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Rh glanced at Nora. She had stooped and was raising from the floor behind Slim's seat a bottle precisely similar to that from which the water had poured. She had not conquered her emotion.

"He ought to have it," she whispered. "I didn't believe he'd do that when he saw the game was up and there was no use. The chair is too kind."

She opened the window and emptied the bottle. She flung it far to the right of way. The inspector freed Garth from the coat and the handcuffs. He grasped Garth's hand.

"I know it hurt you, Garth, to promise to go along with these crooks quietly, but Nora made me ask it. She passed me the wink at the top of the cellar steps."

"You mean," Garth asked, "that Nora had all this planned from the very beginning?"

"Not then," the inspector answered, "but she promised to get us both out, and I've had enough experience with that daughter of mine to believe her when she talks like that. She chased to the Grand Central while we watched Marlowe's and saw you leave. Got the number of your car, of course, and had reports on you all the way to Tarrytown. A mounted cop on the bridge made sure you were all three inside, and the operator at Tarrytown was a local detective. Nora smiled at them in the railroad offices and fixed the rest."

Garth beckoned Nora. She sat by a window. Her expression was nearly tranquil again. The