"Oh, this is a simple job." "Simple! You don't know Francisco." "I must go. Send me with a smile." She smiled. "I want you to promise me something," she begged. "You mustn't be angry." He looked his question. Her eyes searched his deep. "I want you to promise me you will not kill Francisco. I could not have that. After all he has cared for me for nine years, and he is the husband of the one I love." There was more implied in this than was spoken. Greg understood. "I promise you," he said gravely,--"unless it is a question of defending myself." "Do not think that I mean to let him go free," she said; "he shall be punished, terribly punished; but it must be in the way that I set." CHAPTER XXI UP-STAIRS AND DOWN Leaving all cabs at home this time, they proceeded in couples by different streets to a rendezvous at the northeast corner of Stuyvesant Square. Greg and Estuban walked up First Avenue to Seventeenth, then west to the meeting-place, thus passing the house that was their objective. Their examination of it revealed these salient facts: there was no light in any window; the basement windows were protected by iron bars, the basement door by an iron gate, while above, before the front door, heavy oak storm-doors were closed. In short, a wholly unpromising prospect. "We need an ax to get into this," said Estuban dejectedly. "We'll have to try the rear," said Greg. The question then was how to get around to the back. The whole block presented an unbroken brick front from First Avenue to the Square. At the Square they joined the other men and Pa Simmons who was there with his cab. The latter reported that de Socotra had not left the house. "Damn glad you come," said he. "I'm at the end of my wits, how to keep watching that house without the police force getting wise to me cab. I watches from this corner for awhile, then runs around the block and takes a stand down by First. Then I come back again. But there's a cop down there's got his eye on me already. I don' know where to go now." "You can be our mobile scout," said Greg. "Keep moving. Drive through this block every minute. We'll signal you if we need you." Pa Simmons drove off. At the corner where they stood there was a modern apartment house. A space of three feet separated the back wall of this building from the side wall of the first dwelling. This crack offered the only discoverable opening into the interior of the block. As the house they were seeking to enter was the sixth from the corner, it meant that they must climb six back fences to reach it. "Bull, how are you on climbing fences?" asked Greg. "O.K., if somebody will hold me overcoat."