“They’re coming, Jimmie!” she panted breathlessly.  “There’s not an instant to lose!  Listen!  When the Magpie ran from the house, I ran with him—­but it”—­she tried to smile—­“it wasn’t to obey you, to run away—­I had made up my mind I wouldn’t do that—­it was to find out from him what had happened.  He told me you were the Gray Seal.  He did not suspect me.  He thinks you were no more than just Larry the Bat to me, as you were to everybody else.  He went straight to Chicago Ike’s gambling rooms and found the Skeeter’s gang there—­you know them, Red Mose, the Midget, Harve Thoms, and the Skeeter—­you remember your fight with them over old Luddy’s diamonds!  Well, they have not forgotten, either!  They are on their way here, now!  The news that you are the Gray Seal is travelling like lightning all through the underworld—­there will be a mob here on the Skeeter’s heels.  So, Jimmie—­quick!  Run!”

Run!  Half Larry the Bat, half Jimmie Dale—­and run!  In another five minutes, perhaps—­yes.  But there probably would not be five minutes—­and she—­if she were found here!

“Yes,” he said quietly.  “I’ll get away in a moment.  You go at once.  I’ll”—­he was smiling at her reassuringly—­“I’ll meet you at—­”

She looked at him then for an instant—­interrupting him quickly, as she shook her head.

“I didn’t notice, Jimmie.  You cannot go like that—­can you?  It would be even worse than being caught as Larry the Bat.  Hurry then—­I am not going without you.”

“No!” he said.  “Go now!  Go at once, Marie—­while you can.  You have risked your life as it is to come here and tell me this.  For God’s sake, go now!”

The great, brown eyes were smiling bravely through a sudden mist.  She shook her head again.

“Not without you, Jimmie.”

It brought a fierce, wild throb of joy upon him—­and then a cold, sickening fear.

“Listen!” he cried out desperately.  “You must go now!  You cannot take any chances now, Marie.  Everything is right for you.  That man who posed as your uncle is dead—­the leader of the Crime Club is dead.  Don’t you understand what that means!  You have only to be Marie LaSalle again and claim your own.  I cannot tell you all now—­there’s no time.  That house was the Crime Club itself.  The police will get them all.  Don’t you see!  Don’t you see!  Everything is clear for you now—­and now go!  Go—­you must go!”

She was staring at him, a strange wonder in her face.

“Clear!  All clear—­for me!  I—­I can go back to—­to my own life again!” It was as though she were whispering some amazing thing of unbelievable joy to herself.

“Yes!” he cried out again.  “Yes!  But go—­go, Marie!”

But now, for answer, suddenly she reached out and took the key from the door and put it in the pocket of her dress.

“We will go together, Jimmie—­or not at all,” she said simply.  “We are wasting precious moments.  Hurry and dress!”