Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/192

 Valeska's eyes danced. "I'll be there, with my own little revolver! I hope it will be exciting!"

She was at the station at eleven-thirty, and waited until the train had pulled out without seeing the Master. A half-hour and then a full hour passed without his appearance. She had begun to be alarmed seriously, when, at a quarter past one, she saw him walking rapidly across the great waiting-room toward her. She gave an exclamation of relief; but at once he took her arm and ran her toward the subway.

"Hurry!" he cried in a tense voice. "We can't wait for the one-thirty; so we'll have to make it by the subway and change to the trolley. We have no time to lose! It's serious!"

They caught the train with less than a minute's margin; and once settled in the car, Valeska turned to him anxiously.

"I was a fool to let Miss Dalrymple have the translation!" he said. "It was the only serious error I have made in a year. I hope to heaven I may save her yet; but it's a toss-up now!"

"What is it?" Valeska shouted above the shriek of the wheels.

Astro said nothing. Seeing that he was too deeply moved to explain, she pressed him no further, covertly watching his restless nervous gestures and his drawn expression all through the ride until the trolley slowed down at Yonkers and stopped on the main street. A solitary cab was standing beside the curb, its driver dozing on the box.

A fat man was waddling hurriedly ahead of them,