search ; there can be only 
 one answer." 
 
 "Well, mebbe," Higgins granted grudgingly. "You 
 ain t drawed off the men, though, have you?" 
 
 "Certainly not. Every possible avenue to town is 
 blocked ; I don t believe even a mole could burrow 
 through. And there isn t a brush-pile, or culvert, or 
 any other hiding-place within a radius of twenty miles 
 that has been overlooked. Not a trace of him, though. 
 I tell you again, the fellow s at the bottom of the Bay." 
 
 "And our hundred thousand in Liberty bonds along 
 with him," mumbled the old man wryly. 
 
 "We ll get that back." Bristow spoke with con-
 
 244 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 sistent confidence. "The moment the body s recovered, 
 I ll hear of it and be on the spot. Don t think 
 that any life guard or clam digger can get away with 
 that envelope. If I can t manage to lay hands on it 
 myself, I ll see that it s turned over to the Coroner. 
 I ve already informed him, that Kelsey robbed my safe 
 when he made the attack on me." 
 
 Higgins considered this ; but, having neither ob 
 jection nor suggestion to offer, turned to another phase 
 of the situation. 
 
 "How about this cockroach with the motor-cycle?" 
 he demanded. "What s he up to, since he got turned 
 out of the calaboose?" 
 
 "Saving his hide, I fancy. He knows enough to 
 have a very wholesome respect for that message you 
 sent him. They said he went to pieces badly, when he 
 saw it, and he told Simonds that this part of the country 
 wouldn t see him soon again. Why, the poor rat was 
 afraid even to stick by the train. He suspected that 
 we might have a reception prepared for him in New 
 York, and hopped off somewhere along the line. 
 Bryan says he was in a sweat all the way, and that he 
 missed him for good after they reached Jamaica." 
 
 "We ought to have bumped him off long ago," 
 Higgins growled, "and been done with it. You re too 
 chicken-hearted, Doc." 
 
 "Rot! The fellow s served our purpose in every 
 thing he s done. And you know from the report of 
 the telephone conversations, he s been holding back
 
 SWALLOWED UP 245 
 
 information from Ranger. As I look at it, he s been 
 trying to play a little game of his own, and pick up 
 a few crumbs for himself when we made the big haul." 
 
 "Well, mebbe." A disinterested action was beyond 
 Higgins s comprehension. "I ve sort of thought that 
 myself. Still it looks funny, his getting hooked up 
 with them two last night." 
 
 "A mere coincidence," Bristow insisted. "He didn t 
 have and hasn t now any idea who they were. Do 
 you suppose that, if he d dreamed the girl was Hope 
 Ranger, he d ever have gone chasing off for a doctor, 
 and left her there alone? Or let Simonds lock him 
 up and keep him behind the bars all night, and never 
 have breathed a word?" 
 
 Higgins shook his head unsatisfied. "I ll answer 
 them questions," scowlingly, "when you tell me what 
 he was doing on that road, and what brung him down 
 to this part of the country at all." 
 
 Bristow pursed his mouth. "The man s a vagabond, 
 a wanderer, and 
 
 "And just happened to be ridin out this way?" 
 witheringly. "That s too thin, Doc, and you know 
 it. You can t charge up everything to this coincidence 
 stuff. 
 
 "Look at the facts for yourself, Doc. This snitch is 
 fooling around up in Westchester, plumb at sea. Then 
 something happens, and he calls up Ranger. We know 
 that he told him about having been bamboozled at the 
 crossing, and that Ranger come back with the news of
 
 246 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 the message from us. But they talked longer than 
 that ; and what was said, we don t know. Ranger was 
 careful, though, to see that he had a clear wire; so it s 
 pretty sure that some fairly important information was 
 passed. Then the next thing we hear of this El Paso 
 Ed no; Juarez Charlie he s down here within five 
 miles of the Sanitarium. I don t know how you figure, 
 Doc ; but it looks to me like somebody had been hand 
 ing out a pretty hot tip." 
 
 Bristow thought a minute. 
 
 "The whole point is this," he said finally. "What 
 Juarez Charlie may know or suspect is immaterial ; 
 we can take care of him, if necessary. But what he 
 may have told Ranger is another kettle of fish. I 
 hold, though, that every indication points to his having 
 said little or nothing. 
 
 "If his information amounted to a whoop," he 
 argued, "would he have had to swindle the garage man 
 to get some petty cash for expenses? If he really had 
 learned anything, he must have been holding out, 
 playing Ranger for his own ends." 
 
 Hobo Bill pondered this, thoughtfully rubbing his 
 great, protuberant knuckles. 
 
 "Well," he admitted, "I won t deny there ain t some 
 merit in that view of it. But look here, Doc," scowl 
 ing again, as a new angle of the situation presented 
 itself to him: "if he didn t put Ranger wise to some 
 thing, how did that damn private secretary come 
 to show up here this morning, and get him out? I
 
 SWALLOWED UP 247 
 
 understand that Simonds didn t let him do no telephon 
 ing." 
 
 "I was bothered over that, too," Bristow answered. 
 "But I ve discovered that it came about through some 
 friends of the fellow s who happened to stop at the 
 Lone Hill garage, and learned of his predicament. 
 He d had one of the women to dinner at the Lone 
 Hill Inn. Bryan might have been a mutual friend, 
 and naturally she would telephone him." 
 
 "Yes?" Higgins s -wheezy voice rasped like a file. 
 "And, mebbe, this woman he had to dinner that d be 
 just about the time he telephoned to Ranger might 
 have mentioned that he d learn something to his ad 
 vantage down to Bristow s Sanitarium. She couldn t 
 have got that from Bryan ; he don t know nothing." 
 
 He flung himself forward on his shaky, old elbows. 
 
 "Who was this woman he had out to dinner? Who 
 was these friends that helped him out of the hole?" 
 
 "I don t know," returned Bristow shortly. "I saw 
 no reason to shadow the man after we took his spark 
 plugs and left him stranded and done for there at the 
 crossing. It was unfortunate perhaps ; but there s no 
 necessity to get excited about it. No especial harm s 
 been done." 
 
 "No harm been done?" Higgins s great hands 
 clutched at the arms of his chair. "No harm! 
 You ve made a damn muddle out of it. That s what s 
 been done. Here s that cheap grafter and that sissy 
 private secretary walkin around, with God knows
 
 248 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 how much of the truth in their heads reg lar sticks 
 of dannymite, ready to blow us to hell an gone ! Why 
 ain t they been croaked ? What do we keep that bunch 
 of gorillas up in New York for, eating their heads off? 
 
 "And here s a woman, too! A woman, that has 
 somehow got on to something, and is letting her tongue 
 run loose. Another stick of dannymite. An her 
 bunch of friends! A whole automobile load of dan 
 nymite. Who is she? You don t know. Who are 
 they? You don t know. By cripes, you don t know 
 nothin ! 
 
 "You want to be a Master Mind!" He poured out 
 a stream of obscene abuse. "By God, you- ain t got 
 the brains, nor the guts to be a small-town chicken- 
 thief. What did you do, when you ketched that Kel- 
 sey gettin an earful on you? If I d a been here, he d 
 have been jolted off so quick, twould have made his 
 hair curl. Anita saw it was the only thing to do. 
 But you wouldn t listen to her. You was running 
 things. You wanted to try an experiment, and handle 
 the matter on smoother, more scientific lines. A nice 
 mess your scientific handling has got us into. And 
 now you re up to some more of it, with them damn 
 bonds." 
 
 "I told you," said Bristow icily, "that the Coroner 
 understands that my safe was robbed." 
 
 "Hell s bells! Didn t you never stop to think that 
 them bonds was traceable? Do you suppose that 
 Loring Ranger didn t take the numbers on em; or
 
 SWALLOWED UP 249 
 
 that when he reads in the papers about some fellow 
 being fished out of Great South Bay with a hundred 
 thousand in Liberty bonds on him, he ain t goin to 
 make some inquiries? 
 
 "Good God! You must be hankerin to spend the 
 rest of your life in stir. You damn bonehead! 
 You !" 
 
 He choked, unable to go on. His face was purple, 
 his great, sagging body shaking and quivering, his 
 arms beating on his chair. 
 
 Anita Copley was at his side. Bending over him, 
 she tried to quiet him. Bristow stood aloof, white- 
 faced and very stiff. 
 
 The gust of fury subsided as suddenly as it had 
 arisen. Higgins, after catching his breath, lay back 
 in his chair. The purple slowly receded from his face, 
 and left it gray and impassive once more. His hands 
 ceased shaking, and again rested motionless on the 
 arms of his chair. 
 
 When he spoke at last, it was in his usual grating 
 monotone; but the settled, impervious quiet of his 
 voice was more alarming than his outburst of anger. 
 
 "We can t take no more chances," he said. "We ll 
 end this Hope Ranger job to-night." 
 
 "You mean ?" Anita Copley asked sharply. 
 
 "There won t be no such- person to-morrow."
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 ONE could have heard a pin drop. There was 
 dead silence in the room, but it vibrated with 
 the clash of opposing wills. 
 
 Anita Copley had drooped her lids, but the glitter 
 of her eyes showed beneath her lashes. She was 
 watching Bristow. 
 
 He had not flinched during Higgins s attack on him. 
 Disputes between them were infrequent ; but they had 
 occurred before, and he had learned to steel himself 
 against these exhibitions of ruffianism. 
 
 But the grim ultimatum took him. unaware. It was 
 like a thunderclap to him. For a second he felt like 
 crumpling; then he realized that his back was against 
 the wall, and he had to engage not one but two op 
 ponents, for Anita would stand with Higgins. 
 
 They were waiting for him, Higgins ready to nega 
 tive anything he said, Anita longing for him to expos 
 tulate, that she might hare the satisfaction of deciding 
 against him. But even in this pass, he took pleasure 
 in thwarting them, in following the opposite tack from 
 the one they expected. 
 
 "Ah? Extreme measures?" He spoke quietly, 
 implying by his tone that Higgins had not given a final 
 decree, but had suggested an expedient which was open 
 for discussion. "Well, if that is the only recourse, 
 
 250
 
 SWALLOWED UP 251 
 
 i am ior it. But to give up without a struggle at this 
 stage, to charge off so promising an enterprise as a dead 
 loss " 
 
 "Better take a loss," said Higgins sententiously, 
 "than a long trip up the river." 
 
 "Just so," Bristow agreed. "But isn t it better to 
 run a chance of Sing Sing, than to risk the electric 
 chair." 
 
 "Ain t no such chance," gruffly; "not with me run 
 ning the show." 
 
 The old man was betraying irritation again, and 
 Bristow shifted his sails. 
 
 "Probably not; I didn t mean that seriously. It s 
 the loss I m thinking of. Not only of money, a round 
 million at the least, but of prestige and authority. 
 
 "I hate to cave in, I admit it; I dare say my pride 
 is involved. And is it wise to do so? We must re 
 member that this undertaking has required a lot of 
 agents. If we acknowledge defeat now and isn t 
 that what your plan amounts to? the news will seep 
 out and filter through the whole organization. Bla 
 therskites like this Juarez Charlie would delight in 
 spreading it. And you know how mutinous these 
 crooks are at accepting control. Why, let even a hint 
 get out that we are less than omnipotent, and Bang, 
 goes the entire system! 
 
 "I m presenting these objections," he explained, 
 "chiefly to clear up my own mind, and get a dispas 
 sionate view of it all. If there s no other way out of
 
 252 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 the dilemma, of course I agree. But it seems to me, 
 Alderman, that with that cool, far-sighted brain of 
 yours to guide us, we ought to scheme out something 
 that will spell profit and not bankruptcy. We don t 
 want to let ourselves be stampeded, when a little nerve, 
 a little luck and a little ingenuity might save us." 
 
 Higgins s wrinkled hand fumbled up to his chin. 
 He showed that in spite of himself, Bristow s argu 
 ments had given him pause to think. 
 
 "You talk like you had something a ready up your 
 sleeve," he squinted shrewdly through his glasses. 
 "Judgin by recent performances, tain t probably 
 worth hell room. But I ll listen. What s your big 
 idea, Doc? Spring it." 
 
 Bristow laughed deprecatingly. "You could hardly 
 dignify it by calling it an idea. Just a suggestion 
 that s been floating around in my mind while we ve 
 been talking. It s scarcely formed yet. It will take 
 you to put it in shape, and work out the details. 
 
 "But first, let s run over the situation, and see just 
 where we stand. As we all know, up to last night 
 everything was working as smoothly as we could de 
 sire. Then comes this escape, and contingent upon it 
 and coincident with it, we find ourselves threatened 
 from half a dozen different quarters." 
 
 He checked them off on his fingers. 
 
 "Kelsey and the girl? That s pretty well cleared 
 up. The one is food for the fishes ; the other back in 
 our hands.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 253 
 
 "Juarez Charlie?" He held up another finger. 
 "Heading for the West in a panic. He s shot his 
 bolt, and won t give us any more trouble. Bryan? I 
 don t even take him into account. Let him tell the 
 little he knows; no one willl suffer but himself. 
 
 "Then we have the automobile party and the woman 
 Juarez Charlie had to dinner. What that amounts to, 
 we can t tell until we learn who they are, and the 
 nature of the information, if any, that they hold. I 
 will have all that by to-morrow ; but I m positive that 
 we ll find them quite negligible factors. Juarez Char 
 lie merely picked up something from their talk, and 
 pieced it on to what he already knew. 
 
 "Last, but not least, is the unfortunate matter of the 
 bonds. There, I agree, lies our especial danger. 
 But it is a wholly potential one. Those bonds may 
 never be recovered. Time enough to meet that emer 
 gency when they are. The Croner needs money," 
 cynically; "he can be fixed. It s two to one anyhow, 
 that Ranger would never hear of their recovery; and 
 ten to one, that he d never connect them with his van 
 ished ransom. 
 
 "And that s all." He held up his open hand, with 
 the fingers spread out. "Unless we admit the possi 
 bility of some one building up a cohesive case from 
 the chatter of Creamer and village gossips ; and I sub 
 mit that even the infallible detective of fiction would 
 find himself stumped there. 
 
 "Now, where in all this," he asked persuasively, "is
 
 254 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 the pressing exigency that is driving us to er final 
 action? I quite fail to see it. But I do see very 
 plainly where we are bound to lose heavily through 
 making a ghastly mistake. Ranger, so long as he be 
 lieves his daughter is alive, can be played ; but we will 
 have to keep proving it to him. He will balk at the 
 two hundred thousand he is to pay on Friday, unless 
 we can convince him that she is still living. Worse 
 than that, we scrap our organization for " 
 
 "You ve said all that before." Higgins was grow 
 ing restless. "This lawyer-talk of yours, with your 
 whereases and to-wits, ain t gettin us nowhere. If 
 you ve got anything in youn system, more n just rattle, 
 for cripes sake, pull it." 
 
 "Very well, then. I will." Bristow paused the 
 wink of an eyelash, and then plunged. "My idea is, 
 return Hope Ranger to her father." 
 
 If he had been seeking to create a dramatic effect, 
 he could not have succeeded better. Miss Copley s 
 lowered lids shot up. She expelled her breath in a 
 gasp that sounded like a hiss. Higgins reared back 
 in his chair. 
 
 "Are you crazy?" the old man rumbled. 
 
 "Oh, I don t mean that she should be restored at 
 once. The way would have to be paved. But, if you 
 want to play safe, and at the same time dig your fin 
 gers deep into Ranger s bank-roll, I m telling you how 
 to do it." 
 
 "Doc, you ve gone dippy," Higgins declared with
 
 SWALLOWED UP 255 
 
 conviction; "nutty as a March hare. What do you 
 think ? That Ranger 11 be so grateful for getting his 
 daughter back, that he s going to forgive and forget, 
 and pass out a chunk of kale? Try it, and see. 
 When he finds out what she s been through, and what 
 a wreck you ve made of her, he ll want to strangle 
 you." 
 
 "But he isn t going to find her a wreck," Bristow 
 announced. 
 
 "How re you goin to help it? She s bughouse, 
 ain t she?" 
 
 "Um-m-m! She s But what s the use of go 
 ing into medical explanations? It s enough to say that 
 she can be cured. Or, rather, that I can cure her." 
 
 Anita Copley made a curious choking sound in her 
 throat, like the stifled cry of a wild animal. 
 
 Bristow ignored it. 
 
 "Suppose then," he was talking directly to Higgins, 
 "instead of working under cover, and following our 
 original plan of getting all we can out of Ranger, and 
 then putting the girl out of the way, we come boldly 
 into the open? We notify him that we have reason to 
 suspect his daughter is held here as a patient. We 
 give him and his wife the opportunity to identify and 
 observe her. But we do not let her see or speak to 
 them. We explain that the shock might be disastrous 
 in her present condition. Meanwhile, we are doing 
 everything possible for the girl. We enlarge her 
 privileges, give her the tenderest care, distract her
 
 256 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 mind, buoy up her spirits, and eventually cure her. 
 Don t you imagine that her parents will be so grate 
 ful, that no fee I could name would seem exorbitant? 
 
 "More than that, I can easily convince them that 
 she will require constant, trained supervision to pre 
 vent a recurrence of the neurosis. Alderman, we can 
 capitalize that girl into an annual income. I ll occupy 
 the position of family friend and benefactor, with all 
 the business and social opportunities that the term 
 implies." 
 
 "All very nice," Higgins ran his fingers through 
 his straggling, gray hair. "Got some points, too. 
 But how the devil, Doc, are you ever going to explain 
 her bein here, or square this up with your passin 
 her off as Anita s sister?" 
 
 "Oh, that? He examined his finger-nails. "Why, 
 Anita will simply have to disappear. Go to Tokio, 
 or Buenos Ayres, or some other charming place, and 
 enjoy herself. Then we can very plausibly say, that 
 we were imposed on by one of our nurses, who intro 
 duced the dazed girl here as her sister. Our sus 
 picions became aroused; but before we could question 
 the nurse, she got frightened and took French leave. 
 We can frame up a suicide for her, if it s necessary. 
 
 The Copley woman s agitation, which had been 
 steadily rising, suddenly broke all bounds. She 
 flung herself forward to face Bristow, her features 
 contorted, her eyes burning. 
 
 "So that s your beautiful scheme, is it?" The
 
 SWALLOWED UP 257 
 
 low, restrained speech which she so carefully affected 
 gave way to her natural coarse shrillness. "I m to 
 be the goat, and shoulder all the blame, am I? I m 
 to be conveniently shunted out of the way, so that you 
 can carry on your love-affair? Well, not by a damn 
 sight, Harvey Bristow! 
 
 "Oh, don t tell me!" she swept on tempestuously. 
 "I m not blind. I ve been fooled; but I can see plainly 
 enough now what s been going on between you and 
 that dough faced baby-vamp. Cure her? Of course, 
 you can cure her. There s never been anything the 
 matter with her. She s only been playing it under 
 your instructions, so as to trick me." 
 
 "That s likely : when you were the one that first in 
 sisted she was off !" scoffed Bristow. "You called 
 me a fool, when I pointed out that she might be only a 
 clever malingerer." 
 
 "Of course, I did. You re smooth, Harvey. Do 
 you think I ve forgotten all those long lectures you 
 used to give me about the difficulty of detecting the 
 difference between sham and real symptoms, and the 
 tests you told me to apply? All work of preparation. 
 
 "Why, you scheming devil, you had this whole thing 
 in mind before the girl was ever brought here. So 
 cial position and a rich marriage; that was what you 
 were aiming for. And you used the Alderman and 
 me as pawns, until you could find out whether she d 
 fall for you or not. She has ; the silly little fool can t 
 hide it. But you knew all the time, that you d have to
 
 258 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 get rid of me; and you stacked the cards to do it. 
 All this muddling! You don t muddle, Harvey. This 
 escape? I ll bet you framed it. I ll bet this whole 
 Kelsey business is a frame-up. He was your man. 
 You brought him here. You two used to have your 
 heads always together." 
 
 She was firing her accusations, one after the other; 
 all the rankling, pent-up suspicions she had been har 
 boring since morning. Bristow tried to interrupt ; but 
 she shrieked him down. Her rage was like a hot, 
 sulphurous flame. 
 
 "And now, with everything fixed as you think, you 
 spring this plan to ship me off to the other side of the 
 world, and make it impossible for me ever to show my 
 face again. That wasn t hatched to-day, or on the 
 spur of the moment. That was all studied out, and 
 arranged long in advance. You thought that you 
 could catch the Alderman and me with your bait of 
 saving the organization, and getting a fresh chance at 
 Ranger s money. 
 
 "He s planned it from the start, I tell you, Alderman. 
 He and that sneaking society-chicken have worked it 
 out between them. But you ve overreached yourself 
 this time, Harvey. Never think that you are going to 
 marry Hope Ranger. Not while I m alive." 
 
 She paused for breath, and Bristow seized the op 
 portunity to make himself heard. He realized that it 
 was time. Higgins was looking at him more and 
 more blackly.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 259 
 
 "I ought to order you into a strait- jacket." He 
 looked at her with cold scorn. "You re a candidate 
 for the violent ward, with your hysterical delusions. 
 It s all too absurd to answer. 
 
 "Alderman, I ask you," he appealed to the old man, 
 "who was it that first proposed this abduction? 
 Whose idea was it? We all remember the day Anita 
 came home chuckling, because a salesgirl in a shop had 
 mistaken her for Hope Ranger. It flattered her a 
 piece of gutter-mud passing for a pearl. She harped 
 on it, thought about it, finally told us she had a plan to 
 bag a fortune." 
 
 "Yes; and you set right to work to see how you 
 could turn my plan to your own advantage, and do me 
 and the Alderman." 
 
 "No, my dear; it was you who did that. Do you 
 think I haven t fathomed what is in that warped, cal 
 culating brain of yours? Loring Ranger and his 
 wife," significantly, "might soon die the weight of 
 grief and all that. Then you could appear as the miss 
 ing daughter, and lay claim to the estate." 
 
 The old man, scowling in his chair, had listened 
 keenly to their exchange of aspersions. Now he 
 seemed to weary of it, and leaning forward, he banged 
 down his fist. 
 
 "Shut up, you two," he ordered. "We ve had 
 enough of this. I ll settle what s to be done." 
 
 He glanced from one to the other, reflecting. For 
 perhaps a minute he pondered, his cruel, evil face sag-
 
 260 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 ging down into the folds of his velvet dressing-gown. 
 Then, with the unconscious gesture of a Caligula, he 
 turned one of his great thumbs down upon the arm of 
 his chair. 
 
 "You ve figured a pret f y lay-out, Doc," he wheezed. 
 "Worked it out well. Nothin to it. Too risky. 
 Ranger d investigate the thing down to the ground; 
 never let up on it till he got to bed-rock. And it 
 won t stand no search-light. You an Anita ve 
 been keeping company too long; and Anita s got a 
 record. 
 
 "But I did get one idea out of all that harangue of 
 yours; that n about Anita disappearin . We ll use 
 that. Now don t start nothin !" as the Copley woman 
 whirled on him. "You don t get me yet. 
 
 "What you ll do, Anita," he laid down his direc 
 tions, "is dress the Ranger girl in your nurse s clothes 
 everything, mind you, shoes, stockings and all; 
 while you get into hers, and take her place. Then 
 she, passing off as you, will go out to-night on an auto 
 mobile ride, and have a fatal accident, all smashed up 
 beyond hope of recognition. Anita Copley will be 
 dead, and Verna Copley, the crazy sister, will be left 
 on our hands, with no relatives to look after her. 
 We ll get in a new nurse that don t know neither of 
 you to take care of her; but of course we can t keep a 
 dependent girl in an expensive joint like this. And 
 so in a day or two, we ship her off to a public asylum, 
 where she that is, you can get well as soon as you
 
 SWALLOWED UP 261 
 
 please. Then let Loring Ranger, or anybody else 
 come snooping around here, if they want to. There 
 ain t nothin to be found out." 
 
 She considered his proposal, eyeing him doubtfully; 
 and then nodded her assent. 
 
 "I ll take it on," she said; "but, if you two are 
 double-crossing me, God help you." 
 
 "There s only one point that bothers me," Higgins 
 debated. "How re we going to get this girl out to the 
 automobile, so it looks like she goes willingly, and of 
 her own accord?" 
 
 "Oh, I ll fix that!" the woman promised. "I ll tell 
 her she s going to drive with Dr. Bristow." She 
 threw him a glance venomously triumphant. "She ll 
 go like a lamb." 
 
 "Then I m to be her escort?" Bristow asked bitterly. 
 He knew that he was defeated. 
 
 Higgins looked at him with a smile of wintry deri 
 sion. 
 
 "No; I guess we ll leave you out of this, Doc. We 
 can t afford to have no mistakes made. I ll go along 
 with the little lady myself. Kind o bad for my 
 rheumatism to have to lay there in the road, when the 
 car goes off the bridge ; but I don t see no other way. 
 
 "No," he repeated; "we ll leave you out of this. 
 We won t even ask you to give her the dope that fin 
 ishes her. Anita can tend to that." 
 
 The Superintendent straightened up as if to defy this 
 show of authority. For a long minute he and Hig-
 
 262 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 gins faced each other. Then, overturning a chair as 
 he went, he left the room. 
 
 As he flung out of the door, he collided with Morton 
 who was crouching at the key-hole. 
 
 With one hand he caught the house physician by the 
 throat, choking off even a sound from him. With the 
 other hand, he closed the door behind him.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 PUSHED backward from the door, still with 
 that constraining clutch on his throat, Morton s 
 popping eyes were fixed on Bristow s face. 
 His amazement was even greater than his fright. 
 
 But there was a quality in this summary and violent 
 capture which prevented him from following his primi 
 tive impulse to struggle and kick. The hand that 
 choked him seemed also to hold him up. Bristow was 
 pale and certainly determined, but there was nothing 
 of the hot anger that his action would indicate. On 
 the contrary, he conveyed to Morton by some electric 
 telepathy that his assault was necessary and entirely 
 friendly. 
 
 At the head of the stairs he released his victim with 
 a low, "Sh !" his finger laid against his lips, and giving 
 the house physician a moment to gain his breath, threw 
 an arm about his shoulder, and led him, stumbling 
 and still purple and" gasping, down the steps to the office: 
 
 Morton weaved his way to a chair and flopped down^ 
 making strange noises in his throat and stretching his 
 neck. He looked vaguely, desolately about the room, 
 and down at his own person as if to convince himself 
 that this was really he, and these were truly familiar 
 surroundings. 
 
 I,t had taken; all his courage, a temerity that he. f.ejt.
 
 264 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 was almost beyond his powers, to listen at Higgins s 
 door. The interview with Charlie and Kelsey had 
 been so astounding, their revelations so upsetting to his 
 belief in Bristow, that it had required long and patient 
 effort on their part to convince him of the truth of 
 their statements, and induce him to undertake the task 
 they had assigned him. 
 
 Morally, on the proof they gave him, he could not 
 refuse to accept it ; and yet he shrank from it with all 
 his trouble-abhorring soul. He was spiritually scrupu 
 lous and fastidious, and to play the spy was revolting 
 to him. 
 
 Then to be caught, to endure a cyclonic personal 
 attack and have the breath choked out of him! This 
 climax of failure and ignominy reduced Morton to 
 pulp. It was more than his retiring, timid nature could 
 bear. And yet as he sat rallying his scattered senses, 
 he became still more aware that Bristow was not only 
 unhostile, but even placating. 
 
 "A thousand apologies, old man. I hope I didn t 
 bruise your neck, or jar you too much. But you can 
 thank your stars, that it was I who ran into you, and 
 not one of Higgins s men." 
 
 Bristow stood on the hearth-rug, straightening out 
 his cuffs, and surveyed Morton reflectively. The 
 little man was not sure yet whether he had been as 
 lucky as his chief pointed out. In the reaction from 
 his complete trust in Bristow to the horror and suspi 
 cion which Kelsey s disclosures had aroused in him,
 
 SWALLOWED UP 265 
 
 he was disinclined to believe anything the man said; 
 so he sat mute, twisting his head about and feeling 
 his larynx with tentative fingers. Bristow read his 
 thoughts as easily as he did most things. 
 
 "You needn t be afraid of me, Morton," he said 
 earnestly. "I m only too grateful to you, too utterly 
 grateful." 
 
 A shattered faith is not easily restored. Still, Mor 
 ton remembered, Bristow had fought to save the girl, 
 although this merit was counterbalanced in his mind 
 by Miss Copley s accusations. If these held a grain 
 of truth, the superintendent s plans were only a little 
 less sinister than hers and Higgins s. 
 
 "How much of the conversation up there did you 
 overhear?" Bristow asked, without betraying too 
 much interest. 
 
 "A a good deal of it," Morton stammered. 
 "Enough to know that you were against them." 
 
 Bristow rubbed his hands. He knew his own skill 
 in presenting a case, his power of influencing judgment 
 and making black glisten as white, and he did not 
 doubt that he would bring Morton around ultimately. 
 But the fellow was slow and obstinate, and he couldn t 
 afford to spend much time in argument. 
 
 "Suppose," he said, "before we go deeply into this 
 matter, you tell me just what you were doing up there? 
 Listening, of course. But why?" 
 
 Morton twiddled his thumbs, and looked confused. 
 He was no strategist, not his the verbal fluency to
 
 266 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 cloak and veil the truth effectively on the spur of the 
 moment. 
 
 "I have felt for some days that there was something 
 wrong in the matter of this girl. I I read the papers. 
 I suspected." 
 
 Bristow waved his hand, and smiled commiserat- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Don t go on trying to invent. You re not adroit 
 enough. You d be helping that girl far more by tell 
 ing me the facts now. Time is flying, and " 
 
 Morton jumped. 
 
 "Time? That s it," he said. "I must go. Don t 
 try to keep me here, Doctor. I must go before 
 
 they " He stopped, looking apprehensively at the 
 
 door. 
 
 "No need of haste," Bristow returned equably. 
 "There ll be nothing done for two or three hours yet." 
 He raised his eyes to indicate that he was referring to 
 the two on the floor above. "However, to be quite 
 safe He pressed a button. 
 
 His ring was answered almost immediately. 
 
 "Let me know if Mr. Higgins comes downstairs,, 
 or if he orders his car," he said.. "I; want to speaH 
 to him before he goes out." 
 
 "Yes, sir." The man; withdrew. 
 
 "Now, Morton,! speaking with a sort of jocular 
 command; "out with it." Then more seriously: 
 "You must have heard enough to realize that I stand 
 with the. person or persons \yho are trying to rescue
 
 SWALLOWED UP 267 
 
 Miss Ranger. Who are these people that you were in 
 conference with during the two hours that you were 
 away this noon ?" 
 
 Morton bit his lip, revolving in his puzzled brain 
 what kind of an answer to make. 
 
 Was it Ranger?" probed Bristow. "Or his law 
 yer, or a detective? I hardly think so. They would 
 have been here before now, on what you were able to 
 tell them." 
 
 Morton, scrunched up in his chair, half-yielding to 
 Bristovv s influence and yet mindful of his promise 
 to Kelsey, shook his head. 
 
 "My dear Doctor," Bristow threw all the weight of 
 his powerful personality into the words, "this is no 
 time to keep up an unjustifiable silence. You are tak 
 ing a responsibility on yourself in doing so, that you 
 will bitterly regret later. The prime necessity now is 
 to think and act quickly. How can you doubt me 
 after what you have heard? We your friends 
 outside, and you and myself inside must act in 
 concert, and soon, very soon." 
 
 From the moment that he had surprised Morton at 
 his eavesdropping, Bristow had grasped the full im 
 port of his subordinate s action and the imminence of 
 his own danger. And since then his mind had been 
 busy contriving a story that would meet the facts and 
 yet supply him with an unassailable defense. He wel 
 comed this opportunity of testing it on Morton. 
 
 "Let me explain my position; it may serve to clear
 
 268 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 up your mind." He spoke slowly, choosing his words. 
 "Morton, as God is my judge, I knew nothing of this 
 terrible affair until last night, after I failed to find 
 Kelsey. Then Higgins and Miss Copley thought it 
 best to take me into their confidence. It was a thun 
 derclap to me. Up to that time I never questioned 
 but that the girl was Miss Copley s sister. There was 
 no reason to doubt it; the likeness alone would con 
 vince anybody. 
 
 "I thought at first Higgins and Copley had gone 
 insane themselves. In fact, I didn t know what to be 
 lieve, how to act. This morning, if I had followed my 
 impulse, I would have telephoned the girl s father at 
 once. But I did not do this for several reasons. In 
 the first place, I felt sure that Miss Ranger would be in 
 her home by this evening ; at that time it seemed to me 
 that I was in a position to dictate to those two upstairs, 
 and I expected, foolishly enough, to make them see 
 reason. I showed them this leniency because Higgins 
 is the financier of this hospital, and holds my notes for 
 large amounts. Again, I argued, sentimentally per 
 haps, Loring Ranger would be so rejoiced at the recov 
 ery of his daughter, that he would be willing to agree 
 to a measure of immunity, which would at least keep 
 the identity of the sanitarium from the public. He 
 could hardly allow me to suffer, I reasoned ; since the 
 moment I learned of the situation, I took steps to end it. 
 
 "Therefore, I went to the meeting this afternoon in 
 complete confidence. Well," with a shrug, "you know
 
 SWALLOWED UP 269 
 
 the result. You must," with affected sheepishness, 
 "have thought me quite melodramatic. But in dealing 
 with Higgins, I have learned, one has to talk his lan 
 guage. He thinks in plots, and suspects any motive 
 that is not selfish and mercenary. So, in order to get 
 his ear at all, I had to present a crafty scheme of 
 worming myself into Ranger s good graces. All bunk, 
 of course." 
 
 "But you re the Superintendent here," Morton said 
 with unlooked for vigor. "It seems to me that all you 
 had to do was send for Miss Ranger and drive her 
 home." 
 
 "Looks so, doesn t it?" Bristow smiled ironically. 
 "But you don t know all the wheels within wheels here, 
 you little recluse. Frankly, I don t dare oppose Hig 
 gins openly. It would spell my financial and profes 
 sional ruin; it might even mean more. The man is a 
 power." 
 
 Morton was more bewildered than ever. Bristow s 
 story impressed him. The old habit of faith was re 
 turning. Still, his promise to Kelsey? But if Kelsey 
 knew that Bristow was with them, he would surely be 
 glad of his aid. 
 
 "The people I saw to-day" some force stronger 
 than himself seemed drawing the words from him 
 "were Dr. Kelsey and a man who called himself Juarez 
 Charlie." 
 
 "Kelsey? Alive? And Juarez Charlie?" Bris 
 tow s fictitious thunderbolt had really fallen. "Mor-
 
 2 7 o SWALLOWED UP 
 
 ton, what are you telling me? Kelsey and Juarez 
 Charlie? Together? Impossible." 
 
 He scraped his chair back on the polished floor. 
 
 "Where are they?" still challenging the statement. 
 
 "At the old Rose house." 
 
 Morton had told everything now that he had sworn 
 not to reveal, and he was agonizedly wondering 
 whether he had been wise or merely treacherous. 
 
 A slow, crestfallen flush spread over Bristow s face. 
 Higgins was right ; he had muddled. He should never 
 have abandoned the search of that house the night be 
 fore. Creamer s information was good. And he had 
 let the girl sidetrack him. 
 
 It broke upon him, a white light of instantaneous 
 comprehension ; she had been fooling him right along. 
 Another thunderbolt. She was sane, the hussy. The 
 clever, resourceful hussy! Playing the advanced neu 
 rotic well enough to deceive his trained observation. 
 
 He cut short these galling reflections, and turned ab 
 ruptly to the business in hand. 
 
 "And you are their inside man? I see." He nodded 
 at Morton. "When do you get in touch with them 
 again?" 
 
 "I ought to be doing it now." 
 
 Bristow ignored the hint of restlessness. 
 
 "How did Juarez Charlie happen to be there ?" He 
 wanted all the links in the chain. 
 
 "I don t know that ; but he was. And they have 
 plenty of money. Oh, come to think of it, he said that
 
 SWALLOWED UP 271 
 
 he rode down here last night. There was something 
 about a hat a hat that had been bought by Mr. Ran 
 ger and then exchanged by Miss Copley for one that 
 was to be sent here. That gave him the clue." 
 
 "Ah-h!" Bristow leaned back gloating, with re 
 stored complacency. The responsibility for the mud 
 dle was shifted from his shoulders to Anita s. 
 
 He paced back and forth across the hearthrug deep 
 in thought. 
 
 "To think of it!" he said musingly. "For the last 
 year, Morton, as I discovered last night, Higgins and 
 that woman have been working over their scheme. 
 They started with Anita s likeness to Hope Ranger 
 which she discovered by chance, and worked it out step 
 by step in the minutest detail. But they didn t stop 
 there ; they spent months in testing it, trying to find its 
 weak spots and strengthen them. No engineer ever 
 worked more carefully over his plans for a big bridge; 
 no inventor over some revolutionary invention. Every 
 contingency that might arise was considered and pro 
 vided for. As a piece of mechanism it was faultless. 
 But like all things that involve the human element, it 
 was subject to human vagaries. One misplaced fuse, 
 and the whole contrivance was short-circuited. 
 
 "In this case, a woman, for the sake of saving a few 
 pennies, exchanges a freak hat ; and the skies fall. 
 Morton, I become fatalistic." 
 
 He stood in contemplation, his elbow on the mantel 
 piece. If he allowed Morton to get in touch with Kel-
 
 272 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 sey and Charlie, and they aided in the affair, there 
 would be very little credit allotted to him and a great 
 deal of suspicion. But if he, acting alone, could fore 
 stall these others and restore the girl to her parents, he 
 could stipulate that neither his name nor that of his 
 hospital should be made public, and any disparaging 
 insinuations made against him by Charlie or Kelsey 
 would seem inspired by chagrin. With all regard for 
 their good intentions, there was just one fact that 
 w r ould loom large in the minds of the Rangers. He had 
 returned the girl. 
 
 But the girl herself sane throughout these weeks 
 of detention? What would be her story? H m! 
 Something of a facer. 
 
 Still he would have two or three hours during the 
 drive to town to exercise his magnetism, his plausi 
 bility, his arts of persuasion. Would it be so hard a 
 task to convince her? She had turned to him that 
 morning. He glanced up into the mirror over the fire 
 place. Her na ive admiration had not been all play act 
 ing. 
 
 His vanity decided the question for him. 
 
 Rapidly he mapped out a plan of action. Higgins 
 would probably not start on his drive until after dark. 
 That disposed of him. Kelsey and Charlie would 
 wait at the old .house to hear from Morton. But 
 Anita? How eliminate her? 
 
 He looked down at Morton. 
 
 "Doctor, we must get Miss Ranger away at once.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 273 
 
 We will drive by the Rose place and pick up Kelsey 
 and his friend on our way to town. What we have to 
 meet now is the chance of interference by Miss Cop 
 ley. Is there any one of the patients in a particularly 
 bad way to-day?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Morton ; "I ve had to go twice to quiet 
 Miss Susy Doane." 
 
 "Then call up Higgins s apartment, and ask Miss 
 Copley to relieve the nurse in charge until six o clock. 
 Make it a request from yourself. Tell her you have 
 tried to reach me, but couldn t find me." 
 
 Morton complied. "She said she would take charge 
 at once," he reported, as he replaced the instrument on 
 the table. 
 
 "Then let s be moving." Bristow motioned him to 
 ward the door. 
 
 They were in a small inner room of the Superin 
 tendent s suite. There were no windows, only a sky 
 light. As Morton turned his back, Bristow was on 
 him, pinning his arms down and pushing him toward a 
 closet. 
 
 Morton struggled frantically to free himself, but 
 Bristow had all the advantage. He shoved him 
 roughly into the closet and closed the door, locking it. 
 
 "Now," he said, breathing a little hard, "communi 
 cate with Kelsey, if you can. Oh, kick and yell all 
 you please; nobody will hear you."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 TEN minutes later Bristow unlocked the door of 
 Hope s room, knocked, and without waiting 
 for an answer came in quickly. 
 
 She was standing in the middle of the floor, and as 
 she saw him she smiled a smile which he interpreted 
 as a welcome. It was in a measure ; any one was better 
 than Anita Copley-. Then her eyes fell on the bun 
 dle he was carrying, and she looked at him question- 
 ingly. 
 
 He tdssed it on a chair. "For you," he said; and 
 coming nearer, took both her cold hands in his. 
 
 There was something new in his manner, an ab 
 sence of pose, a gravity and forcefulness which she 
 was quick to feel. 
 
 "Don t keep up any pretenses with me, Miss Ranger. 
 It isn t necessary now. I No, don t take it that 
 way," as she dragged her hands from his and looked at 
 him with dilating eyes. "Wait. I m your friend. 
 Your only one here. 
 
 "Until last night," he went on, "I believed, truly be 
 lieved, that you were Miss Copley s sister. After you 
 escaped, she and Higgins confessed their whole dam 
 nable plot to me. But I did not understand then, nor 
 do they now, that you are and have been perfectly 
 sane. I only discovered that this afternoon." 
 
 274
 
 SWALLOWED UP 275 
 
 He was so manifestly sincere, so obviously speaking 
 from a definite knowledge, that she was unable to 
 doubt him. A terrible apprehension gripped her heart. 
 
 "How did you learn this ?" Her voice was a thread. 
 
 "Through Kelsey," he answered. 
 
 She moaned and dropped her head in her hands. 
 They had Kelsey then? Everything the escape, her 
 sacrifice, his plans and her own had all been useless. 
 
 "Where is George Kelsey?" 
 
 "At liberty. Quite safe. Still at the old house, for 
 all I know. I have not seen him. I got all this from 
 Morton, who has been in communication with him. 
 
 "My dear child," he took her hands again, and spoke 
 with imperative tenderness, "won t you trust me? I 
 am going to take you back to your home. But we 
 must act quickly. You see that nurse s outfit?" He 
 pointed to the bundle. "I want you to put it on at 
 once. Try to look as much like Miss Copley as pos 
 sible." He was borrowing Higgins s idea. "Fix 
 your hair the same way. Then come out. I will be 
 waiting for you. 
 
 "Don t waste time in doubting me," as she hesitated. 
 "I would give my life to undo all this. But I tell 
 you frankly you are in great danger from Copley and 
 Higgins." 
 
 He had never been more impressive, and while she 
 longed to believe in his assurance of Kelsey s freedom 
 and his own desire to aid her, her instinctive distrust 
 of him was too strong to be easily uprooted.
 
 276 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "I am going downstairs now," he said, "to order 
 my car. I ll be back immediately, so hurry." 
 
 "But if she comes?" 
 
 "She will not," emphatically. "I have arranged for 
 that." 
 
 "But if she does?" 
 
 "Then it s up to me." A flash in his eyes gave Hope 
 a more heartening sense of the honesty of his inten 
 tions than any words he had spoken. 
 
 The moment he was out of the room she began to 
 change into the garments he had brought. He might 
 be lying to her, it might be only some new and crueler 
 trick than any they had played on her; but in a choice 
 of evils, she would rather follow his lead than remain 
 in the sanitarium at the mercy of Anita. 
 
 She had finished, and was just putting on her 
 nurse s bonnet and cape, when he tapped again and 
 entered. 
 
 "Good girl !" he said approvingly, and even in his 
 haste, admiringly. "The car will be waiting. 
 Come." 
 
 They had turned to the door when it flew open, and 
 Anita faced them. 
 
 Darkly flaming, she slammed the door behind her, 
 and stood, her venemous glances darting from one to 
 the other, to fasten at last on Bristow. 
 
 "Got ahead of me, didn t you?" she jeered. 
 
 "Thought you could switch me off, and that I d 
 stay nice and quiet while you two drove away in state ?
 
 SWALLOWED UP 277 
 
 Not much. I knew you d be up to something, and it 
 didn t take me long to guess what." 
 
 His anger was white hot, but he did his best to con 
 trol it. 
 
 "Let me remind you, Miss Copley," icily severe, 
 "that you should be on duty elsewhere. You ll take 
 my orders now, and return to your post." 
 
 "Oh, indeed?" she flaunted her sneers. "I wonder 
 what the Alderman will have to say to that?" 
 
 He looked at her, a cat-like gleam in his narrowed 
 eyes. 
 
 "I think the Alderman will probably have a good 
 deal to say when he learns that it is you who are re 
 sponsible for his plans going wild. I have dis 
 covered drawling slightly to tantalize her "I 
 have discovered, just how Juarez Charlie got his tip 
 that Miss Ranger was in this sanitarium." 
 
 "You have?" She tossed her head to cover a vague 
 uneasiness aroused by his manner. 
 
 "Just that." He inclined his head slowly. 
 "Through a small oversight, or, shall we say, inexcus 
 able carelessness most likely from feminine motives 
 of economy a hat in which I understand a photograph 
 of Miss Ranger was taken, was exchanged for an 
 other to be sent to you at this address a direct clue 
 not to be perverted or misproved in any possible way." 
 
 Anita tottered and for an instant closed her eyes. 
 She saw the ground all at once cut from under her 
 feet. She would have to bear the brunt of the whole
 
 278 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 fiasco. She thought of Higgins, his ruthlessness, his 
 brutal implacability. And Bristow was moving to 
 save himself, ready to gather the credit and applause of 
 the hero. They would both pass the buck to her with 
 out a qualm. 
 
 She took swift stock of the situation. In the light 
 of this new development, Higgins s scheme anything 
 but the return of the girl was out of the question. 
 They were all in the deep water now, and it was every 
 one for himself. Still she had a claim on Bristow; he 
 would have to give her a helping hand. 
 
 Her whole bearing and expression altered. With 
 the hot iron of necessity she seemed to have smoothed 
 out every wrinkle of passion. She stood before him, 
 her superior, the respectful, composed nurse. 
 
 "You re right, Dr. Bristow. I forgot myself. I 
 apologize. But I don t believe you want me to go 
 back on duty or even remain in the hospital under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 "If you will pay me what you owe me," with a 
 glance that Bristow rightly interpreted as meaning that 
 she demanded a heavy stake, "I will leave at once." 
 
 His lip drew back showing the edge of his teeth, his 
 eyebrows peaked above unrelenting eyes. 
 
 "You are asking me to assist in your escape the 
 nurse who fooled me into believing Miss Ranger to be 
 her sister, who has imposed this perhaps ineffaceable 
 blot on my hospital?" He spoke with virtuous indig 
 nation. "And another reason for refusing to let you
 
 SWALLOWED UP 279 
 
 go. You will recall, Miss Copley, that after I learned 
 of this unspeakable affair, my one thought was to avert 
 a scandal. I was still lenient or weak enough to try 
 to make Higgins and yourself listen to reason instead 
 of turning you over to the police as I should have 
 done; and you both defied me." 
 
 She took all this as mere preamble. He was talking 
 for effect, showing her the line he meant to follow and 
 strengthening his position with the girl at the same 
 time. The sooner she took her cue, the sooner she 
 would accomplish her purpose. She did not think fur 
 ther than that. Her jealousy, for the moment at least, 
 was in abeyance to her desperate impulse of self pres 
 ervation. 
 
 "I know. I know, Doctor. But you don t alto 
 gether understand. I have been a tool, an unwilling 
 tool a tool of Higgins. And you don t want any 
 notoriety for your hospital. It wouldn t help Miss 
 Ranger. But if I were to disappear, and I can do it, 
 it would save you both a lot of unpleasant publicity. 
 I can be with friends, out of the way in an hour s 
 time, if I have the money. You see that, Doctor?" 
 
 "You can go down and get your week s salary from 
 the cashier." He spoke with curt finality. "Further 
 than that, I refuse to compromise with you." 
 
 The answer stunned her, overtaxed her carefully 
 maintained repression. 
 
 "My week s salary? Doctor, I ll need money. It s 
 too late to do anything in town, and I can t cash a
 
 280 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 check for a sufficient amount in the village. You 
 always keep from five to ten thousand here in the safe, 
 and I must have it." 
 
 She waited. His face was like flint, his eyes stone 
 cold. It frightened her, and she cast her reserve to 
 the wind. 
 
 "You couldn t leave me here with Higgins?- For 
 your own sake, you couldn t. He ll get off. He s got 
 
 pull. But I I " She folded her arms. "You 
 
 don t dare." 
 
 "You will have a hard time implicating me in any 
 of your criminal performances," he said haughtily. 
 "The fact that as soon as I learned of Miss Ranger s 
 identity, I took steps to return her to her parents, ex 
 onerates me." 
 
 She sought through her memory for some threat to 
 hold over him. But Bristow was far-sighted. He 
 had always left himself a loophole of escape from the 
 other two. She had nothing, not even a scrap of 
 paper, which would involve him, and his manner con 
 vinced her that neither had Higgins. Bristow had 
 considered every contingency, and discounted it. She 
 knew him too well to doubt that. And he was now 
 carrying the thing through with a high-handed audac 
 ity, that would mean success ; while she 
 
 "Kelsey?" she said suddenly. "It s not certain that 
 he s drowned. Suppose he turns up?" 
 
 She paused triumphantly, sure that she had at last 
 found the weak spot in his armor.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 281 
 
 "Dr. Kelsey has turned up," he replied coolly. "He 
 is alive and safe, I am happy to say, and I have been 
 in communication with him. I owe the dear fellow all 
 the amends I can make him. Another score against 
 you, Miss Copley; I have you to thank for those doc 
 tored records that induced me to hold him here as a 
 patient. One more reason," sternly, "why I cannot 
 connive at your proposed getaway." 
 
 Kelsey alive, and on terms with Bristow ! She was 
 past defiance now. 
 
 "You ll sacrifice me? You ll trample me in the 
 mud ? You mean it ? You really mean it ?" she mut 
 tered. 
 
 She seemed utterly to have forgotten Hope. He 
 and she were alone together, and this was the end of 
 the long drama between them the merciless end. 
 
 Bristow even in his sense of victory felt a passing 
 amazement. Anita, cowed, beaten, accepting the situ 
 ation without more of a scene, was something new 
 to him. But Anita was of as little concern to him 
 now as so much flotsam under his feet. A new day 
 was dawning for him a respectable, honored, affluent 
 day. 
 
 "Come," he said to Hope, and took her hand. 
 
 Anita stiffened. He was going, without a word, 
 without even a glance at her, passing from her life in 
 triumph. Her life! Again she thought of Higgins. 
 The years that she had served him would count for 
 nothing. He had always given her her share of any
 
 282 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 deal, but he had never let her forget that she was 
 in his power. Auburn! She saw the gray prison 
 walls, she felt the rough prison dress chafe her 
 skin. 
 
 She flung her arms out across the door, barring the 
 way. 
 
 "Don t you try it! Don t you try it!" her voice 
 rising. "You ll settle with me before you go. I don t 
 play the goat for you or anybody else." 
 
 "Move aside!" Bristow commanded. 
 
 She sneered and held her ground. He attempted to 
 push her away; but she had set her feet and did not 
 budge. 
 
 There was a brief, sharp struggle between them. 
 She felt herself giving way before his greater strength. 
 
 "Harvey!" She was sobbing. "You wouldn t do 
 it ! You wouldn t. Not after all we have been to each 
 other." 
 
 He shut his teeth, and made another and more suc 
 cessful effort to pull her from the door. She thrust 
 her hand in her pocket, and jerking out the hypodermic 
 syringe she had brought for Hope, jabbed at him with 
 it. 
 
 He threw himself sideways, and shifted his grip to 
 catch her by the arms. She wrested the right one free, 
 and reaching over his shoulder, struck wildly at the 
 back of his neck. 
 
 Suddenly he crumpled, fell heavily against her, and 
 slipped through her arms to the floor. By one
 
 SWALLOWED UP 283 
 
 chance out of a hundred she had driven the needle into 
 the base of his brain. 
 
 She stared down at him, stupefied. What was the 
 matter? Had he fainted? A weak heart? She had 
 never known it. 
 
 She was on her knees beside him, thrusting her hand 
 through his waistcoat to his breast. 
 
 "He s dead!" she gasped. 
 
 She had lifted his head on her other arm. Now, 
 as she withdrew it, she saw a fleck or two of blood on 
 her starched, white sleeve. She looked from it to the 
 hypodermic which had fallen to the floor, and under 
 stood. 
 
 Screaming, she flung herself on his body, begging 
 him to forgive her, to come back. She hadn t meant 
 it. She wouldn t have harmed a hair of his head. 
 She loved him, loved him!
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 DURING the struggle, Hope had shrunk back. 
 Then at its appalling climax she stood mo 
 tionless, living through a cycle in a second. 
 
 While Anita was abandoning herself to her remorse 
 and despair, the first staggering horror, the panic of 
 helplessness passed. Hope s one idea now was flight. 
 She started for the door. 
 
 The movement, light as it was, aroused Anita. She 
 rose to her knees, and clutched the bunch of keys at her 
 belt. 
 
 "You forget it s locked!" She looked at the girl 
 with such burning hatred, such evil intent, that a chill 
 ran down Hope s spine. 
 
 It was true. In her excitement she had lost sight 
 of the fact that the spring lock on the door could only 
 be opened by one of the keys in Anita s possession. 
 
 Now she knew that it was between her and this 
 woman, and she was fighting not for freedom but for 
 her life. The flaming devils in Anita s murky eyes 
 showed her that she would have to meet the super 
 normal strength of frenzy. 
 
 But she knew, too, that the nurse underestimated 
 her. During the time that she had feigned insanity, 
 she had never let Anita suspect her real strength and 
 agility. Even that morning she had taken her beating 
 
 284
 
 SWALLOWED UP 285 
 
 at the woman s hands as one overcome by superior 
 might. 
 
 Anita came gliding toward her, circling nearer and 
 nearer, following the method of a snake with a tranced 
 bird. Hope waited, watching every movement. 
 Trained in all manner of outdoor sports, she knew that 
 she could depend on her fleetness and the ability to di 
 vine an opponent s next move before it was made; and 
 she had proved to herself the night before that her 
 muscles had not grown flabby from inaction. 
 
 Anita, mad to batter her, trample her, mar the beauty 
 which she believed had taken Bristow from her, made 
 a rush, her hands crooked like claws to tear the girl s 
 face. Hope caught her wrists and forced them down. 
 
 With a wrench the other released herself, and the 
 two grappled. At last Hope succeeded in throwing 
 Anita off, and sent her spinning across the room, but 
 she did not lose her foothold. 
 
 A table was between them now, and Anita could 
 afford to spend a moment in getting her breath. Then, 
 snarling, gritting her teeth like a wild animal, she came 
 on again; and again Hope fought on the defensive. 
 
 She knew that Anita s energy was a flame without 
 fuel, that it was now at its soaring height but must 
 soon flicker. The danger lay in the nurse overcoming 
 her before this fictitious, dynamic vigor began to ebb. 
 
 She bent herself to the task of holding the mad 
 woman off, to eluding her wild onslaughts, and slip 
 ping away from her crushing grasp, rather than to
 
 286 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 close with her and make it a test of relative strength. 
 
 Her every effort was to wear Anita out, and she 
 felt at last that she was succeeding. The nurse s face 
 was mottled, her breath coming in short, whistling 
 gasps, as she made her final, furious dash. 
 
 They were near the bed, and Hope seeing this did 
 not step aside, but took the nurse by surprise, can 
 nonading into her with such force that Anita rocked, 
 her heels shot out, and she fell backward across the 
 mattress. 
 
 In a second Hope was on top of her, dragging her 
 arms together, holding down Anita s wrists with one 
 hand and tearing at the bedclothes with the other. 
 
 She managed to jerk the counterpane free, and with 
 difficulty, for the woman struggled furiously, wound 
 it around Anita s body, binding down her arms. She 
 began to scream, and Hope stuffed the end of the 
 spread in her mouth. It was an effectual gag. 
 
 She tore a sheet into strips, and with them securely 
 tied Anita s hands and ankles. This accomplished, she 
 stood up. 
 
 The walls seemed to go swimming around her. 
 Miss Copley here, Bristow s body there ; the room was 
 to her a noisome, unclean cage not only to her senses 
 but to her soul. She must get out of it anywhere. 
 
 She was surprised to find herself suddenly cool and 
 determined. She was not trembling, there was no 
 feeling of exhaustion; she was ready for the next 
 venture.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 287 
 
 She bent over Anita and detached the keys from her 
 belt. Then with rapid fingers she fastened up her 
 fallen hair, and picking up the bonnet which Anita 
 had snatched from her head in the struggle, straight 
 ened it out and put it on. 
 
 Without a shudder she stooped and dragged Bris- 
 tow s body from the door, found the right key and 
 walked out, locking the door behind her and putting 
 the key in her pocket. 
 
 A glance showed her that the corridor was empty, 
 and she walked toward the stairs. Bristow was dead, 
 and Anita was out of it for hours to come. No one 
 would go to that room. She had a chance of escape. 
 
 But Kelsey? Where was he? If Bristow had lied, 
 and he was not at the old house but here, she must save 
 him. How? There was nothing she could do here. 
 Any attempts at inquiry would only result in her own 
 discovery and well, after that the deluge. The 
 only way she could help him was from the outside. 
 She saw that clearly. Now to reach the front door. 
 
 Bristow had told her he was going to take her home, 
 but did he really mean it? Would his car be waiting, 
 as he had said? Perhaps the chauffeur had already 
 been given his orders? In any event, she would have 
 to make the man believe that she was Anita Copley, 
 and that Bristow had been detained and was sending 
 her to town on an important errand. She must not 
 show a quiver of uncertainty; everything depended 
 on her power to carry the situation. Her nerve might
 
 288 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 fail her if there were only herself to consider; but for 
 Kelsey, to free him, she was ready to do and dare any 
 thing. 
 
 She was half-way down the stairs when a nurse 
 came running up from the hall below. The woman 
 stopped at the landing and waited for her. 
 
 "I was just coming after you, Anita," she said. 
 "Lovely night, you ve picked to go out." 
 
 "Yes; and I m late into the bargain," Hope an 
 swered, imitating as well as she could Miss Copley s 
 voice and mannerisms. 
 
 Without stopping, she hurried on. 
 
 "Bad as it is, I wish I was going with you," the 
 nurse called after her. 
 
 Hope did not reply. She was putting as much dis 
 tance as possible between them. But the brief encoun 
 ter had given her fresh courage. One trickle of the 
 Rubicon was crossed, if not the whole stream. 
 
 Through the wide hall-door she saw the drenched 
 lawn, the trees gray and unsubstantial in the heavy 
 mist that was driving in from the sea. Thank heaven ! 
 The car was waiting. 
 
 Her eyes fixed on this welcome sight, she crossed 
 the parquetted floor. 
 
 "Wait!" bade a heavy cracked voice. She looked 
 up startled to see the tall, bowed figure of Higgins. 
 "Not so fast, my dear." 
 
 He gripped her arm, and slipped his own through it. 
 Then, leaning heavily on her shoulder, he forced her
 
 SWALLOWED UP 289 
 
 to keep step with him as he hobbled across the porch. 
 
 "Right down the steps now, and into the car. 
 What made you so late, Anita?" 
 
 Hope mumbled an unintelligible response, and 
 glanced wildly about her. What was before her now? 
 The car, she saw, was not Bristow s but Higgins s. 
 His chauffeur and valet sat on the front seat in their 
 oilskins, the hoods pulled down over their heads. A 
 spatter of rain fell on her cheek. She was swept by 
 a surging longing to scream, protest ; but the porch was 
 empty, there was no one about. Anyhow, it would 
 only result in her being taken back to that room. 
 Never! She preferred the unknown. And he had 
 said, " Anita." She might be able to keep up the decep 
 tion. 
 
 With a firmer step she walked down to the drive 
 way, and entered the limousine. Higgins followed, 
 and slammed the car door. 
 
 He picked up the speaking-tube and gave an order. 
 Immediately they started. The gates were opened to 
 them, and they rolled through. 
 
 Hope leaned back. A deadly faintness had come 
 over her, when she heard that order. They were not 
 going to town. The road he had mentioned led off 
 through the sand and scrub-oak, across the island. 
 
 She stole a glance at Higgins in the light from the 
 opaque globe in the roof of the car. He was sitting 
 with head bent, his hands crossed over his stick, as ob 
 livious to her as if she were not there.
 
 290 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 Where were they taking her? Did she dare ask 
 him? Was this silence and absorption habitual to 
 him ? Would Anita have broken it ? 
 
 Uncertain what to do, she looked through the win 
 dow and saw that they were approaching one of the 
 loneliest spots on the island. They were going slowly 
 for the way was rough and the fog thick. The win 
 dow-pane was blurred with rain, but she knew the lo 
 cality too well to mistake it. 
 
 Her debate with herself was interrupted. Higgins 
 had lifted the speaking-tube again, and ordered the 
 chauffeur to turn down a road even more unfrequented 
 than the one they were traveling. 
 
 But instead of complying, the car was stopped ; there 
 was a word or two between the valet and chauffeur, 
 and then the valet jumped down and came around to 
 the side. 
 
 Higgins grunted and swore. 
 
 "Can t you damn fools understand plain English?" 
 he asked as the valet opened the door. "What the hell, 
 you stoppin for?" 
 
 "You ve said it!" The valet pushed the muzzle of 
 an automatic against the old man s chest. "It s hell, 
 and going to be for you from now on. Hands up!" 
 
 Hope gave a cry, and stretched out her trembling 
 arms. The man in the valet s oilskins was Kelsey.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 CALLING to the chauffeur, who had also swung 
 down and was now at his elbow, to keep his 
 gun on Higgins, Kelsey sprang into the car 
 and gathered Hope in his arms. 
 
 She fell limply against him; and thinking that she 
 had fainted, he laid her back against the cushions, 
 chafing her hands and murmuring tender words. 
 
 But Hope had not lost consciousness. She was 
 merely so thunderstruck, so overcome that she suff 
 ered a temporary suspension of her powers of mental 
 coordination. To her, Kelsey s unexpected, incred 
 ible appearance, the fact that he was beside her, his 
 arms about her, was surely one of the incongruous, 
 impossible happenings of a dream. 
 
 The situation itself carried all the stigmata of a 
 nightmare; the lonesome road, the dark, drizzly eve 
 ning, the drifting, unearthly mist, herself in a nurse s 
 dress in a car with this malevolent, old man. What 
 could it be but a confused conglomerate of former im 
 pressions and fears? 
 
 And as if to confirm the dream-like character of the 
 affair, on top of the valet s abrupt transformation into 
 Kelsey, the chauffeur at the door disclosed the lean, 
 dark face and spoke with the devil-may-care drawl of 
 the motor-cyclist she had sent for a doctor the night 
 
 291
 
 292 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 before. She wondered if she were not after all the 
 victim of delusions. 
 
 "What s this? What s this?" Higgins was stam 
 mering, as he recovered from his first startled amaze 
 ment. "A hold-up?" 
 
 "No, you old buzzard," the motor-cyclist chauffeur 
 informed him, thrusting his face close to the alder 
 man s. "It s your Day of Judgment. You ve come 
 to the end of your line, Bill." 
 
 Higgins still seemed unable to comprehend. 
 "Adolf! Benuet!" He called the names of his valet 
 and chauffeur. 
 
 "They ve sold you out, old-timer. The rats as us 
 ual deserted the sinking ship." 
 
 "Humph! And who are you?" He peered from 
 one to the other with his dim-sighted eyes. 
 
 "Nobody in particular, Bill. Just Juarez Charlie 
 and George Kelsey." 
 
 "Hold on there!" he interrupted the little flourish of 
 this announcement as Higgins involuntarily dropped 
 his hands. "Keep those hooks up above your head. 
 Kelsey, frisk him." 
 
 He waited to see that the search was thoroughly 
 made. No weapon was found on Higgins s person; 
 but still not content, Charlie himself carefully investi 
 gated the lining and cushions of the car, and as an 
 added precaution, made the old man change places with 
 Hope. 
 
 "I guess he s harmless for the first time," he de-
 
 SWALLOWED UP 293 
 
 cided finally. "But keep your gun bent on him, Kelsey. 
 Don t take any chances with a rattlesnake. Now, that 
 we ve got you, Bill, old dear, we wouldn t lose you for 
 the world. Miss Ranger," ceremoniously, "I sup 
 pose the order is, Home, James ! 
 
 Bowing, he closed the door, and climbing back to the 
 chauffeur s seat, turned the car around and started for 
 the main highway. Kelsey seated himself opposite 
 Hope, and covered her hands with one of his; the other 
 held his automatic ready for instant use. 
 
 "Hope!" he murmured rapturously. "You re safe 
 at last. You re going home. Do you realize it?" 
 
 "George! George!" Stunned by the wonder of 
 it all, she could only grip his fingers and repeat his 
 name. 
 
 Higgins, slumped down in his corner of the car, 
 seemed grimly to have accepted the situation. But 
 had he been capable of mischief, Kelsey could hardly 
 have prevented it; for he saw nothing, thought of 
 nothing but Hope. Her breath was coming in long, 
 broken sobs; she was trembling violently from head 
 to foot. 
 
 "Don t try to be calm," Kelsey urged. "Let your 
 self go, dearest. Cry, if you can. Everything s all 
 right now. Juarez Charlie s driving, and I am here 
 with you." 
 
 "But how? How?" She clung to him. "He 
 told me that you were at the old house." 
 
 "Who told you that ? The old man here ?"
 
 294 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "No, no. It was Dr. Bristow before he was 
 killed." 
 
 "Killed?" Kelsey cried. 
 
 "Yes. He is dead, murdered. I I !" She 
 
 shuddered and covered her face with her hands. 
 
 Kelsey s first thought was, that she had done it; 
 but her next words relieved him. 
 
 "I saw it all. That Copley woman. She came in 
 like a maniac. She is one. He tried to push her 
 
 away from the door, and " Her voice failed, she 
 
 put her hand to her throat. 
 
 "Don t tell it now," said Kelsey firmly. "Try to 
 put it out of your mind. It s over and done with." 
 
 Higgins reached out and grasped him by the knee. 
 
 "Here; let her talk," he directed harshly. He 
 seemed to forget that he was no longer in a position to 
 give orders. "I want to get the straight of this." 
 
 Kelsey turned frosty eyes on him. "That ll do from 
 you," he snapped. "No one is interested in what you 
 want or don t want. You re done, Higgins." 
 
 "But he s right, George." Hope sat up resolutely. 
 "I shall feel better if I tell it." 
 
 That clear, practical brain of hers was once more 
 proving itself superior to the weakness of the flesh. 
 With marvelously steadied poise, and with scarcely 
 a quaver in her voice, she went into all the details, the 
 quickly shifting scenes of that crowded half-hour. 
 
 Higgins leaning forward, his ear bent to catch every 
 word, neither interrupted nor made any comment;
 
 SWALLOWED UP 295 
 
 but Kelsey was less impassive. The tale she was tell 
 ing so simply and clearly, without dramatic emphasis, 
 turned him sick with fright. He was appalled at the 
 danger to which she had been exposed, the narrow 
 margin of her chances. And when she described her 
 battle with Anita Copley, his self-control gave away. 
 He could only whisper passionate endearments, his 
 eyes clouding with unashamed tears. 
 
 Charlie driving steadily ahead was turning over the 
 information in his mind, wondering what effect if any 
 this might have on their program ; for Kelsey had low 
 ered the sash between them, so that he might over 
 hear Hope s story. 
 
 None of the three had any cause to mourn Bristow ; 
 Charlie indeed had never seen him. Yet it struck 
 them all with a repugnant shock to hear Higgins give 
 a wheezing chuckle at the conclusion. 
 
 "So that hell-cat finally done for him?" he remarked 
 callously. "That s what all his smoothness, and eddi- 
 cation and God-A mighty ways amounted to. He lets 
 a jealous Jane bump him off with a dope-squirter. 
 Well, good enough for him, the dirty, double-crossin 
 dog." He ran on, heaping abusive epithets on the 
 dead man, until Kelsey threatened to gag him if he did 
 not shut up. 
 
 "That old ruffian s got to keep quiet," he said to 
 Hope under his breath. "But I can t truthfully say 
 that I blame him a lot. Bristow was surely preparing 
 to scuttle the Combine. By Jove, that explains, too,
 
 296 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 why, when he knew where I was, he made no attempt 
 to get me. 
 
 "Lucky thing, Juarez," he turned his head and spoke 
 to Charlie, "that we decided to play your other hunch." 
 
 Charlie nodded, looking straight before him; to 
 drive through a thick night requires one s undivided 
 attention. 
 
 "What was that? The other hunch?" Hope asked 
 curiously. 
 
 Glad to divert her thoughts, Kelsey plunged into the 
 recital of his own adventures from the time she had 
 left him asleep in the passageway of his awakening 
 to find Juarez Charlie with him ; how Charlie happened 
 to be in the house; the subsequent consultations which 
 resulted in their sending for Morton; the diffi 
 culty they had in convincing the latter of the truth 
 of their story, and his reluctant assent to play the 
 spy. 
 
 Hope listened no more keenly than did Higgins. 
 It irritated Kelsey that he had to gratify the curiosity 
 of the old wretch, and annoyed him still more that 
 Higgins, in spite of all this evidence piling up against 
 him, was not more crushed. His interest actually 
 seemed stronger than his fear. 
 
 "Keep back in your corner," Kelsey ordered, and 
 lowered his voice in the hope that the old man might 
 be able to catch only a word here and there. 
 
 "After Morton had left," he went on, "I could see 
 that Charlie was not entirely satisfied. He kept pacing
 
 SWALLOWED UP 297 
 
 the floor and muttering that it wasn t wise to put all 
 your eggs in one basket. I was pretty well on edge, 
 and it didn t add to my cheer. But finally after rolling 
 more cigarettes than he could smoke, and snapping 
 his fingers until I swore at him, he condescended to en 
 lighten me. 
 
 " Kelsey, he said, I m figuring on taking a chance. 
 Did you hear me asking your friend about the menials 
 that re closest to the noblesse over at the sanitarium? 
 
 "I had ; and it provoked me that he should be fiddling 
 around with such irrelevant details, when time was so 
 important. 
 
 "But he soon showed me, that he had a reason for 
 it. That chauffeur of Hobo Bill s, he said, Slim 
 Bennett is an old acquaintance of mine, although I 
 didn t tell friend Morton so. The dear lad would be 
 doing time now if Bill hadn t plucked him as a brand 
 from the burning. But you can bet that Bill holds the 
 fire under him all the time; and that must irk Slim. 
 It strikes me, Kelsey, that it might be a good thing to 
 hook up with Slim dangle immunity from arrest and 
 a bunch of jack before his eyes, and see what happens. 
 Hang it! I can t feel sure in my bones of this Mor 
 ton jasper. I guess he s on the level and all that, but 
 he hasn t got any more backbone than a fishing-worm, 
 and his wits ll run a temperature if a cat sneezes. 
 Anyhow, it won t hurt to have two strings to our 
 bow. 
 
 "I agreed to that," Kelsey said, "but I wanted to
 
 298 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 know what sort of a fellow this Bennett was. Can 
 you trust him ? I asked. 
 
 " Not the length of your eyelash, he said. He d 
 mortgage his own mother for a toothpick. That s 
 the reason I think we can use him. 
 
 "Juarez thinks twice as fast as I do. I couldn t 
 follow him. Use him? I said stupidly. 
 
 " Sure, Gorgio. All we ve got to do with Slim is to 
 convince him that ole Marse has lost out. If we show 
 him that the apple-sauce is all on our side of the table, 
 he ll be after us with his tongue out. Slip him one of 
 these bonds and beat it into his nut that his only chance 
 to miss the well-known river trip is to play in with us, 
 and he ll be one of the best little comrades you d want. 
 
 But how can you get in touch with him ? I asked. 
 Are you going to take the risk of telephoning again? 
 
 " No ; I can beat that, he told me. There s a kid 
 fooling around down there in the woods ; I ve seen him 
 several times from the window. I ll get hold of him, 
 and have him carry a message. Here ; give me a pen 
 cil and some paper. 
 
 "It struck me as a rather risky thing to do. A note 
 might so easily fall into the wrong hands. But when 
 I pointed this out to him, he only laughed. 
 
 " Nobody s going to read this, he said, except the 
 man it s intended for, unless it might be Higgins him 
 self and we ll have to run that risk. 
 
 "I saw what he meant, when he showed me what 
 he had written. One could hardly call it writing at
 
 SWALLOWED UP 299 
 
 all; it was just a few criss-cross lines, with a rude 
 drawing of a combination safe below them. 
 
 "Juarez elucidated the cryptogram for me. That s 
 hobo language, he said, and it tells Slim that his 
 brother Ed is waiting to meet him along this road. 
 Ed is a yegg peterman that s a safe-blower and 
 that picture of a safe down there is his moniker. It s 
 a pitch that will bring Slim sure. 
 
 "He sneaked out then, and found the boy, gave him 
 a dollar to carry the note, and came back to wait. It 
 wasn t more than an hour afterward that we saw Ben 
 nett coming down the road. Charlie let him pass, 
 and then by making a quick detour through the woods 
 intercepted him. 
 
 "He was gone so long that I was about to start after 
 him, thinking that he might have some ugly trouble 
 on his hands ; but just then he came back as shining 
 as a May morning. 
 
 " Hoot, laddie! he cried. "That s the brawest, 
 little hunch I ever kenned. Slim fell on my neck and 
 wept happy tears, when I crossed his palm with a 
 bond. He tells me that he is just on the ragged edge 
 of mutiny. He s a specialist, and he doesn t like to 
 be asked to do odd jobs. The valet Adolf, he says, 
 is also suffering from a bad case of the shakes. Adolf, 
 it seems, was all of a twitter this afternoon, and tipped 
 Slim off that there was a big ruckus on between the 
 three heads. From what he gathered by the keyhole 
 route, the bottom is dropping out of all their plans.
 
 300 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 Also, Adolf learns that Higgins is fixing to stage a 
 fatal automobile accident to-night, which of course 
 would have to be handled by himself and Slim; and 
 the prospect of taking a chance on the chair doesn t ap 
 peal violently to either of them. 
 
 "Then, without any warning of what was coming, 
 Charlie shot at me: I ve arranged for you and me 
 to take their places to-night. 
 
 "Nothing could have suited me better. We were 
 going to do something at last." The zest of that mo 
 ment shone again in Kelsey s eyes as he told of it. 
 "We had to wait a while, and time never dragged so 
 slowly. But at last we set out, and made our way 
 with all caution to the outside of the Sanitarium 
 grounds. 
 
 "We didn t know but that we were walking into 
 the lion s mouth. However, that possibility had to 
 take care of itself. We weren t going to fail. And 
 everything went right. The two men met us as Slim 
 had arranged, guided us by a back path to the garage, 
 changed clothes with us and gave us each a revolver. 
 So here we are." 
 
 Before Hope could speak, Higgins lurched toward 
 Kelsey. 
 
 "Gag me if you want to!" he burst out. "But I m 
 going to say that Bristow was the damn dest jackass 
 muddler that I ve ever trained with, and I ve had a 
 many. I told that blank fool a dozen times that he
 
 SWALLOWED UP 301 
 
 ought to croak you two, and he wouldn t listen to me. 
 Now, see where it s got him to." 
 
 "Thanks for them kind words, Bill," Charlie slowed 
 down to call over his shoulder. "You always were 
 ready to reward any one who did good work against 
 you by railroading em into heaven. Approbation 
 from Sir Hubert Stanley, as I read somewhere once, is 
 praise indeed." 
 
 He waited for a rumbling stream of curses and 
 abuse from Higgins, but none came. Charlie wagged 
 a puzzled head, and drove faster. They were on the 
 highway now. 
 
 "I don t like the way the old grapefruit is acting," 
 he muttered. "He s taking it altogether too darned 
 easy."
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 THE straggling procession of Main Streets, 
 which is the Merrick Road, was almost 
 ended; that white ribbon of macadam and 
 oyster-shell, with one village shirred on to another as 
 it follows the windings of the South Shore, was about 
 to fray out into the asphalt threads of the city. 
 
 Past miles of tree-shaded sidewalks and hedges they 
 had come, where comfortable-looking houses stood 
 back from the road in wide, well-kept yards ; through 
 punctuating dots of tiny business centers a row of 
 white-fronted small shops, a verandahed hotel, a gar 
 age, a red and white barber s pole at the curb, the flar 
 ing lights of a movie theater the macadam giving 
 way for a block or two to brick paving and the foot 
 paths to cement; and then again the hedges and trees 
 and houses. 
 
 Under other circumstances, on a summer day with 
 fleecy clouds drifting across the blue Long Island sky, 
 the crimson ramblers all ablow, the green leaves danc 
 ing overhead, and motors glinting back and forth in 
 the sunshine, Juarez Charlie s vagabond soul might 
 have been tempted to loiter ; or on an evening when 
 the stars were out, and the fireflies sparkling over the 
 lawns, and the south wind carried the mingled per 
 fume of growing things and the scent of the sea. 
 
 302
 
 SWALLOWED UP 303 
 
 But to-night the brave panoply of June was veiled 
 by mist and fog, the trees dripped dismally, the road 
 lights were mere opaque globules in a world of gloom. 
 The tires of the limousine instead of gripping the 
 roadway, spattered through puddles and constantly 
 threatened to skid. 
 
 And Charlie s mercurial spirit was overcast with 
 misgiving, shadowed by the perturbing claims of his 
 responsibility. 
 
 Crouched over the wheel in his hooded oilskins, his 
 gargoyle profile thrust forward as he peered into the 
 murk ahead, he was like some schooner captain navi 
 gating in uncertain waters. All his attention was 
 given to the car, yet he did not forget from time to 
 time to cast a vig ilant glance over his shoulder to make 
 sure that Higgins was not, as he put it to himself, 
 starting something. 
 
 He could not shake off that ominous sense of im 
 pending trouble. Lady Luck had been too complai 
 sant; she was certain to offset her favors by some 
 equalizing slap, and he bent his wits to speculating 
 what form it would take, on the chance of averting it. 
 
 A smash-up? That might easily happen on such 
 a night as this, at the pace they were traveling. 
 What advantage to rescue Lorry s daughter, if she 
 were killed or maimed through his recklessness ? And 
 at the picture, he would involuntarily slow up. 
 
 Then he would ask himself, how he dared moderate 
 his speed? How did he know that Anita Copley had
 
 3 o 4 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 not regained her liberty ? It was extremely likely that 
 Hope in her excitement had tied a bungling knot, or 
 that somebody had found the woman and released her. 
 And this nurse according to all accounts was a person 
 to be reckoned with. 
 
 Also, why was Higgins so submissive? Was this 
 apparent escape merely a frame-up contrived by that 
 cunning, old brain, with Adolf and Bennett only pre 
 tending to sell out, so as to have them waylaid on the 
 road and wipe the slate clean kill three birds with 
 one stone, as it were? It seemed a wild conjecture, 
 and yet it was just the sort of trap that the crafty 
 old wretch might devise. 
 
 So at each lonely patch of road or possible spot of 
 ambush, Charlie would crouch low and send the car 
 shooting ahead, half -expecting to be plugged by a 
 bullet. 
 
 And then, realizing again the dangerous risks he was 
 taking on that slippery highway, he would drop to 
 a crawl, and carefully observe the posted traffic rules. 
 He must not be held up by some officious country con 
 stable, he told himself, if this escape was on the level. 
 That would give Higgins the opportunity he wanted to 
 set the organized power of the Combine against them. 
 
 But was it on the level ? As he ran over the vary 
 ing possibilities of the situation, Charlie s foot was 
 continually straying from the brake pedal to the 
 accelerator, and from the accelerator back to the brake.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 305 
 
 "This night s work is certainly going to turn one 
 head white, Gibbs," he confided to his unseen valet. 
 "I only wish I could trade places with you for the next 
 hour and a half." 
 
 At last, he drew a long breath of relief. 
 
 "Jamaica!" He pointed to a hillside ahead, with 
 scattered lights over it, as he turned back to Hope and 
 Kelsey. "I m going to stop here and telephone. And 
 you d better gag William the Silent there, and sit on 
 him, while I m about it. We don t want to attract 
 such attention as he d love to create, if he had half a 
 chance." 
 
 "I ll look after him," Kelsey responded grimly. 
 
 He expected some protest from the arrogant old 
 man; but Higgins evidently regarded it as the for 
 tunes of war, and offered no resistance, as Kelsey im 
 provised a strait-jacket of his rubber coat, slipping 
 its hood over the face in such a way as to muffle any 
 outcry. 
 
 The proceeding was just concluded when they 
 splashed over a bridge and trundled decorously into 
 town. 
 
 Choosing an inconspicuous place to stop beyond the 
 Peace Monument, Charlie drew up to the curb and 
 hurried into a drug store. After an interval, he re 
 appeared, much of his customary jauntiness restored. 
 
 "Gum?" He tossed a package of it back to Kelsey. 
 "You can give Friend Willie a stick of it when his
 
 3 o6 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 jaws are in commission again. Aids digestion, the 
 wrapper says. Maybe it ll help him to swallow his 
 bitter pill." 
 
 Kelsey swept aside the offering. "Did you get Mr. 
 Ranger?" he asked. 
 
 "Less use of names," Charlie admonished, with a 
 hasty glance around. 
 
 "Well, did you get him?" 
 
 "Nope." Charlie was still impishly reticent. "I 
 didn t try. Too temperamental." 
 
 "But you telephoned to some one, didn t you?" 
 
 "Refuse to answer. Might tend to incriminate or 
 degrade me, if it was known I d been talking to a 
 lawyer. You can draw your own conclusions, though, 
 when I tell you I was exchanging a few remarks with 
 a party whose name begins with H. That might 
 stand for Hennessy." 
 
 "Or Higby," suggested Hope. 
 
 "Also Harding, Hughes and Hoover," Charlie 
 grinned. "If there are no further nominations, we 
 will proceed to a ballot. Mr. Secretary, please call the 
 roll." 
 
 Kelsey knew there was no use trying to argue with 
 Charlie when he was in one of these moods. 
 
 "All right," he said huffily. "But you can at least 
 tell us what your Mr. H. had to say." 
 
 "Presently." Charlie was back in his seat again by 
 this time. "We ve got to be on our way now." 
 
 But when he attempted to drive on, the starter
 
 SWALLOWED UP 307 
 
 wouldn t work. For several minutes he fussed with 
 it, following various suggestions from Kelsey and 
 Hope; but it was plainly out of order, and he was 
 anxious to avoid further delay. Already, one or two 
 passers-by had paused to watch his unavailing efforts ; 
 a crowd would soon be collecting. 
 
 Muttering anathemas on the balky device, Charlie 
 clambered down again, and went to the front of the car 
 to crank up. 
 
 His experience at cranking had been hitherto con 
 fined to flivvers. He did not reckon on the superior 
 horse-power of the limousine. On the second revo 
 lution the engine backfired, hurling him into the middle 
 of the street. 
 
 He picked himself out of the mud and ran toward 
 Kelsey, who was half-way out of the door of the car. 
 
 "Get back in there!" he hissed. "Your job is to 
 watch that old roustabout." 
 
 All his debonnair complacency had vanished. He 
 stood beside the running board, his face twisted with 
 pain, gingerly holding his right arm. 
 
 "Not so good," he groaned. "I knew it. Lady 
 Luck slapped me slapped me on the wrist. We re 
 laid up ; crazy to try and drive with one hand a night 
 like this." 
 
 Kelsey, who had been examining the arm, looked 
 grave. 
 
 "I m afraid there s a fracture, old man; the first 
 and second bones of the carpus. I ll step into the
 
 308 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 drug store and get some splints and a roll of bandage ; 
 and at the same time find out where we can get a 
 chauffeur." 
 
 "No strange chauffeurs," Charlie demurred stub 
 bornly. "I ll just have to do the best I can, and 
 
 A sudden throbbing of the engine interrupted him. 
 Unnoticed by either of the men, Hope had slipped 
 past them and run to the front of the car. She 
 grasped the crank which had proved so vicious to 
 Charlie, and with a deft turn or two had caught the 
 spark. Now she came back. 
 
 "I ll drive the rest of the way to town," she 
 said. "We ll get along perfectly. You, Mr. Juarez 
 Charlie, had better look up a doctor, and come on by 
 train." 
 
 "Shucks!" Charlie made light of his injury. 
 "They d never speak to me on the road again, if they 
 knew I d renigged for a little love-tap like this." 
 
 He had taken out his handkerchief for a sling and 
 was knotting it with his teeth, disdaining Kelsey s as 
 sistance. 
 
 "Quit your arguing, both of you." He took his 
 seat beside Hope in front. "Let s go." 
 
 With the car once more in motion, and the diffi 
 culty apparently smoothed away, Charlie began to talk 
 of his own accord. 
 
 "I rahtheh fawncy I gave old Higby as much of a 
 jolt as that darned engine gave me," he observed, turn 
 ing about to include Kelsey in the conversation.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 309 
 
 " Hello! Hello! I said. This is Juarez Charlie 
 talking. Oh? he came back with the glad surprise of 
 one who has found a lead quarter in his change. In 
 trouble again? 
 
 " Not exactly trouble/ I answered, but something 
 I think Loring should know about. Have him and 
 Mrs. Ranger meet me at the town house in about an 
 hour, will you? 
 
 "Dear Eustace froze up so stiff that the wire had 
 icicles on it. It was his duty to protect Ranger, he 
 told me, and he certainly was not going to drag him 
 into town on my mere say-so. There had been too 
 much giving way to me as it was. If I had any in 
 formation, I could give it to him and he would decide 
 what measures to take. 
 
 " Well, I said very small and humble-like, I m on 
 my way to town with Hope, and I had an idea that her 
 father might like to see her. But of course, if you 
 think- 
 
 "Lord! I could hear the plaster fall as he went 
 through the ceiling. What s that? he yelled. You 
 could almost get it without any telephone. You ve 
 got Hope? 
 
 " I have/ I said, still in my modest-violet voice. 
 I thought it might be nice to have her father and 
 mother on hand to welcome her. And, by the way/ 
 I added, you can also have Inspector Bailey and a 
 couple of cops among those present. I ve got the head 
 of the Combine with me, too, and
 
 3 io SWALLOWED UP 
 
 "Whoa there, Sister !" He stopped to give a direc 
 tion to Hope. "We keep straight ahead here." 
 
 They were out of Jamaica now, and she had 
 swerved to the right on Queens Boulevard as the most 
 direct route to town. 
 
 "But why?" She glanced at him inquiringly. 
 "Aren t we going in over the Queensboro bridge?" 
 
 "Not this trip," he chuckled, and squared about so 
 as to address himself especially to Higgins, who by this 
 time had been relieved of his mufflings. 
 
 "You see, Bill," kindly, "if you re counting on any 
 one having listened in on my talk to Higby, you re 
 going to be fooled." 
 
 Their prisoner roused up at this, and bent forward. 
 "How s that?" gratingly. 
 
 "Why, Higby of course wanted to know just where 
 I was, and how long before I d arrive, and how I was 
 coming, and all that. So, just to be on the safe side, 
 I am doing exactly the opposite of what I told him. 
 There might have been a reception committee of your 
 young men awaiting us with a salute of twenty guns. 
 
 "Disappointed, eh? Have I made a mistake?" as 
 Higgins with a groan sank back in the corner of the 
 car, abject and shaking. 
 
 He hardly stirred again; but all the way through 
 Brooklyn lay in that state of collapse, one arm hang 
 ing limply out of the window. 
 
 And now the skyscrapers of Manhattan loomed be 
 fore them across the river. Soon they were over the
 
 SWALLOWED UP 311 
 
 Williamsburg bridge; and through the East Side 
 streets, Hope drove toward Fifth Avenue. 
 
 Spying the green lights of a police station, Kelsey 
 called Charlie s attention to them. 
 
 "Let s get rid of our passenger," he proposed. "We 
 don t want to spoil the homecoming with him." 
 
 "Good Lord!" Charlie spoke irritably. "That s the 
 one thing f hat s been goose-fleshing me all the way, the 
 fear that we might fall into the hands of the bulls. 
 Figure it for yourself. Lieutenant at desk looks up. 
 Why, Alderman Higgins, what s this? They all 
 know him. 
 
 I ve had an awful time, Lieutenant, says Bill. 
 These three lunatics captured me by a trick, and have 
 been dragging me all over Long Island. The woman 
 thinks she s the missing Hope Ranger. What s the 
 result ? We three are locked up. Bill calls a taxi, and 
 rides away. In the course of two or three hours, 
 things are straightened out. Maybe. Again, maybe 
 not. Bill is a power. It might be that he could have 
 us quietly spirited off to another private booby-hatch, 
 and nobody the wiser. Anyhow, Bill, with a three 
 hours start on us, would be off and gone to the races. 
 
 "No, little one;," to Hope ; "whenever you see those 
 emerald lamps, sheer off like it was a danger signal 
 and " 
 
 He gave a convulsive start, and stared over Hope s 
 shoulder into the mirror at the side of the windshield. 
 
 "My God!" He whirled on Kelsey. "What are
 
 312 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 you doing back there? Can t you see the old devil is 
 playing possum on you? He s been signaling out 
 of the window with his hand. Didn t make any diff 
 erence to him which way we came. He can raise a 
 bunch of gunmen in any part of town. 
 
 "Look back, and see if there s any one after us!" 
 
 But before Kelsey could do so, Hope whose eyes 
 were on the mirror gave a cry. 
 
 "There s a touring car full of men just turned in 
 from Rivington Street!" 
 
 Charlie swerved back to her. 
 
 "That s them!" His voice rang shrill. "Step on 
 her, Sister ! Step on her ! Give her all the gas you ve 
 got!"
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 HOPE threw the gears into high, and shot the 
 limousine ahead. The car behind also in 
 creased its pace. She circled two or three 
 blocks in the effort to lose it ; but always when the hope 
 rose that it had been shaken off, it reappeared, never 
 further than a corner or two back. 
 
 Finally, at Charlie s suggestion, she straightened out 
 to a direct course. 
 
 "It s got to be a race," he said; "and I d rather take 
 my chances in your country than in theirs. Maybe, 
 if we can outrun them as far as Thirty-fourth Street, 
 they ll lay off. Bat it for Fifth Avenue, and uptown. 
 And give em all you ve got." 
 
 She took him at his word. Her foot grinding down 
 on the accelerator, both hands gripping the wheel, her 
 lips drawn back over her clenched teeth, she tore across 
 town, heedless of slippery pavements, sharp corners, 
 car-tracks, obstacles or obstructions. 
 
 A blow-out meant a funeral; anything in her path, 
 destruction. But her nerve was as sure as her driving. 
 
 At Lafayette Street, she just shaved the front of a 
 heavy truck and crowed jubilantly as a wave of pro 
 fanity from its driver swirled behind them. 
 
 In the empty canyon of lower Broadway the pursu 
 ing car was pressing them close. Its driver was tak- 
 
 313
 
 3 i4 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 ing the same suicidal chances as she. But she cork 
 screwed in between the headlights of an up-bound 
 and a down-bound street car, and gained the length of 
 a block. 
 
 Charlie s none too timorous heart was in his mouth 
 a dozen times. But the invulnerability which attends 
 utter recklessness was hers. 
 
 It was one of those things which we say could not 
 occur this race at a subway-express speed between 
 two motors through the narrow, cluttered ways of the 
 wholesale section; this flight and pursuit; this under 
 world attempt to rescue the brains of their system. 
 The police would have stopped it; the entire district 
 would have been aroused. 
 
 Yet it swept a roaring menace through that huddled 
 region of tenement houses and granite business build 
 ings, unchecked and unretarded. 
 
 Still keeping the lead, Hope twisted and turned 
 through two or three more streets at the same mad 
 pace; and then skidding around a corner, came to 
 Washington Square. 
 
 Here, with belated deference to the traffic regula 
 tions, she slowed down and at a more normal rate 
 followed the driveway. 
 
 Charlie craning out and looking back could see no 
 sign of the gangsters. 
 
 "I believe we ve lost em," he announced optimisti 
 cally. Then as they swept under the arch, he jerked 
 back. "No ; here they come !"
 
 SWALLOWED UP 315 
 
 Hope came down once more on the accelerator, 
 and gave herself, hand, foot, eye and soul, to the de 
 mand for speed. 
 
 A straight stretch of level asphalt for the deciding 
 brush, practically clear this rainy night of other ve 
 hicles except for a lumbering stage or two. It was 
 about half-past ten, the zero hour of pre-midnight 
 traffic. 
 
 Charlie leaned forward and read the indicator as 
 they continued to gather momentum. 
 
 Passing the Brevoort, they were making forty miles 
 an hour. 
 
 "Fifty!" he announced, as they jumped the car- 
 tracks at Fourteenth Street; and shouted in Hope s 
 ear: "Faster!" 
 
 Ahead was the lighted plaza of Madison Square. 
 
 "Fifty-five!" barked Charlie; and again: "Faster!" 
 
 She did not sound the horn at all. Neither did the 
 car behind. It would only call attention to their fla 
 grant performance and serve no purpose. If they 
 crashed, they crashed. 
 
 The spectacle of two motors racing up the Avenue 
 really attracted surprisingly little notice. One or two 
 of the pedestrians on the sidewalk turned to watch 
 and gave a disapproving shake of the head. 
 
 Twenty-third Street was crossed without accident. 
 
 "Sixty!" Charlie read the indicator. 
 
 It was the best that Hope could do. She knew that. 
 She could not even hold it ; already her foot was easing
 
 316 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 on the pedal, yielding to its upward thrust. That 
 "Sixty," was her limit. And it was not enough. 
 
 Steadily, surely, the gunmen s car was creeping up. 
 At Washington Square, it had been more than the 
 width of the park behind; now, the distance was less 
 than two blocks. 
 
 But they had almost reached the Waldorf. They 
 were coming to what Charlie had called Hope s coun 
 try, the region of big shops and hotels, the stamping- 
 ground of opulence. 
 
 Would the outlaws give -up, as he had hopefully pre 
 dicted ? 
 
 Half in anticipation of this, half from law-abiding 
 habit, she shifted her foot to the brake, and at a dimin 
 ished speed approached the Thirty-fourth Street cross 
 ing. 
 
 Charlie misunderstood her action. He thought she 
 was about to stop and appeal to the traffic policeman. 
 
 "Keep on! Keep on!" he cried. "One bull isn t 
 going to frighten those babies. Before you can get 
 him to listen, their guns ll be cracking. Hit it up, 
 Hope! They re just behind us." 
 
 A glance at the mirror proved his words. The tour 
 ing car was so close, that she could see the reflected 
 figures of its six or eight occupants, the white of their 
 faces under their down-drawn caps. 
 
 Again her will responded, even though her strength 
 was gone. She sent the big car spinning in another 
 spurt, that almost regained the ground she had lost.
 
 SWALLOWED UP 317 
 
 But it was her spirit s last expiring flame. She real 
 ized that she might hold the pace for six or seven 
 blocks more. Then she was done. And the touring 
 car was coming on faster than ever. 
 
 As she came abreast of the Library, the colored 
 moons of the traffic tower at Forty-second Street 
 flashed from yellow to red to green. She had lost the 
 right of way. All over now ! It would be madness 
 to think of trying to dart through that close-locked 
 line of cross-town travel. 
 
 Charlie had a sudden inspiration. 
 
 "Feel in Higgins s upper, left-hand vest pocket," he 
 shouted back to Kelsey, "and see if he hasn t got a 
 police card!" 
 
 Quick to catch the cue, Kelsey leaped at Higgins, 
 and rifling him, thrust two or three square bits of 
 pasteboard through the front window. 
 
 Shuffling them rapidly, Charlie sang out in triumph. 
 
 "I ve got it! Keep on moving, Sister." 
 
 He held it out to show the signature of the Police 
 Commissioner, as an angry traffic cop came bellowing 
 toward them; and, as if by magic, the way opened. 
 
 Safe on the other side, Charlie looked back to see 
 the touring car with its load of killers stayed and held 
 up by the moving dam. 
 
 "And now for home!" breathed Hope. 
 
 "No; this way out!" Charlie waved imperatively to 
 the left on Forty-fourth Street. "Don t think that 
 Bill s Sunday School class will lay down as easy as that.
 
 3 i8 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 I ll bet that the telephone wires are buzzing right now 
 to the uptown bunch. There ll be a gang at either 
 end of the block where your father lives, waiting for 
 us. I m going to take you to some people I k now 
 on the West Side until I m sure of a clear track." 
 
 So, under his direction, Hope drove to the apart 
 ment on Central Park West, which housed the Green- 
 bergs. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Greenberg, the Princess and Miss Mc 
 Carthy, the ladies in gay evening wraps, were disap 
 pearing through the doors, while Mr. Leffler was hold 
 ing a light to the cigarette of Mr. Dave Greenberg, 
 who was just about to drive the family car to the 
 garage. 
 
 "Greenberg! Wait!" Charlie hailed; and jumping 
 from the limousine as Hope drew up, rushed toward 
 the two men. 
 
 "Listen fast, boys," he said. "We ve got Hope 
 Ranger here, and want your bus to get her home. 
 Greenberg, you drive us. There s a crowd of gun 
 men after us. Leffler, are you game to scoot our car 
 four or five blocks away, anywhere, and leave it?" 
 
 For the rest of his life Charlie retained an inordi 
 nate respect for those two young men. They took the 
 situation standing. No running around in circles of 
 excitement. No fool questions. They had been in 
 the war, and understood the value of quick thinking 
 and immediate action in a surprise attack. 
 
 They spoke in one joyous breath, and with brevity.
 
 SWALLOWED UP, 319 
 
 "Sure," said Mr. Leffler. 
 
 "Get in," said Mr. Greenberg. 
 
 Hope who was close behind Charlie sprang into the 
 Greenberg car; and Charlie and Kelsey, aided by Mr. 
 Leffler, dragged out Higgins, a dead weight on their 
 hands, and hustled him in after her. Kelsey followed, 
 and Charlie scrambled up beside the driver. 
 
 With his still unlighted cigarette hanging from his 
 lips, Dave Greenberg drove through the dim width of 
 the Park, Charlie leaning from his seat at a perilous 
 angle, his head twisted, watching for a piratical 
 craft to show up. 
 
 But no wicked lights appeared. It looked at last as 
 if their persistent jinx of accident and incident had 
 abandoned them. 
 
 Half-way across, Higgins stretched out his hand 
 and clawed at Charlie s arm. 
 
 "A hundred and fifty thousand a piece, if you let 
 me go." 
 
 "Why, Bill," Charlie spoke in pained surprise, 
 "you re a piker after all. Our price is just double 
 whatever you ve got." 
 
 Greenberg swung into Fifth Avenue, and Charlie 
 drew his first long breath since they had started. Also, 
 for the first time in his adventurous career, he felt a 
 warm, emotional regard for the police. 
 
 They were sprinkled up and down the thorough 
 fare, guarding it for several blocks from the Ranger 
 home.
 
 320 SWALLOWED UP 
 
 The long strain was over for all of them. Kelsey, 
 sitting beside Hope, felt a vast relief and at the same 
 time an infinite sadness. He was holding her hand 
 tightly clasped in his, and yet he felt that she was 
 already far from him. She was no longer forlorn, 
 turning to him for aid and solace. 
 
 The curtain was falling, and his heart ached. She 
 was safe among those who loved her, a great heiress 
 slipping into another world than his. He was an 
 unknown, poor young man. 
 
 Already the car was drawing toward the sidewalk. 
 
 "I want to say good-by before you reach home." 
 His voice was shaky. 
 
 She loved him; so immediately she divined his 
 trouble. 
 
 "George!" She looked at him with a quaintly mis 
 chievous smile. "I didn t know you were shy. Are 
 you afraid of my father and mother?" 
 
 It hurt, that light tone. "The adventure s over," 
 he said, stoically calm. "I couldn t take advantage 
 of your your 
 
 Her lips brushed his cheek. 
 
 "Our adventure is just beginning," she murmured. 
 "A beautiful one this time." 
 
 THE END
 
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