He would go to a man who had always been kind to him and his. Thus it was, that just before light that morning John Marvel was awakened by a knock on his door. A man was below who said a sick person needed his services. When he came down into the street in the dim light of the dawning day, there was a man waiting in the shadow. He did not recognize him at first, but he recalled him as the man told the object of his visit at such an hour, and John was soon wide-awake. Still he could scarcely believe the story he was told. "Why, she can't be there," he protested. "A friend of mine was there to look for her day before yesterday with the police, and she was not there." "She is there now, and if you pull the place you'll get her all right," asserted the other. "I'll go there myself." "No use goin' by yourself." "I'll get the police----" "The police!" The other laughed derisively. "They don't go after the Big Chief's friends--not when he stands by 'em." "The 'Big Chief'?" "Coll McSheen." "Mr. McSheen!" "He's _it_!" "It? What? I don't understand." "Well, don't bring me into this." "I will not." "He's at the bottom of the whole business. He's the lawyer 't gives the dope and takes care of 'em. He owns the place--'t least, Mick Raffity and Gallagin and Smooth Ally own the places; and he owns them. He knows all about it and they don't turn a hand without him. Oh! I know him--I know 'em all!" "You think this is the girl the lady was looking for?" "I don't know. I only know she went there, and Gallagin showed his teeth, and then I called him down and got the gal out. I skeered him." "Well, we'll see." "Well, I must be goin'. I've told you. Swear you won't bring me into it. Good-night." "I will not." The man gazed down the street one way, then turned and went off in the other direction. John was puzzled, but a gleam of light came to him. Wolffert! Wolffert was the man to consult. What this man said was just what Wolffert had always insisted on: that "the White Slave traffic" was not only the most hideous crime now existing on earth, but that it was protected and promoted by men in power in the city, that it was, indeed, international in its range. He remembered to have heard him say that a law had been passed to deal with it; but that such law needed the force of an awakened public conscience to become effective. Thus it was, that that morning Wolffert was aroused by John Marvel coming into his room. In an instant he was wide-awake, for he, too, knew of the disappearance of Elsa, and of our fruitless hunt for her. "But you are sure that this woman is Elsa?" he asked as he hurriedly dressed. "No--only that it is some one." "So much the better--maybe."