very grateful for the meal. Yours is the one act of kindness I have
known in weeks. I will return to Gregor's apartment at once. But
before I go please accept this. I rather suspect, you know, that
you live alone, and that fan is amusing and not particularly
suitable." He rose and unsmilingly laid upon the table one of those
heavy blue-black bull-dogs of war, a regulation revolver. Kitty
understood what this courteous act signified; he was disarming
himself to reassure her.

"Sit down," she ordered. Either he was harmless or he wasn't. If
he wasn't she was utterly at his mercy. She might be able to lift
that terrible-looking engine of murder, battle, and sudden death
with the aid of both hands, but to aim and fire it - never in this
world! "As I came in to-night I found a note in the hall from Mr.
Gregory. I will fetch it. But you call him Gregor?"

"His name is Stefani Gregor; and years and years ago he dandled me
on his knees. I promise not to move until you return."

Subdued by she knew not what, no longer afraid, Kitty moved out of
the kitchen. She had offered Gregory's letter as an excuse to reach
the telephone. Once there, however, she did not take the receiver
off the hook. Instead she whistled down the tube for the janitor.

"This is Miss Conover. Come up to my apartment in ten minutes....
No; it's not the water pipes.... In ten minutes"

Nothing very serious could happen inside of ten minutes; and the
janitor was reliable and not the sort one reads about in the comic
weeklies. Her confidence reenforced by the knowledge that a friend