And then, quick, almost on the instant, came a rush of feet, a crash upon the front door—­an imperative command to open in the name of the law.  The police!  Jimmie Dale’s brain was working now with lightning speed.  Somehow the police had stumbled upon the crime in that tenement; and, as he had foreseen in such an event, had identified Doyle.  But they could not be sure that any one was present here in the house now—­they could not see a light any more than he had.  He must get Mike Hagan away—­must see that Connie Myers did not get away.  Myers was on his feet now, fear struck in his turn, the letter clutched in a tight-closed fist, his revolver swung out, poised, in the other hand.  Hagan, too, was on his feet, and, unheeded now by Connie Myers, was wrenching his wrists apart.

Another crash upon the door—­another.  Another demand in a harsh voice to open it.  Then some one running around to the window at the side of the house—­and Jimmie Dale sprang forward.

There was the roar of a report, a blinding flash almost in Jimmie Dale’s eyes, as Connie Myers, whirling instantly at his entrance, fired—­and missed.  It happened quick then, in the space of the ticking of a watch—­before Jimmie Dale, flinging himself forward, had reached the man.  Like a defiant challenge to their demand it must have seemed to the officers outside, that shot of Connie Myers at Jimmie Dale, for it was answered on the instant by another through the side window.  And the shot, fired at random, the interior of the room hidden from the officers outside by the drawn shades, found its mark—­and Connie Myers, a bullet in his brain, pitched forward, dead, upon the floor.

“Quick!” Jimmie Dale flung at Hagan.  “Get that letter out of his hand!” He jumped for the lamp on the floor, extinguished it, and turned again toward Hagan.  “Have you got it?” he whispered tensely.

“Yes,” said Hagan, in a numbed way.

“This way, then!” Jimmie Dale caught Hagan’s arm, and pulled the other across the room and into the kitchen to the trapdoor.  “Quick!” he breathed again.  “Get down there—­quick!  And no noise!  They don’t know how many are in the house.  When they find him they’ll probably be satisfied.”

Hagan, stupefied, dazed, obeyed mechanically—­and, in an instant, the trapdoor closed behind them, Jimmie Dale was standing beside the other in the cellar.

“Not a sound now!” he cautioned once more.

His flashlight winked, went out, winked again; then held steadily, in curious fascination it seemed, as, in its circuit, the ray fell upon Hagan—­fell upon the torn, ragged edge of A paper in Hagan’s hand!  With a suppressed cry, Jimmie Dale snatched it away from the other.  It was but a torn half of the letter!  “The other half!  The other half, Hagan—­where is it?” he demanded hoarsely.