showing dirty linen, more abject than any other squalor could have made
them. Antony Dart's blood, still running warm and well, was doing its
normal work among the brain-cells which had stirred so evilly through
the night. When he had seized the fellow by the collar, his hand had
left his pocket. He thrust it into another pocket and drew out some
silver.

"Go and get yourself some food," he said. "As much as you can eat. Then
go and wait for me at the place they call Apple Blossom Court. I don't
know where it is, but I am going there. I want to hear how you came to
this. Will you come?"

The thief lurched away from the wall and toward him. He stared up into
his eyes through the fog. The tears had smeared his cheekbones.

"God!" he said. "Will I come? Look and see if I'll come." Dart looked.

"Yes, you'll come," he answered, and he gave him the money. "I 'm
going back to the coffee-stand."

The thief stood staring after him as he went out of the court. Dart was
speaking to himself.

"I don't know why I did it," he said. "But the thing had to be done."

In the street he turned into he came upon the robbed girl, running,
panting, and crying. She uttered a shout and flung herself upon him,
clutching his coat.

"Gawd!" she sobbed hysterically, "I thort I'd lost yer! I thort I'd