down at his victim. His eyes showed alarm. He bent swiftly over and felt the heart of Dayless. Dayless, though unconscious, was alive. And now Minturn showed a brisk alertness very different from the methodical manner which seemed to belong to him. From Dayless' pocket he drew a key ring. He walked directly b a huge safe in a corner of the great room. The Englishman tried several keys. He was finally successful. The heavy door swung silently open, disclosing numerous compart ments, each labeled. He attacked the compartment which bore the superscription "Jenny's necklace." The third key which he inserted opened the drawer. He drew out a limp object wrapped in tissue paper. He opened it. glanced at the jewels that sparkled in the electric light, and thrust his booty into an inside pocket. He inserted another key into a lock above which were the words “Unset rubies." The lock did not yield to his pressure; he turned the key violently, and it broke in his hand. The same thing happened with the next compartment which he en deavored to open. And then Day less moved and groaned. Like a flash Minturn crossed the room. He opened the door, passed through it, and closed it softly be hind him. He walked along the hall to the great stairway that de scended to the street floor. Leisuie ly he walked to the lower floor. There he encountered the feotman who had admitted him earlier in the day. The man ventured a smile. “Anything I can do for you, sir?' lie recognized in Minturn that su perior clay which he so rarely en countered in America. "No, thank you,” replied the latest addition to the Dayless house hold. “I’m always a bit restless my first night in new quarters, and I thought I’d take a look at the avenue before I tflrned in. “Quite so,” said the servant. He fetched Minturn’s hat and coat and assisted him in donning the latter. He opened the door and ushered Minturn out of the house. Across the street a man woke from watchful inactivity. He gained the front stops before the door was closed. But the footman smilingly reassured him. “It’s all right; this is Mr. Regi nald Minturn, secretary to Mr. Day loss.” The outside guardian of the Day loss palace scrutinized the young Englishman carefully. He saw a plump-faced young man, whose hair was quite black, and whose tiny mustache was equally dark, lie nodded respectfully. "All right, sir; we have to he careful, you know,” he said. "And quite right, too," agreed Minturn, "If I were Mr. Dayless I'd keep an army here." The man grinned. “Well, we don’t need quite that." He was tolerant and affable in his manner. Evidently Dayless' new secretary didn't know that the Tryon detec tive agency was guarding this house. "Where s the nearest entrance the park?" asked Minturn. "Sixty-fifth street," was the guard's reply. "But I wouldn't ad vise anyone to go strolling there tills time of night. There've been too many holdups there lately.” Minturn laughed. "How exeit ing! I fancy I've nothing on me worth a footpad's time and trouble. And I wouldn't mind a little tussle.” "You could take care of yourself, at. that.'' said the Tryon operative, lie looked, over the lithe figure of the secretary with admiration. "Still, don't look for trouble.” 'I won't,” promised Minturn. "Nice chap,” said the operative to the footman, who lingered at the open door. "His uncle's the duke of Bourne mouth," said the footman. "I don't care; he's a nice chap just the same,” said the free born American citizen. Then he walked across the street and ensconced himself on the low stone wall that guarded the park, hidden in the shade of a great tree. Motor cars were not yet returning from the theaters. In a quarter of an hour the street would be noisy, filled with bustle, but now it was quiet. It did not remain so. Exactly seven minutes after Minturn had Jeft the house the footman discov ered his master, in a semi-conscious condition, on the library floor. Within three minutes after that, men on motorcycles were scouring •*'•' park in search of Mr. Reginald uiukuiu. _ ' - —exactly eight minutes too late. For two minutes after the secretary had left the footman and the operative, he had entered the Sixty-fifth street entrance to the park, stepped into a waiting limousine and sped away. A little later he changed to another rar, tenlch machine deposited him five minutes afterward in front of a house on Stuyvesant square whose recent renovation had made it extremely suitable for bachelors. Mr. Minturn alighted from the car, bade a cheery good night to his chauffeur, opened the outer door with one latchkey, entered, and a moment later opened with a sec ond key the door to a snug apart ment on the second floor. Ho awoke at 9 the following morning, rang a bell, and in 15 minutes, bathed and shaved and at tired in a dressing gown, was attack ing breakfast and the morning pa per simultaneously. Glaring head lines leaped at him from the front page. Dayless had consented to receive newspaper men shortly after the police had been summoned to his house. He was weak and pale, hut emphatic in his belief that his secretary was an emissary of the Gray Ghost. His credentials had been flawless, but doubtless for geries. The reporters agreed with Day less. Only the fact that the robber had been content with one bit of loot argued against the theory that the Gray Ghost had been respon sible for the crime. For it was not the Gray Ghost’s way to be content with a fraction of the whole, even though that fraction was worth half a million dollars. Still, the broken keys in the locks of the safe compartments tended to showthat the robber had had but little time in which to effect his purpose. Minturn smiled. Having break fasted. he dressed leisurely, with extreme care, avoiding any article of apparel which had been worn in the Dayless household. Somehow, he seemed no longer an English man. He might have passed, minus the mustache which he removed, as an alert but indistinguishable broker or lawyer or certified ac countant. For a man sought by the whole city, he seemed quite confident in his bearing. He crossed Stuyvesant Square and turned to the west. He made his way to Broadway, and at Fourteenth street engaged a taxi, in which he drove to Maiden Lane. There he dismissed his driver, walked a block and darted sudden ly into a shop on whose window were painted the words “F. II. Lewis, Diamonds." A suave, olive-skinned youth greeted him. Mlnturn was brusque. "I want to talk with Mr. Lewis," he said. The clerk looked at him doubt fully. “Mr. Lewis is busy,” he stated. He glanced toward a door on which appeared the word "Priva te." Minturn acted in a decisive fashion. He strolled by the clerk, ’ reached the door, opened it, and en tered the room. A bearded man, short and fat, looked up from the table at which he sat. A magnify ing glass that was screwed, mon acle-fashion, Into his eye fell to the table. He was a man of as quick decision as his caller. With the lightning motions of a prestidigita tor his hand opened a drawer and reappeared holding a revolver. The . unset jewels on the table amply justified his precaution. Also the clerk had followed the visitor into the private office, and he was i rmed. Out Minturn laughed. “Send your clerk out of the room,” he said. "Keep your gun trained on me if you like. Out do I look like a rob ber?” Lewis motioned to the clerk, who promptly stepped across the thres hold and closed the door. “What do you want?” asked Lewis. His weapon was ready, and his small black eyes stared at his visitor. “I am going to put my hand in my pocket, but I'm not going to produce a gun," smiled Minturn. Lewis shrugged. “You won't if you're wise,” he stated. His visitor took the words as per mission to go ahead. From the in ner pocket of his coat he produced the tissue-paper parcel that ho had taken the night before from the Dayless safe. He placed it upon the table and opened it. Lewis glanced at it; drops of moisture ap peared suddenly upon his forehead. His tongue showed between his black lips, as he moistened them. “My foot Is on a button,” he said. "All I have to do is press it, and in less than five minutes the police will be here.” Minturn smiled again. "But you aren't going to press it,” he retort ed confidently. "Get to the point," snapped Lewis. "These are the Dayless diamonds; you know that without my telling you. If you deliver me to the po lice, you may get $10,000 as a re ward. If you buy them from me, your profit should be a quarter of a million. You don't look like a fool." "Do I look like a thief?” said Lewis. "Do I?” countered Minturn. "I can't see that our appearances mat ter particularly. Do we do busi ness?" He carefully rewrapped the necklace and placed it in his pocket. "Well?” he demanded. “Come back this afternoon,” said Lewis hoarsely. Minturn nodded, and without an other word left the office. He walked toward Broadway, but a few doors from that street he stepped into a taxi drawn up at the curb. So it was that, when the olive skinned clerk emerged, a few mo ments later from the jewelry es tablishment, he was followed by a taxicab whose driver, having some difficulty with his carbuerto*, could proceed only at a snail's pace. The clerk was watchfully suspi cious, but it never occurred to him that if he were followed it was by a person in an automobile. And Minturn's taxi man was clever. Al though the clerk, entering an au tomobile near Park Row, dodged and doubled and retraced his course when at last he entered an apart ment house in West End avenue, Minturn was close enough to note the number. He was then driven to Union Square. There he dis misted the taxi man, and walked rapidly toward the apartment which he had left a couple of hours earlier. He was whistling as he unlocked the door of his apartment. But the whistle died away as he entered the room. For three men awaited him and were upon him. One of them was the Tryon operative who had con versed with him the previous night. Handcuffs wpre on his wrists before he could utter a word of protest. _ ".No so clever as you thought, Mr. Minturn," said one of the men. Minturn held out his hands. "Take these blasted things off,' he ordered. “I’m Pelham." One of the men ran his hands over his clothing and brought to light the IJayless necklace. "Sure you ain’t the king of Spain?” he laughed. Their prisoner gave up protest. “All right, rush me down to head quarters as fast as you can; I won t argue with you.” sensible man, said his acquaint ance of the night before. Now, detectives are ordinary hu man beings; it was not to be expect ed that having achieved so brilliant a capture, they should fail to in form the newspaper men whom they found loitering in the corridor out side the detective bureau of their triumph, lty the time that important police officials had finally yielded to the urgent messages sent to them by the prisoner and had consented to see him, extra editions were upon the street proclaiming to an ap plauding public that the Dayless robber had been captured, and that he professed to be James Pelham of the Tryon Detective agency. And when, released, Pelham sped, in a police automobile, to the ad dress on West End avenue, he found that a hurried exodus had been achieved 15 minutes earlier by the tenants of an apartment on the sec ond floor. And the description which the apartment house em ployes gave him of one of those tenants fitted the Gray Ghost per fectly. "I’m sorry, Jerry,” said Pelham, a little later in the day. "Here's what happened. The Gray Ghost had ABE MARTIN Gettiri Back from an Auto Ride Hidin' r a Fali We had quite a talk t' day with Huckster A1 Swallo about automo bile accidents. A1 drives a fast truck ever’ day, week in an’ week out, thro’ towns, up an’ down hills, over interurban an' steam railroads, thro’ mud an’ fresh gravel, an’ along nice, well kept state roads. He says th' difference between git tin’ where we're goin’ an' glttln' killed, or th’ difference between safety an’ carelessness, varies all th' way from three minutes t’ an hour, dependin’ on whether we're fakin' a little spin about town, or 22 rnile drive In th’ country. Three minutes dp t' as much as an hour allowa fer slowin’ down at cross roads, little towns, an’ corners, stoppin’ an’ lookin' at railroad crossin’s an' goin’ up an’ down big hills In second speed. What’s a few minutes or an hour compared t’ th’ Joy o’ livin’, an’ what difference does It make what time we git homo Sunday evenin'? If ther’s anything drearier than Billin' home at 7 o'clock Sunday evenin' we don't know what it is. The’ right time t’ git home Sunday eve nin’ is bedtime. Th' feller or woman that drives a car on Sun day shouldn’ think o' nothin' hut gittin’ home, not at any particular hour, but jest gittin’ home. No family ought t' start out on Sun day till all th’ arguin' an flghtln’ an' wranglin' has been taken care of. Whoever drives th' car should wear earmuffs an' keep out o' th' conversation. It's all right t’ nudge a driver from th' rear occasionally an’ call his attention t' danger signs, or an approachln’ load o' hay, hut don't ever hand him an apple. If drivers hnin't careful they become absorbed in thought, especially on paved, or good level roads, an’ fergit what they're doin', Jest us we sometimes git absorbed while walkin' along th' streets an' pass th' place we’re goln’, or run against somebuddy. Never call a driver's attention t' a extry fine litter o' pigs, or a particularly big punkin’, as he’s liable t' go off th’ road. Au auto driver has twice as much responsibility as a locomotive engineer, or a motorman, who's operatin’ on a steel track, an' travel in’ on a schedule, an' his own right o' way. city drlvin’ o' any kind is gittln’ more an’ more dangerous t’ both car driver an’ pedestrian. Fast delivery trucks hurrylu’ hither on’ thither with freshly cleaned blue serge suits, or a mackerel an’ some Jcllo, or some dry goods, or somethin’, cumbersome^movln’ vans hidin’ th' road ahead. Swift movin' limousines filled with powdered queens, little universal ears o' vari ous designs wigglin’ In an’ out o’ traffic like gold fish, darin’ taxi drivers cullin' th' corners— hut th' only thing t’ do is t’ keep awake an’ move with traffic, an’ not try t’ light a pipe till well out In th' country. ! ff'irovrlsht. in:’ > written that he would make M effort to rob Day less. I knew, from a hint dropped by one of the Gray Ghost's men. during the course of the third degree I put them through that Lewis was acting as 'fence' for the disposal of much of the Gray Ghost’s plunder. I decided that If I robbed Dayless and showed the re sult to Lewis he would at once ask the Gray Ghost’s advice—that Lewis could lead me to his hiding place. "You see, when you left me that Sunday we talked about my going to Palm Beach, 1 saw two people. One of them was my cousin, Fred die Thurlow. He looks something like me, so I' took the chance that there'd be no one at Palm Beach Just now who knew either of us. "Then I went to Dayless. I told him frankly what a fool he'd made of himself by his interview, and explained to him my plan. He's a roughneck, hut a regular fellow, just the same. In fact, he insisted that I actually chloro form him 90 that there'd riot be a suspicion aroused In the minds of the servants or detectives around the place. He went through with it like the good sport that he is. And then you, con found your ugly face—" "It wasn't me," said Jerry un grammatically. "It's just that you didn't give due credit to our men. You see, I'd issued orders, after all that publicity, that if Dayless was robbed I'd fire the whole staff. An