The Lost Valley

rked as Bryce opened the door, "and I ho

"As a matter-of-fact I've been othe

ld have said just then. Some cross-grained streak in my nature made me both cantankerous and suspi

ady you met in the passage.

affair he had undertaken a bigger job than he thought. For two pins I would have told him, had he uttered another word, that there was one matter in which I would brook no man's interference, and that even the ties that bound him to my father were not strong

stened attentively, for I guessed in some queer fashion of my own that the maps and that foolish cryptogram, the shooting on the beach and the piece of

stand why they should have this peculiar effect on me. I felt as if a cold gust of wind, the icy breath of Death himself, had passed and touched me in the passing. I flatter myself that I have pretty strong nerves-the Lord knows they've been tested often enough-but there was something in the atmosphere of that room, something in the sight of those littered shee

pers on the table. I rose too, and with a careless "So long,

ou haven't seen anything latel

h the hardware and the smashed wrist?"

lines about his mouth creased into a myriad w

said. "They seem to have di

int him. "They evidently mean business," he said in a semi-undert

awn close together. "We'll hear from them presently

long way to go yet, and I don't think they'

fraction of a second he trembled on the point of divulging everything, an

t keep your eyes and your ears open, Ji

tone that he meant that last

his typing. It was a very faint noise, not the kind to bring a heavy sleeper instantly awake. But my nerves work like a hair-trigger, and the almost noiseless pad of a cat across the

ng tabby that had blundered into a piece of furniture; perhaps the window had creaked; it might be any one of half a hundred things. If there was an intru

t as I was beginning to despair, I heard it again. It was a little plainer this

. Of course if I had fancied that there was one chance in a hundred of the man getting away, I would have been on the spot like a shot, but I guessed from what I had heard that the visitor was in no hurry, and certainly hadn't the faintest suspicion that anyone in the house was aware of his presence.

was locked. Now the only time Bryce ever locked it was when he was at work inside, so I knew that my man was still within reac

for whatever he wanted and, once it had been found, he had drawn the chair up to the table and settled down to a prolonged study of the matter. That would explain the two sounds. Now as my man h

her man's nose would be sure to scent me out. Also a scrape of a match in a still house at the dead of night sounds like a bomb-explosion. So I just squatted down on my heels and cursed my man

or something of the kind, I might have missed it altogether. But it was quite loud enough for me to position the fellow, and the next instant I flopped out of the darkness on to him. He gave a surprised little gasp, a sort of sizzling like the air escaping out of a punctured tyre, and went down on the mat underneath me. I had taken him so completely off his guard that there was no need for me to use my gun. I got one hand

el best to annex all the honors for herself. She was standing with one hand on the light switch and the other held Bryce's automatic. Her face was very pale, and the hand that held the revolver wasn't quite

ade her either to put down the revolver or hold it i

" I said calmly, "or you'll be doing someone damag

k somehow she must have missed it in the excitement of

u!" she crie

that I'd be obliged if you'd keep quiet for a while and help me look after this gentleman on the floor. I w

the subdued note of her voice tha

"I discovered him in the room there, and

at did

present attitude, he came to study

ous, Jim

to my feet. "It's too much like hard wor

e a deuce of a lot of satisfaction, and that's about all I can say in defence. She looked up at me with both hurt and contempt in her eyes, but I was far too engrossed in the business in hand t

nice black eyes, the sort that brim over with humor, yet way at the back of them I caught a glimpse of something else. It was a queer mixture of anger and determination, and I saw just sufficient of it to warn me to take no unnecessary risks. Save for that first spasmodic movement he lay perfectly still, those black eyes of his laughing up at me and challenging. Someh

at length, seeing that one of us mus

mbulist you wouldn't believe

't," I sa

ith those infernally self-possesse

g in that room," I threatened. "The soone

get a word more out of me than I wish, and while I think of it

uch about it, I surmised that the less Bryce had to do with the police the better he'd be pleased, that is if I could base anything on the way he

aid in a quick whisper. "You mustn't d

nt to make an example of him, I don't see what else there is for it. I'll h

ain and anger occasioned by my ill-timed insu

d think of no suitable reply than for any oth

d I are going to have a l

, and I made a mental note of that in case we had a scrimmage on the way. Weight counts a good deal in a rough-and-tumble. I got a good

my captive with my free hand. "Jog along, Eliza," I said.

was acting to an impressionable audience. I was sure that Moira could not fail to appreciate the neatness with which I had conducted the whole affair, and, though I kept tell

e gave a little twist and a wriggle and slipped out of my hands as if he had been an eel. Then, before I had quite recovered sufficiently to make a grab at the empty air, he hurled himself against the window. It was one of those foolhardy things that succeed just because of the sheer, daring recklessness of the man who carries them through. He swept through the glass with a splintering crash that must have been audible for half-a-block away, and

s hurrying silhouette had shown on the top of the fence, and then it had melted into the surrounding shadows of th

e gathered in a huddled, indecisive group just inside the window. Most of them looked startled. Bryce had been a little shaken, bu

that someone had to take the initiative. "It's no

Bryce said, seconding my rema

minute Bryce eyed the revolver that I still held in my hand, then his glance trave

a request for a detailed account of the events of that night. Seeing that there was nothing to be ga

m you?" he remarked

I said emp

done," Bryce ran on. "I don't know what we

way will live to fight ano

future," he answered. "We'd better

his study just as the first rays of the r