The warehouse manager laughed. "Got a lot of sense in that ivory dome of yours. All right. But if anything happens you've got to come around and back me up. What's it about?" "That I dare not tell you. This much, I'm laying a trap and I want some one I don't know to fall into it." "On your way, James. But if you don't send me some prize fight tickets next week for this, I'll never do you another favor." In reply Norton took from his pocket two bits of pasteboard and laid them on the desk. "I knew you'd be wanting something like this." "Ringside!" cried Grannis. "You reporters are lucky devils!" "I'd go myself if there was any earthly chance of a real scrap. You make me laugh, Gran. You're always going, always hoping the next one will be a real one. But it's all bunk. The pugs are the biggest fakers on top of the sod. They've got us newspaper men done to a frazzle." "I guess you're right. Well, count on me regarding that mysterious bundle in the safe." "At three o'clock this afternoon I want you to call me up. If no one has called, why the game is up. But if some one does come around and make inquiries, don't fail to let me know." "I'll be here till five. I'd better call you up then." Then Norton returned home and idled about till afternoon. He went over to Riverdale. Five times he walked up and down in front of the Hargreave place, finally plucked up his courage and walked to the door. After all, he was a lucky mortal. He had a good excuse to visit this house every day in the week. And there was something tantalizing in the risk he took. Besides, he wanted to prove to himself whether it was a passing fancy or something deeper. That's the way with humans; we never see a sign "Fresh Paint" that we don't have to prove it. He chatted with Florence for a while and found that, for all she might be guileless to the world, she was a good linguist, a fine musician, and talked with remarkable keenness about books and arts. But unless he roused her, the sadness of her position always lay written in her face. It was not difficult for him to conjure up her dreams in coming to the city and the blow which, like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky, had shattered them ruthlessly. "You must come every day and tell me how you have progressed," she said. "I'll obey that order gladly, whenever I can possibly do it. My visits will always be short." "That is not necessary." "No," said Norton in his heart, "but it is wise." Always he found Jones waiting for him at the door, always in the shadow. "Well?" the butler whispered. "I have laid a neat trap. Whether this balloon was the one that left the top of this house I don't know. But if there were two men in it, one of them lies at the bottom of the sea." "And the man who was found?" The butler's voice was tense. "It was not Hargreave. I met Orts but once, and as he wore a beard then, the captain's description did not tally with your recollection."