Still clutching his weapon, the Professor strode to the door and flung it open, gazing into the alley, which framed no reply to the question that trembled unspoken on his lips. "Did you hit him, Professor?" "I fear I didn't." Professor Ruggles then made an examination of the alley that assured him that his bullet had not been stopped by flesh and bone--instead, it lay on the ground where it had fallen, flattened, from the brick wall above. "So much for being a poor shot," sneered the woman. "So much for your condemned carelessness in not locking the door," he retorted with equal severity. "Well, maybe you'd better see that it is fastened now." Professor Darlington Ruggles turned the key in the lock, and then assumed a seat once more. "Let me see. Where did we leave off?" "In a mighty important place," answered the woman. "If that sneak had been at the door long, he must have heard something of our plans." "And it makes you feel uneasy?" "Don't it you?" "A trifle. I can't imagine who the sneak was." "Nor I." "It might have been one of the boys playing a joke," said Ruggles. "I hope it's nothing more serious." "I shall dismiss the sneak from my mind at any rate," returned Mr. Ruggles. "To-morrow night you may look for your guest, Mrs. Scarlet. Remember, whatever plans for vengeance you may have formed will be more than gratified in placing this detective's sister completely in the power of a man who knows how to use it." The Professor's eyes snapped at the last, and he lifted and smoothed his hat rapidly with one long arm. "I understand. Nothing can be too harsh and awful for one of the breed," hissed Madge Scarlet, in a way that made even Professor Ruggles' flesh creep. Then he rose to go. "I will see you again ere long." Mrs. Scarlet locked the door after the retreating form of the tall Professor, and then, going to the little table, she sat down, and resting her thin cheeks between her hands, she cried: "It is coming, it is coming! At last I am to avenge the insults heaped upon me and mine by that scoundrel, who sends men to prison for money, for pay doled out to him by the minions of the law. Dan'l, if you can look down on your old widow to-night, from your home among the stars, you will see her with tears of joy in her old eyes at thought of how she will avenge herself on your enemies. When once that girl comes into my hands, I will execute vengeance to suit myself, without regard to Professor Ruggles, or any other man." So it would seem that even the Professor did not fully comprehend the depth of Mrs. Scarlet's vindictiveness toward Dyke Darrel. It was Professor Darlington Ruggles who penned the letter to Nell Darrel that sent the unsuspecting girl to Chicago to meet her brother. She was not a little surprised at not finding Dyke at the depot to meet her, and consequently felt a thrill of alarm at seeing so many strange faces. Why had he not come?