scheme. He was gone, but he had taken me into his confidence, and
I was pretty well bound to carry on his work.

You may think this ridiculous for a man in danger of his life, but
that was the way I looked at it. I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not
braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed,
and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play
the game in his place.

It took me an hour or two to think this out, and by that time I
had come to a decision. I must vanish somehow, and keep vanished
till the end of the second week in June. Then I must somehow find
a way to get in touch with the Government people and tell them
what Scudder had told me. I wished to Heaven he had told me
more, and that I had listened more carefully to the little he had told
me. I knew nothing but the barest facts. There was a big risk that,
even if I weathered the other dangers, I would not be believed in
the end. I must take my chance of that, and hope that something
might happen which would confirm my tale in the eyes of the Government.

My first job was to keep going for the next three weeks. It was
now the 24th day of May, and that meant twenty days of hiding
before I could venture to approach the powers that be. I reckoned
that two sets of people would be looking for me--Scudder's
enemies to put me out of existence, and the police, who would
want me for Scudder's murder. It was going to be a giddy hunt,
and it was queer how the prospect comforted me. I had been slack
so long that almost any chance of activity was welcome. When I
had to sit alone with that corpse and wait on Fortune I was no
better than a crushed worm, but if my neck's safety was to hang on