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254 had been covered. Fortunately, at this crisis am empty touring car made its appearance; it was evidently a private machine, but the chauffeur was not unwilling to make a bargain, and the detective and his operatives were again upon their way.

Through side streets they wove as on a shuttle, shooting around corners, circling and doubling on their tracks until the city had been traversed from river to river; but ever the trail led northward. The park was passed, and the cheaper shopping district of what had once been known as Harlem. Vacant lots appeared with increasing frequency between the solid rows of towering apartment houses; and at last they came to the anomalous region where the farthest tentacles of the city reached, and brick and stone gave way to frame cottages, for the most part in the final stages of dilapidation.

"Why would Drew—if it's he she's come to meet—ask her to trail away out here?" Smith muttered. "Why didn't he meet her where they could lose themselves in a crowd?"

"Because in that crowd there would probably be one of our boys looking for him," Odell replied succinctly. "He must know by now of Sims's arrest and that we're after him with the whole Force back of us. What happened between the time I 'phoned you and Miss Cissie's getaway?"

"Nothing. She came down to dinner all flushed up, and her eyelids were puffed as though she'd been crying; but I hadn't heard a sound from her room all the afternoon. At the table she complained in a low tone—for my benefit outside of course—of feeling ill, and said she would go to bed at once. I don't believe she ate very much, for I could hear her aunt urging her to try just a little soup. She went