Over the unwashed face of Larry the Bat a gray pallor spread slowly.  His fingers were plucking at the frayed edge of his inside vest pocket.  The dark eyes seemed to turn coal-black.  A laugh, like the laugh of one damned, rose to his lips, and was choked back.  It was gone!  Gone!  That thin metal case, like a cigarette case, that, between the little sheets of oil paper, held those diamond-shaped, gray-coloured, adhesive seals, the insignia of the Gray Seal—­was gone!  Clew!  It seemed as though there were an overpowering nausea upon him.  Clew!  That little case was not a clew—­it was a death warrant!

His hands clenched fiercely.  If he could only think for a moment!  The lining of his pocket had given away.  The case had dropped out.  But there was nothing about the case to identify any one as the Gray Seal unless it were found in one’s actual possession.  Therefore Whitey Mack, to have solved his identity, must have seen him drop the case.  There could be no question about that.  It was equally obvious then that Whitey Mack would know the Gray Seal as Larry the Bat.  Did he also know him as Jimmie Dale?  Yes, or no?  It was a vital question.  His life hung on it.

That keen, facile brain, numbed for the moment, was beginning to work with lightning speed.  It was four o’clock that afternoon when he had assumed the character of Larry the Bat—­some time between four o’clock and the present, it was now well after eleven, the case had dropped from his pocket.  There had been ample time then for Whitey Mack to have made that appointment with Lannigan—­and ample time to have made a surreptitious visit to the Sanctuary.  Had Whitey Mack gone there?  Had Whitey Mack found that hiding place in the flooring under the oilcloth?  Had Whitey Mack discovered that the Gray Seal was not only Larry the Bat—­but Jimmie Dale?

Jimmie Dale swept his hand across his forehead.  It was damp from little clinging beads of moisture.  Should he go to the Sanctuary and change—­become Jimmie Dale again?  Was it the safest thing to do—­or the most dangerous?  Even if Whitey Mack had been there and discovered the dual personality of Larry the Bat, how would he, Jimmie Dale, know it?  The man would have been crafty enough to have left no sign behind him.  Was it to the Sanctuary that Whitey Mack meant to lead Lannigan that evening—­or did Whitey Mack know him as Jimmie Dale, and to make it the more sensational, plan to carry out the coup, say, at the St. James Club?  Whitey Mack and Lannigan were still at Bristol Bob’s; he had probably time, if he so elected, to reach the Sanctuary, change, and get away again.  But every minute was priceless now.  What should he do?  Run from the city as he was for cover—­or take the gambler’s chance?  Whitey Mack knew him as Larry the Bat—­it was not certain that Whitey Mack knew him as Jimmie Dale.