The medium looked at him with bright eyes. "You're the real sort," she whispered, and a wave of color in her cheeks brought back the suggestion of girlish beauty. "I saw that scrap there through a hole in the floor. You're the goods." She pressed his arm almost affectionately, then, with her free hand, she pushed against the paneling. Noiselessly a section of it turned inward, disclosing a dark cavity. "Get in!" Orme quickly slipped into the darkness, the panel closed, and he heard the swish of the hanging as it dropped back against the board. It was not too soon. Two soft thuds told him that the Japanese had dropped over the sill into the room. He heard the woman give a well-feigned scream of surprise. "'Scuse us, miss,"--it was Arima's voice--"we looking for sneak thief. He come in here." "Be off with you. I've just come from the front room there, and there wasn't a soul came in." "We saw him." "He must have gone out to the hall, then." The woman's voice had a note of mollification--as though she had suddenly recognized the right of the two Japanese to enter the apartment. "_I_ didn't hear him." A few words of Japanese colloquy; then Arima: "I look around. My friend go to hall." A door closed; evidently Maku had gone out; and then Orme heard steps. After this there was a long wait, while the Japanese examined the other rooms, the woman evidently offering him her aid. At last they returned. "Well, I go back," said Arima. "I saw him come in the window. My friend will know. See you later." Presently the woman raised the hanging and whispered through the boards: "He went back down the fire-escape. His friend's in the hall. He'll find out you haven't went down, and then he'll come back." "I'll try the roof," whispered Orme. "Perhaps I can get on to another house that way." "Wait till I see." She walked away, but soon returned. "No use," he heard her say. "That Jap's a sitting on the fire-escape watching. He grinned when I looked down." Orme pondered. "Help me out of this," he whispered, "and there'll be something in it for you." She moved impatiently. "Cut it out! I don't want nothing. You're a good sport, that's all." She paused. "Not that I'd mind having a present. But I don't want no money." Orme caught the distinction. "I'll remember," he said. "And what shall I do now?" "You'll have to stay in there a while, I guess." "I simply must get away--and within an hour or two." "I'll manage that," she answered confidently. "But how----?" "You'll see. Just leave it to me." Orme smiled to himself, there in the darkness. Of course, he would leave it to her; but he did not see how she was to rid him of the watchful Japanese. "There's just one thing," he whispered. "Whatever is done, will have to be done without help from outside. This is not a matter for the police." "I understand. Why can't you just leave it to me? I don't believe you trust me a little bit!" "But I do," he protested. "I am absolutely in your hands."