They backed from the table, peering helplessly at the two unwinking eyes which showed through the holes in the handkerchief. "Back to the wall, my pretties," chuckled the Thing. "I'm going to make you laugh and you'll want some support. I'm going to make you rock with joy and merriment!" The figure had moved to the table, and all the time it spoke its nimble fingers were turning over the piles of documents which the colonel had disgorged from the dispatch box. "I'm going to tell you a comical tale about a gang of blackmailers." "You're a liar," said the colonel hoarsely. "About a gang of blackmailers," said the Jack with shrill laughter, "fellows who didn't work like common blackmailers, nor demand money. Oh, no! not naughty blackmailers! They got the fools and the vicious in their power and made them sell things for hundreds of pounds that were worth thousands. And they were such a wonderful crowd! They were such wonderfully amusing fellows. There was Dan Boundary who started life by robbing his dead mother, there was 'Swell' Crewe, who was once a gentleman and is now a thief!" "Damn you!" said Crewe, lurching forward, but the gun swung round on him and he stopped. "There was Lollie who would sell her own child----" "I have no child," half-screamed the girl. "Think again, Lollie darling--dear little soul!" He stopped. The envelope that his fingers had been seeking was found. He slipped it beneath the black silk cloak and in two bounds was at the door. "Send for the police," he mocked. "Send for the police, Dan! Get Stafford King, the eminent chief. Tell him I called! My card!" With a dexterous flip of his fingers he sent a little pasteboard planing across the room. In an instant the door opened and closed upon the intruder and he was gone. For a second there was silence, and then, with a little sob, Lollie Marsh collapsed in a heap on the floor. Colonel Dan Boundary looked from one white face to the other. "There's a hundred thousand pounds for any one of you who gets that fellow," he said, breathing hard, "whether it is man or woman." CHAPTER III THE DECOY Colonel Boundary, sitting at his desk the morning after, pushed a bell. It was answered by the thick-set Olaf. He was dressed, as usual, in black from head to foot and the colonel eyed him thoughtfully. "Hanson," he said, "has Miss Marsh come?" "Yes, she has come," said the other resentfully. "Tell her I want her," said the colonel and then as the man was leaving the room: "Where did you get to last night when I wanted you?" "I was out," said the man shortly. "I get some time for myself, I suppose?" The colonel nodded slowly. "Sure you do, Hanson." His tone was mild, and that spelt danger to Hanson, had he known it. This was the third sign of rebellion which the man had shown in the past week. "What's happened to your temper this morning, Hanson?" he asked.