VII + 

The incidence of crime among fifty million people affects the average individual very seldom. Any ordinary man who has his pocket picked or the domestic silver stolen, has the feeling that he has been unfairly selected as the victim of a phenomenon. Why should such a singular misfortune happen to him? + 

So it was with Penelope Noelson. A very much worried person was that girl as she left the precincts of the Grape Street police station. She felt a sense of injustice that she should have become caught in a coil from which she saw no way of extricating herself. If only things would work out so that she would not be involved. A selfish attitude no doubt, but one which she would have been something more than human to avoid. + 

Quite illogically, there was a touch of exasperation in her mind with Labar. She had felt grateful to him as she left the station, but now she reflected that like many men he was blind in one eye. How dare he assume that her silence was due to an affection for Mr. Hughes? Why, he had even hinted that⁠—that⁠—. She flushed hotly at the implication that she realised might have lain behind his guarded words. For Penelope, although a modern and sophisticated maiden, had a quite sufficient self-respect. + 

She had to carry on the fight alone. There was no one, neither relation nor intimate friend, to whom she might turn for counsel or sympathy. And beyond it all lay the shadow of the gaol. If there had only been something she could do, some active step that she might take, it would have been easier. She thought of flight. That would, however, be taken as an admission of guilt. Besides, she had little money, and her common sense told her that Labar had probably foreseen and guarded against that very contingency. Any attempt of that kind might very well be the signal for her arrest. + 

It was with her thoughts thus occupied that she did not observe Larry Hughes until he was within a couple of paces. He raised his hat and dropped into step by her side. + 

“Miss Noelson. The very person I was hoping to see. May I have a word with you?” + 

She turned an embarrassed face to him. “You! The police⁠—” She struggled for words. + 

“Please don’t fear for me,” he said smilingly. “I am in no imminent danger of arrest. That is what you are afraid of, I guess. I gather that you have just left my humorous young friend, Detective Inspector Labar. No doubt he spent a pleasant quarter of an hour blackening my character. An ambitious young man is Mr. Labar. He believes that I am some sort of a gilt-edged criminal, and that you are my accomplice. Funny, isn’t it?” + 

The airy jocularity of his tone did not deceive her. Her intuition told her more than he meant to betray. “What do you want?” she demanded. “If things are as you say, then for us to be seen together will look even more suspicious.” + 

“You are being shadowed,” he said. “There is a gentleman loitering a little aimlessly down the road, who I judge is interested in you. I have had a couple of detectives behind me whenever I have taken a walk. Fortunately, motor cars are a little difficult for eavesdroppers. I have mine at hand. A ride for ten minutes will allow me to make many things clear. Will you come?” + 

She shook her head with decision. Whatever lay behind all this, it was likely that it could bring her nothing but harm, in view of the suspicions that already focused upon her and Hughes. + 

“There is no need to make things clear to me,” she said. “If you know anything about this crime, Mr. Hughes, you should go to the police.” + 

He gripped her by the arm, and she felt his fingers tighten. “You are not afraid?” he demanded. “This is absurd, I must see you.” + 

The shadower was standing some distance away, surveying with apparently idle interest a couple of men engaged on road repairs. But Larry guessed that in a few moments he would saunter down towards them. There was no time to take chances. His grip tightened roughly and he almost shook her. + 

“Let me go,” she cried. “You’re hurting my arm.” + 

“Then you’ll come?” + 

“No.” + 

“You obstinate little fool,” he snarled, and she found his arms encircling her, as she was lifted from the ground. + 

A cry for help escaped her, and she saw in a quick glance that the detective had lost interest in the road repairers and was running towards them. She fought with all the strength of her lithe, young body to tear herself away. One arm she managed to wrench free and Larry ripped out an oath as her fist caught him on the jaw. + 

With a supreme effort he hurled her through the door of the car which someone within held open, and tumbled in on top of her. She felt other hands clutching at her and a cloth was drawn tightly about her face, smothering her screams. She heard the door slam and felt the car drawn fiercely into motion. Still she maintained her struggles until at last the two men⁠—she knew there were two now⁠—had pinned her to her seat, and she could move neither hand nor foot. + 

So they held her, it seemed for hours, though at a later stage she knew that it was for less than an hour, while they were running out of London. + 

The noise of traffic died down, and the soft not unmusical voice of Larry Hughes came to her ear. “Sorry to be rough, but you rather forced it on us. You had better accept things as they are, and we shall all be more comfortable. Promise that you have finished with this tiger-cat business, and we’ll let you travel like a civilised being.” + 

She was exhausted, and in any case she could not hope to make any further effective resistance. The cloth about her head prevented her speaking, but she nodded and she felt the hands that pressed her down cautiously withdrawn. The cloth was taken from about her face. Larry Hughes, however, still retained a grip of her wrist. + 

“That’s better,” he announced. “Tom, stop the car for a moment and get in front with Williams. Miss Noelson and I have a few private things to discuss.” + 

She remained silent, collecting her thoughts, till the car had started again. Then she spoke angrily. + 

“This is an outrage.” + 

“I agree,” he said, coolly. “What would you expect? I had to do this, since you would not let me persuade you. I have saved you from a very awkward position.” + 

“You have placed me in a worse one,” she retorted. “What do you intend to do with me now?” + 

He freed her wrist and regarded her speculatively, with a cold smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. “That depends,” he said. “I have, thanks to Mr. Labar, had to push things rather in a hurry. How much of what he told me about you was true? Not all, I’m sure, or you wouldn’t have been allowed to walk out of the police station this morning.” + 

He had contrived to startle the girl out of her attitude of cold resentment. She pulled herself round till she was half-facing him. + 

“What did he say? What does he know?” + 

“I can’t tell you what he knows, but what he asserted that he knew was that you had committed forgery, and that you tried first to bribe him, and then to knock him out. The case as he presented it was pretty ugly. There was only one thing left for me to do as a friend of yours. That was to get you out of the way.” + 

Penelope’s face darkened as she listened. Was Labar trying some subtle underhand game of bluff? If he had thus lied about her to Hughes, might he not equally have lied to her when he declared that Larry Hughes was a criminal? What could he hope to gain by it? Her hands opened and closed nervously as she considered. Had she misjudged Hughes merely on the strength of this man’s word whom she had only met yesterday? + 

“That is a string of lies,” she said scornfully. + 

“Not altogether, I think,” he said thoughtfully, his dark piercing eyes fixed unwaveringly on her, as though he would read her thoughts. “There is truth in it somewhere. How much? How much has Adèle told you?” He thrust his face even closer towards her. “I know there is a reason for your actions. I am your friend and hers. I am taking a heavy risk to help you whether you appreciate it or not. We are all in the same boat⁠—all suspect. Let us clear the air.” + 

His voice was low and persuasive, and his hand sought and found hers. She hastily tore hers away from his touch. For once Larry Hughes had overplayed his part. Penelope had got a clue to things that had been dark to her, and some at least of her doubts of the man who sat by her side were resolved. + 

“Adèle⁠—and you,” she murmured, softly, more to herself than to the man. “I begin to understand.” + 

“Well, tell me,” he said. + 

“You,” she said holding away from him as from some abhorrent thing, “you are the blackmailer. You are the man she has been buying silence from. You are the man who wrecked her life, who has driven her to forgery, and worse. I believe you are the most contemptible creature on God’s earth.” + 

Not a muscle of the man’s face moved as he listened. “Like you, I begin to see,” he declared, his tone smooth as before. “Well, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. Adèle has been putting her foot in it, possibly getting out of her depth at the races, and she has hinted to you that she is being blackmailed. Anyhow, she has done some foolish things, and you are standing between her and trouble. That’s what it amounts to. No, Miss Noelson, I am not a blackmailer. There was something between Adèle and me many years ago, before her marriage, and possibly a crook has got some foolish letters of ours.” + 

Mentally he cursed himself for a fool. So sure had he been that the charges Labar had made against this girl could only be explained by one reason⁠—that she was fully in Adèle Gertstein’s confidence⁠—that he had let slip enough to enable her to make a guess somewhere near the truth. It was not Larry Hughes’ habit to talk loosely. However, it could not be helped. He had acted on the assumption that the knowledge she had might make disclosures from her dangerous. He realised that he had been wrong. He might have left her alone and all Labar’s efforts to extract anything from her that would have inculpated Larry would have been vain. But now by his own act he had made her the very menace he had feared. The guard that he had ever maintained upon himself had been incautiously relaxed. At least it was not irretrievable. He was where he had thought himself to be. Scotland Yard would have a long way to go ere it would be able to bring any crime against him. + 

The girl shrank as far from him as the limits of the car would allow. “But why this?” she demanded. “Why are you carrying me away, and where are you taking me?” + 

He made an impatient little gesture. “I am taking you away because you are not safe in London. You need have no fear. You will be well looked after.” + 

Penelope did not miss the sinister construction that might have been put upon his words. She felt herself shudder inwardly. But to the man she presented a brave front. + 

“Why?” she demanded again. “I am nothing to you. I insist that you put me down.” + 

“And let Labar twist you as he will. I am not raving mad.” With a sudden movement he possessed himself of her hands. “Penelope, you are something to me. Can’t you understand, child? You are everything to me.” + 

“No,” she protested. “Do not touch me.” + 

He paid no heed. “I want you, child. I have wanted you ever since I met you. Listen. You have no one to consider but yourself. I am rich⁠—richer than you could imagine. I can give you everything that the world holds. You and I together. Will you marry me?” + 

“No,” she declared, vehemently. “Marry a thief⁠—a blackmailer⁠—God knows what⁠—no!” + 

He flung her roughly from him. He had heard harder words in his life and had met them sneering and unmoved. But somehow to hear them from her stung him. + 

“You think you won’t⁠—now,” he said viciously. “But you will, my girl. If you think you can set your silly obstinacy against my will, my dear, and win, you are booked for trouble. I have given you your chance and I don’t permit man nor woman to stand in my way. Bigger people than you have learnt that.” + 

She returned no answer. The car turned from the smooth road, and slowed as it took a rough track through a windswept marshland. In a little it came to a halt. + 

“Here we are,” said Larry Hughes. + 