"If he knows."

"If he doesn't know, and isn't afraid of your finding out, what does he bother with us this way for?" demanded Jennie, angrily.

"Maybe we can get out of the window?"

"It's at the back of the house. We couldn't get out of the yard."

"Let's scream."

"Who'd hear us here? Might as well save our breath," said Jennie.

"I--I wish Scorch was here," declared Nancy.

"So do I--with all my heart. Bless his red head! He'd get us out of this in short order."

As she spoke there came a tapping on one of the window-panes. Jennie and Nancy both ran to the window, drew aside the heavy curtain and raised the shade.

Only a little light filtered in. But it was sufficient to show them a pale face flattened against the gla.s.s.

The face suddenly grinned widely. Then a hand waved. They saw his red hair under his cap, and the two girls clung together with a cry of delight.

Scorch O'Brien was "on the job."

CHAPTER XXIX

ALL ABOUT NANCY

The red-haired youth drew himself up to the window-sill (he had climbed a rickety arbor below) and motioned to the girls to unlock the sashes.

They did so and Scorch forced up the lower one.

"Hist!" he whispered, in a tone so hoa.r.s.e that it almost choked him.

"Where is he?"

"We don't know," said Jennie, hastily. "He's locked us into this room."

"Of course he would," said Scorch, airily. "Don't they always do that?

It's the gray man; isn't it?"

"Yes, yes!" said Nancy. "Senator Montgomery."

"That's the man. I got onto his name lately. And I seen him again, too.

Now he'll keep you from Mr. Gordon."

"Is he hurt very badly?" asked Nancy, anxiously.

"You bet he is!"

"Oh, Scorch!"

"But you're goin' to have a chance to talk with him first. He'll see you, too. He told me so only last evening. I was with him all night.

Then I ran home for breakfast and found your telegram. Then I beat it for the station. But you'd got away before I got there."

"Senator Montgomery came down on the train with us," explained Nancy.

"And he said he was coming right to Garvan's Hotel to see Mr.

Gordon----This is not the hotel; is it, Scorch?"

"I should say not!" returned the boy. "He fooled you. I asked among the cabmen at the station, and they all saw you and the gray man. So I knowed there was trouble afoot.

"He took you around the corner, and there a milkman saw you all getting into the taxi. So I grabs another taxi--I had money belongin' to Old--to Mr. Gordon--in my pocket.

"That taxi-driver was a keen one, he was. He trailed your machine like he was trackin' a band of Injuns. Cops saw you pa.s.s, and switchmen at the trolley crossin's.

"So we got here just as the taxi was whiskin' his nibs away----"

"Then he's not in the house?"

"I knew he wasn't when I asked," said Scorch, calmly. "He's beat it for Garvan's. That's where we'll go, too."

"Oh, Scorch!" cried Jennie. "You're wonderful. How you going to get us out?"

"Not by the window, I hope," murmured Nancy.

"Of course not," the young man replied. "See here."

He produced from either trousers leg the two parts of a jointed steel bar. It went together with a sharp click and proved to be a burglar's "jimmy" of the most approved pattern.

"Scorch O'Brien! Where did you get that thing?" demanded Nancy. "You could be arrested with it in your possession."

"Forget it," advised Scorch, easily. "My next-door neighbor is a cop. He let me have it, and I'll show you how to use it."

The youth went to the single door of the room, inserted the point of the bar between door and frame near the lock, and the next moment the dry wood gave way, splintering all around the lock. The door came open at a touch.

"Sup--suppose they stop us?" breathed Jennie, trembling.

"Let 'em try!" exclaimed the valiant Scorch, and led the way into the dark hall.

They marched downstairs, the girls clinging together and trembling, without a soul appearing to dispute their advance. The outside door was chained; but Scorch had no difficulty in opening it. And so they pa.s.sed on out into the grimy street just after sunrise.

The house was merely an old, ill-kept lodging house, the person who ran it being under some sort of obligation to Senator Montgomery. The girls never learned what street it was on.

"My taxi's waiting," said Scorch, proudly, hurrying them around the corner. "Come on, before it eats its head off and breaks me."

"Oh, I've got money, Scorch!" cried Nancy.