turned to the waiting cab, fumbling for change.

"I'll walk," he told the cabby, paying him off.

The hansom swept away to a tune of hammering hoofs; and quiet rested upon
the street as Kirkwood turned the nearest corner, in an unpleasant temper,
puzzled and discontented. It seemed hardly fair that he should have been
dragged into so promising an adventure, by his ears (so to put it), only to
be thus summarily called upon to write "Finis" beneath the incident.

He rounded the corner and walked half-way to the next street, coming to an
abrupt and rebellious pause by the entrance to a covered alleyway, of two
minds as to his proper course of action.

In the background of his thoughts Number 9, Frognall Street, reared its
five-story facade, sinister and forbidding. He reminded himself of its
unlighted windows; of its sign, "To be let"; of the effluvia of desolation
that had saluted him when the door swung wide. A deserted house; and the
girl alone in it!--was it right for him to leave her so?




IV


9 FROGNALL STREET, W. C.

The covered alleyway gave upon Quadrant Mews; or so declared a notice
painted on the dead wall of the passage.