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肩書を与える: The 拷問 信用 Author: Brant House (Paul Chadwick) * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0608191h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: November 2006 Date most recently updated: May 2016 This eBook was produced by: Richard Scott 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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THE PRISON GUARD'S feet made ghostly echoes along the dimly lighted 回廊（地帯） of the 明言する／公表する 刑務所. The sound whispered weirdly through the 閉めだした 議会s, dying away in the steel rafters 総計費. The guard's electric たいまつ 調査（する）d the 独房s as he passed, playing over the forms of the sleeping men.
It was after midnight. All seemed 静かな within the 広大な／多数の／重要な, 暗い／優うつな building that was one of society's 防御壁／支持者s against a rising tide of 罪，犯罪.
The guard passed through a door at the end of a 回廊（地帯）, and the echoes at last 中止するd their eerie whisperings.
Seconds of silence passed. Then a new sound （機の）カム. It 問題／発行するd from 独房 No. 17—the sound of furtive movement.
The man who had been lying as still as death when the guard passed threw his 一面に覆う／毛布s aside. His hard, shrewd 注目する，もくろむs gleamed 熱望して. His 狭くする-boned 直面する took on the alertness of a prowling weasel.
Jason Hertz, 負かす／撃墜する on the 刑務所，拘置所 調書をとる／予約するs as 罪人／有罪を宣告する No. 1088, had not been asleep at all.
His thin, clawlike 手渡すs, which had dabbled in every sort of 罪，犯罪 from ゆすり，恐喝 to 殺人, became suddenly active. He drew the 一面に覆う／毛布s apart, wadded one into the 形態／調整 of a sleeping man, and stuffed it under the other. Then he reached beneath his bunk and drew out a roundish 反対する the size of a melon.
It was a ball made from stale bread mixed with water and kneaded together. The bread he had saved for the last three days. He 始める，決める it on the end of the bunk nearest the door, covering the 最高の，を越す of it with 捨てるs of loose hair collected from the 床に打ち倒す of the 刑務所，拘置所 barber shop. It looked like the tousled 長，率いる of a sleeping man, and it would serve to 誤って導く the guard when he made his next 小旅行する of 査察.
Hertz pulled other articles from beneath his bunk—articles which had been 密輸するd to him under mysterious circumstances. And, as he looked at them, an uneasy 表現 crossed his 直面する. He 解任するd the 訪問者 who had come to him the day before and on other days during the past several weeks—the tall, gray-haired man whose card bore the 指名する: "Crawford Gibbons, 弁護士／代理人／検事-at-法律."
He 解任するd the strangely 説得力のある look in the lawyer's 注目する，もくろむs, the forcefulness of his manner, the abrupt persuasiveness of his 発言する／表明する.
Who was Crawford Gibbons, and who was 雇うing him? Why was he 補佐官ing Hertz to escape?
These were the questions Hertz had asked himself, for, behind the guard's 支援する, Gibbons had 静かに slipped him a chamois-肌 bundle. In it were 道具s and 指示／教授／教育s making his 逃亡 possible.
The 刑務所，拘置所 当局 regarded Hertz as a desperate 犯罪の. の中で his vicious associates in 罪，犯罪, he was 率d as 存在 hard-boiled and as dangerous as a snake. But the lawyer, Gibbons, had put 恐れる into Jason Hertz's heart. Gibbons had 辞退するd to answer questions, 辞退するd to 明らかにする／漏らす his 動機s. Yet, under the mysterious dominance of the man's personality, Hertz had felt his own will 崩壊するing. It was as though Gibbons had cast a （一定の）期間 over him.
相反する impulses stirred in Hertz's mind; one, the 願望（する） to escape and go 支援する to his 暗黒街 haunts; the other, the 恐れる that he might be entering some sort of 罠（にかける）. He paused a moment, fighting within himself. But it was useless. Something stronger than 推論する／理由 cried out that he must follow the lawyer's 指示／教授／教育s.
With a cleverly-形態／調整d 骸骨／概要 重要な that Gibbons had given him, he opened the door and stepped into the 回廊（地帯）, every 神経 警報. He listened, but no sound （機の）カム except the snores of sleeping men.
Shoes off, as silent as a fox, he walked away from the 独房, turning into a 支店 回廊（地帯）. He climbed a flight of steel stairs and reached the empty 独房 封鎖する above, which was used for 洪水 囚人s. It was as 砂漠d as a tomb. Hertz entered one of the empty 独房s, しっかり掴むd the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s, and climbed up toward the metal 天井 with the agility of an ape. There was a galvanized アイロンをかける roof above him. For a moment he struck a match, feet を締めるd on a crossbar below.
The tiny flickering 炎上 showed that the metal, seemingly 損なわれていない, had been 削減（する） through with a 罰金 hacksaw—his own handiwork of the night before.
He 解除するd his 手渡す, 圧力（をかける）d against the galvanized アイロンをかける, and a circular piece of metal moved 上向き. A dark 開始 appeared, large enough for a man to はう through.
Hertz thrust his fingers up, caught the strong 辛勝する／優位 of the 厚い metal, and 解除するd himself. He を締めるd his 肘s, 残り／休憩（する）d a moment, then 緊張するd again. In a second he was in the 狭くする "attic" of the 刑務所，拘置所, between the 天井 and the roof.
A faint gleam of light made by the night sky showed ahead. Hertz crept toward it, across the 最高の，を越す of the metal 天井, careful to step on the steel rafters to which the sheet アイロンをかける was fastened. He （機の）カム to the light—the square 開始 of a 閉めだした window—and used his 手渡すs again.
製図／抽選 a 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセス-saw 始める，決める in a metal でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる from his blouse, he attacked the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s before him with the 技術 of a man accustomed to the use of 道具s. The 常習的な chromium bit through the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s one by one and Hertz wrenched them loose.
He fastened a 宙返り飛行 of strong line, which he also took from his blouse, to the stub of one 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, threw the end out the window, and はうd through feet first. を引き渡す 手渡す, he lowered himself to the ground below.
Clouds obscured the 星／主役にするs. Hertz moved 今後 in utter 不明瞭, his 明らかにする feet soundless on the earth.
He stopped a moment to get his bearings, then walked on toward the 南西 塀で囲む of the 刑務所，拘置所. Trembling violently, his fingers groping, he felt along the 石／投石する surface till his 手渡す 遭遇（する）d a rope. He had been 推定する／予想するing it, but 恐れる made him recoil for an instant as though the rope had been the dangling 団体／死体 of a snake. Then he approached it gingerly again.
The mysterious lawyer, Crawford Gibbons, had kept his word.
Hertz 掴むd the rope and began the ascent of the 塀で囲む. It was an 平易な 事柄 for him to draw himself up its 味方する. With a 技術 born of experience, he 避けるd the two 立ち往生させるs of electrically 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d wire at its 最高の，を越す. He balanced himself, stepped over them, and went 負かす／撃墜する the rope on the other 味方する.
His escape was an 遂行するd fact now. He was 解放する／自由な, once again a 可能性のある menace turned loose upon an unsuspecting society. But 恐れる still made his heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 madly.
He had moved only a few yards ahead when he 停止（させる）d as 突然の as though a chain had been stretched across his path.
Somewhere の近くに by in the 不明瞭 a whistle had sounded. It was a strange whistle, melodious yet unearthly, seeming to fill the whole 空気／公表する with a ventriloquistic 公式文書，認める. It 誘発するd in Hertz a stark, unreasoning terror.
His beady 注目する，もくろむs sought to pierce the 不明瞭. He almost cried out. Someone was standing 直接／まっすぐに ahead of him. He had caught sight of a vague silhouette.
"Follow me," said a low 発言する／表明する.
The words （機の）カム out of the 黒人／ボイコット 丸天井 of the night like an inexorable 命令（する） from 運命／宿命 itself. They had in them that 説得力のある 質 that 麻ひさせるd Hertz's will.
The clouds thinned a little, letting a ray of 病弱な starlight through. He saw the 静かな 直面する and the silvery hair of the lawyer. He sensed again the unswerving fixity of the man's 注目する，もくろむs upon him. Then, like a sleepwalker, he followed as the other turned and led the way.
Where was he going? He did not know. What strange 目的 did the lawyer have? It was 隠すd in 黒人／ボイコット mystery.
Hertz つまずくd on through the 不明瞭 for what seemed a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile. He knew he must be somewhere の近くに to the road 主要な to the 刑務所，拘置所. Then he heard the faint sound of an automobile engine idling. The man ahead clicked on a flashlight no larger than a pencil. Its thin beam 公表する／暴露するd for an instant the lines of a low, powerful roadster parked by the 主要道路.
Crawford Gibbons 動議d for him to get in.
Hertz rebelled. 恐れる of the strange man had been growing in him. He 始める，決める his jaw and blurted a question.
"What's the idea? Where you gonna take me?"
There was arrogance in his トン now. He was out of the 刑務所，拘置所. He might make a break for it and escape into the 不明瞭, run away from this 恐れる-奮起させるing man.
"Get in," said Gibbons 厳しく.
"What if I won't?" blustered Hertz.
The answer （機の）カム so suddenly that he gasped. Powerful fingers clutched his arm. He was 解除するd off his feet, thrust into the car. Then the gray-haired man got in beside him, and the car moved ahead.
Fury and 恐れる 井戸／弁護士席d up in Jason Hertz's mind. His lips opened and he gave a loud, involuntary cry.
"Fool!" hissed the man beside him.
Hertz shrank 支援する in his seat, afraid of what he had done. For his cry had echoed startlingly through the night. A light flashed somewhere on the 塀で囲む of the 刑務所，拘置所—another and another. A サイレン／魅惑的な rose like the 発言する／表明する of some monster, beginning with a throaty gurgle and 解除するing into a furious, spine-冷気／寒がらせるing wail. The purple 軸 of a サーチライト on one of the 刑務所，拘置所 towers winked on. Its shimmering beam moved, swung downward, 中心ing on the car. An instant later Hertz cried out again in a frenzy of 恐れる.
For a flickering pinpoint of light leaped out on the 塀で囲む of the 刑務所，拘置所. There was a staccato 動揺させる like the 派手に宣伝する-taps of doom. And, in the 空気／公表する around the スピード違反 car, there （機の）カム the deathly whine of steel-jacketed 弾丸s.
UNDER THE LAWYER'S HANDS, the roadster leaped ahead in the 不明瞭 like a live thing. A machine-gun 弾丸 struck against the metal 支援する of the car. Another passed screamingly between the two men's 長，率いるs, slapped against the shatterproof windshield, and sent spiderweb lines radiating in all directions.
Hertz, his 直面する white and 恐ろしい, crouched whimpering in his seat. He stole a sidewise ちらりと見ること at the lawyer's features, saw the hawklike nose, the jutting chin, and 深い-始める，決める 注目する，もくろむs. The man was 運動ing as calmly as though death were not riding the 勝利，勝つd behind him.
They passed at last beyond the サーチライト's 範囲, and the 弾丸s 中止するd to come. There would be 追跡; but it seemed nothing outside of a 弾丸 could catch that スピード違反 car. Under its long, low hood the 滑らかに running モーター rose into a mighty paean of 力／強力にする. The speedometer needle swung to sixty, seventy, eighty as the car leaped ahead along the dark road. Hertz spoke again.
"You gotta tell me where I'm going. I won't stand for this."
"No?" The 選び出す／独身 word was ironic, mocking.
"Where you taking me—that's what I wants know."
It seemed that a grim smile spread over the lawyer's 直面する. He was silent, and leaden 恐れる gnawed at Hertz's heart again. He only knew that they were leaving the city behind; that they had reached a country road. Then the car swung sidewise, turning off the smooth macadam. It passed along a dirt 小道／航路 between 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of pines that moaned and whispered in the night 勝利，勝つd. They （機の）カム to a jarring stop.
"Get out!" said Gibbons.
The mystery of the night seemed to 深くする. Hertz's 神経s were almost at the breaking point. He crouched 支援する, showing his teeth, his 手渡すs 麻薬中毒の like talons.
"I won't!" he shrieked. "I'll—I'll—"
Under the 器具-board light he 設立する himself looking into the 悪意のある muzzle of an (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. His craven spirit 弱めるd.
"All 権利, I'll go. Take that gat away. Don't shoot!"
But the gun was not 孤立した. Hertz walked ahead, trembling, with the gun in his 支援する, and the 輪郭（を描く）s of a house suddenly rose out of the blackness before him. It looked like a farmhouse, low and ramshackle.
A 重要な grated in the lock. He was 押し進めるd inside and the door の近くにd after him. There was the stuffy smell of 砂漠d rooms and musty carpets. Gibbons appeared to know what he was about. He 押し進めるd Hertz into a 後部 議会, struck a match and lighted an oil lamp. The windows of the room were tightly boarded up. Gibbons thrust a 議長，司会を務める 今後 and 動議d Hertz to sit 負かす／撃墜する.
Alone with the mysterious lawyer, Hertz had a deeper sense of dread. The 説得力のある 注目する，もくろむs of Gibbons were upon him again. He sensed mystery behind them, and 力／強力にする. It was as though they were boring into his very soul. The 発言する／表明する of the lawyer sounded 厳しく.
"You are 解放する／自由な of 刑務所，拘置所, Jason Hertz. In return you are going to give me （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）!"
So, that was it! A snarl rose on Hertz's lips. His 注目する，もくろむs gleamed wickedly.
"I won't tell you nothing. I don't know nothing!"
The gray-haired man before him smiled again and drew a clipping from his pocket. He held it in 前線 of Hertz's 直面する. It had been 削減（する） from a newspaper—
CATRELLA KILLED AT SCENE OF TORTURE MURDER.
"He was one of your pals, Hertz. You've seen the papers in 刑務所，拘置所. You know that 殺人s are 存在 committed—men 拷問d to death. Joe Catrella was in on it in some way. Give me the 指名するs of his friends."
The question （機の）カム relentlessly; but Jason Hertz shook his 長，率いる.
"I don't know nothing—I won't talk," he cried.
He'd heard 噂するs of the 一連の hideous 殺人，大当りs that were baffling the police. 目だつ people 設立する dead—"拷問d," the papers called it. 恐れる 調印（する）d his lips. He knew little; but he dared not tell even that. Death was the 刑罰，罰則 meted out to a squealer in the 暗黒街, and there was mystery and horror behind this 殺人-wave that （太陽，月の）食／失墜d anything he had ever heard of before. There was an uncanniness to it that made his spine はう He wished he had stayed in 刑務所，拘置所.
"I don't know nothing," he repeated wildly.
His 発言する／表明する died in a gasp. He 設立する himself looking into the 注目する，もくろむs of the lawyer, 設立する himself unable to turn away. Like a bird 星／主役にするing at a snake; he was held fascinated.
The lawyer's 直面する was coming closer to his—closer, closer. The lawyer's 注目する，もくろむs were pools of 炎ing light.
Hertz cowered in his seat, 圧力（をかける）ing till the rungs of the 議長，司会を務める 削減（する） into his 支援する. Terror of the man before him rose in his throat and seemed to choke him. He sensed again that he was in the presence of a person who had 力／強力にするs beyond his knowledge—広大な depths of strength and magnetism. It seemed that his own brain was 存在 乱打するd into submission.
"Think 支援する, Jason Hertz. It is March, 1933. You have not been caught by the police as yet. You are not in 刑務所，拘置所. You are with Joe Catrella, plotting evil. What is your understanding with him? Who are his friends?"
The 注目する，もくろむs of the lawyer were relentless. His 発言する／表明する went on droningly. Jason Hertz felt himself slipping—slipping into the mysterious depths of hypnosis.
From drowsiness, Hertz went into laxity of posture, 低迷ing in his 議長，司会を務める, 星／主役にするing with glassy 注目する，もくろむs into the 直面する of the man who called himself Crawford Gibbons. Then slowly his 団体／死体 became rigid; his fingers 強化するd around the 武器 of the 議長，司会を務める; his 脚s 圧力（をかける）d stiffly against the 床に打ち倒す. He was in the third 行う／開催する／段階 of the hypnotic 明言する／公表する, the 行う／開催する／段階 known as catalepsy, his will 完全に under the dominance of the strange man before him.
"You will speak, Jason Hertz. You will answer my questions."
Sweat broke out on the forehead of the escaped 罪人／有罪を宣告する. 恐れる still fought for 支配（する）／統制する of his subconscious mind. But the man in 前線 of him 代用品，人d another 恐れる, deeper, more 切迫した.
Gibbons reached around the 味方する of Hertz, his forefinger 延長するd. He 圧力（をかける）d the tip of it against Hertz's spine.
"There's a machine gun at your 支援する, ready to blow you to pieces, Hertz! You can feel it there, 圧力（をかける）ing, 圧力（をかける）ing. You must speak. Who were Catrella's friends? Who gave you your orders when you were with him?"
A gurgle （機の）カム from Hertz's lips. They moved slowly. The cords in his neck stood out.
"I—don't—know!" he gasped. "The Bellaire Club. We hung around there. Panagakos, the 経営者／支配人, may have been—I got 公式文書，認めるs in the blue vase—telling me what to do—the vase on the dance 床に打ち倒す. So did Catrella. We never knew—who the big 発射 was—the guy we was working for. We sent 公式文書，認めるs to him the same way. Don't kill me—for God's sake! That's all I know; I 断言する it. They got me—in that spaghetti-共同の ピストル強盗—when I tried to make a little dough for myself on the 味方する. I had a moll and she—"
His 発言する／表明する 追跡するd off. For the lawyer, Gibbons, had stopped listening and had taken his 注目する，もくろむs away. A man in the hypnotic 明言する／公表する tells the truth because he must. Jason Hertz had told all of 利益／興味 that he knew!
Gibbons moved 支援する and Hertz sat 星／主役にするing straight ahead of him. His labored breathing told that he was in the hypnotic trance. He might stay thus for hours.
Gibbons drew a pencil and notebook from his pocket. He placed the pencil in Hertz's fingers, put the notebook under his 手渡す.
"令状, Jason Hertz! 令状 one of those 公式文書，認めるs to your boss—telling him you are out of 刑務所，拘置所, ready to serve him again."
The fingers of Jason Hertz moved mechanically. The pencil whispered across the paper like the pencil of a spiritualistic medium doing (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 令状ing. When the 公式文書，認める was finished, Gibbons tore the page loose, 倍のd it, and put it in his pocket.
Then he began a 一連の quick, mysterious movements.
He brought the light nearer Hertz, 熟考する／考慮するd his 直面する, and, after a few seconds, walked to a 閣僚 standing against the 塀で囲む. He opened the 前線 and drew from it a collection of 半端物-形態／調整d apparatus.
There was a magnesium ゆらめく 始める，決める in the 中心 of a silvered, parabolic reflector. There was a small movie camera, a Dictaphone machine driven by a spring モーター, and a 始める，決める of (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する 手段ing 器具s based on the 決まり文句／製法 of the Bertillon System. He placed them in 前線 of Jason Hertz.
Lighting the ゆらめく, he 焦点（を合わせる）d it on Hertz's 直面する and 団体／死体.
"Get up!" he ordered. "Walk around, Hertz."
The escaped 罪人／有罪を宣告する obeyed, rising from his seat and moving about the room in the manner of a sleepwalker. But his muscles made characteristic movements that the レンズ of the movie camera in Gibbons's 手渡すs began to 記録，記録的な／記録する.
"Sit 負かす／撃墜する," said Gibbons after a time.
Again Hertz obeyed, and Gibbons brought the camera closer.
"Smile," he 命令（する）d, and Hertz did so. Then in quick succession Gibbons ordered the felon to scowl, laugh, 登録（する） 恐れる, surprise, and arrogance.
He 始める，決める the camera 負かす／撃墜する with a snap, turned off the magnesium light, and started the モーター of the Dictaphone machine.
"Now, Hertz—follow me. Repeat first the vowel sounds—aaa—ah-oh—ooo—ee! Now the consonants. Ker—ter—bur—mer—"
The needle of the Dictaphone 記録，記録的な／記録するd the vibrations of Hertz's 発言する／表明する on the hard-rubber cylinder. Gibbons was using the science of phonetics, setting 負かす／撃墜する every inflection of the 罪人／有罪を宣告する's lips, throat, and tongue for 未来 use. When he was 満足させるd that he had 行方不明になるd nothing, he の近くにd the Dictaphone and 始める，決める to work with his 手段ing 器具s, going over the 計画（する）s of Hertz's 直面する. He jotted 負かす／撃墜する the widths of Hertz's 注目する，もくろむs, mouth, and nostrils, the angle of his jaw, the slope of his forehead, the 高さ of his cheek bones.
満足させるd at last, he put his apparatus away, keeping only the movie film, the cylinder from the Dictaphone, and the 人物／姿／数字s he had 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する.
He took up the notebook and pencil and began scribbling a 簡潔な／要約する 公式文書，認める.
"You have betrayed your friends, Hertz," he wrote. "You know the 刑罰，罰則 of betrayal in the 暗黒街. There is 殺人 abroad, 拷問, horror. Your only chance to live is to escape from the country. I am giving you that chance. To catch a wolf I am 解放する／自由なing a ネズミ. In the enclosed envelope you will find a パスポート already filled out and a boat ticket to South America. Take them, go, and never come 支援する."
The lawyer took a hundred-dollar 法案 from his pocket, put it in the 公式文書，認める he had written, placed it in the envelope with the ticket and パスポート, and pinned it to the 前線 of Hertz's coat. Then he paused a moment, 持つ／拘留するing the pencil in his 手渡す.
With a strange, grim smile on his 直面する, he reached 今後 and made a 示す on the envelope—a mysterious "X" that seemed to have no 目的 or meaning.
But if Jason Hertz could have seen it, he would have understood more about the strange adventure he had been through. For the man whose symbol and 貿易（する）-示す that "X" was had built up a 評判 which had reached even behind 刑務所，拘置所 塀で囲むs. It was a 評判 for swift movement, startling courage, 熟達した disguises that no man could 侵入する—and mysterious 動機s that no man could fathom.
It was a 評判 that baffled the police 同様に as the 暗黒街. For the man who hid behind "X," symbol of the unknown 量, seemed to be working against 罪，犯罪, even while classed as a 犯罪の.
Gibbons turned then and strode through the door into the night, and behind him floated an eerie yet melodious whistle that had in it an unearthly 質 like a 発言する／表明する from some other world.
IT WAS AN HOUR LATER that Gibbons, the lawyer, parked his roadster and walked along a 静かな street at the 郊外s of the city. His movements were quick, eager. There was a strange, restless brightness in his 注目する，もくろむs.
The silence of the night was 穴をあけるd by the shrill cry of a newsboy, peddling an 早期に morning 版. Gibbons bought a paper and the restlessness in his 注目する，もくろむs 深くするd as he 星／主役にするd at the 前線 page. 黒人／ボイコット headlines were spread across it. They told of another mysterious 拷問 殺人—a millionaire's son 設立する dead in his penthouse apartment, his 直面する eaten away by 酸性の.
Somewhere 負かす／撃墜する the 封鎖する a police サイレン／魅惑的な sounded and a green roadster whirled by. Gibbons, watching from the 影をつくる／尾行するs, 認めるd the man in it—a 探偵，刑事 from the 殺人 squad. 殺人 seemed to whisper through the 不明瞭 of the night. Menace lay like a 棺／かげり over the city.
The lawyer's pace 増加するd. Once he paused in his swift stride to 圧力（をかける） a 手渡す to the left 味方する of his chest. An old 負傷させる, received on a 戦場 in the World War, had given him a momentary twinge of 苦痛.
A 厳しい laugh fell from his lips. Years ago doctors had 予報するd that he had only a few months to live; but he had gone on living, 反抗するing death. Perhaps it was this closeness to death that made him so restless—or perhaps it was something else.
He reached a 豊富な 居住の section at length. The river flowed beside him; millionaires' homes and expensive apartment buildings rose at his 権利. At the corner of the 封鎖する he stopped. A high 塀で囲む followed the line of the 味方する street. A 抱擁する pile of masonry, 荒涼とした and 厳格な，質素な, towered above the sidewalk, the windows of it boarded up. It was the old Montgomery mansion, 直面するing the river, the house that the litigation of 相続人s, quarreling about the 広い地所, had kept empty for years. Its luxurious rooms were 集会 dust now. Mice moved unmolested across its polished 床に打ち倒すs. Moths were nibbling at the expensive rugs.
The man who called himself Gibbons turned and walked 負かす／撃墜する the 味方する street. There was no one in sight. He followed the 塀で囲む as silently as a 影をつくる／尾行する. A few gaunt shrubs that had not been 適切に tended for years made a sparse fringe along the 塀で囲む.
Suddenly the man stopped. He parted two shrubs and stepped behind them. His 手渡すs moved in the 不明瞭 for an instant. An old door 主要な into the 古代の garden swung open. The door の近くにd softly behind him.
He was in a place of 廃虚, decay, and desolation with the teeming life of the city shut away. Under the glow of the sky 総計費, he 選ぶd his way through the garden, passed statues fallen from their pedestals, passed a 宙返り／暴落する-負かす／撃墜する summer house, passed a fountain that had long since 中止するd to spray moisture.
He appeared to be at home, appeared to know where he was going, appeared to belong there. He （機の）カム to the 後部 of the house, 解除するd the cover of the cellar door, and descended a flight of 石／投石する steps.
A 重要な grated in the lock. In a moment he was inside. Then he paused by another door in a 後部 room of the old cellar. Flashing a tiny electric light, he 調査するd loose a piece of パネル盤ing and 星／主役にするd intently at a hidden dial.
A clocklike 機械装置 behind the dial moved a cylinder of paper slowly like the 派手に宣伝する of a seismograph. There was a stylus 均衡を保った over the paper. It 記録，記録的な／記録するd blows and footfalls. The paper 派手に宣伝する was blank, showing that for the last twenty-four hours no one had passed through the hidden passageway behind the door that led 負かす／撃墜する to the 黒人／ボイコット waters of the river. The man nodded in satisfaction.
He moved up into the house, to a room that was hidden beneath the 抱擁する 前線 staircase. It was in reality the 誤った 支援する of the old butler's pantry. The partition had been expertly moved 今後 and a door into the secret 議会 was 隠すd by 棚上げにするs that swung outward.
Here the man who had made the house his home could be as much shut away from the world as though he were in the 黒人／ボイコット depths of a 丸天井.
There were strange things in that secret room: a small 化学製品 and photographic 研究室／実験室, jars, 瓶／封じ込めるs, and mysterious boxes; a miniature 兵器庫, 含む／封じ込めるing humane but efficient 武器s; gas ピストルs that could knock a man unconscious within a 半径 of twenty feet; tiny, stupefying darts 隠すd in cigarette はしけs; a concentrated 涙／ほころび-爆弾 in the 茎・取り除く of a watch that would momentarily blind a man when he stooped to look at the time. There was also a mirror at the 味方する of the 塀で囲む under strong lights. It had three movable 味方するs that would show every angle of a man's 直面する, 長，率いる, and 団体／死体.
Gibbons walked up to it and stood regarding himself. Then he moved away and seated himself at a shelf before another mirror. His long, restless fingers began to 逸脱する across his 直面する. Beneath their tips a mysterious 変形 took place. He plucked tiny plates of tissue-thin metal from his nostrils—plates that had made his nose hawklike; peeled a transparent covering of fibrous, fleshlike 構成要素 from his chin and cheeks; 解除するd the clever, mesh-thin toupee of gray hair from his 長，率いる. His whole 外見 had changed.
The mirror 反映するd him as he really was—as he was never seen by any living soul—as he never appeared except in the silence and secrecy of this one room. The 直面する that 星／主役にするd 支援する at him from the mirror was even-featured and boyish-looking. Gray 注目する，もくろむs that held a hint of humor in them. Brown hair and a smooth-shaven 肌.
It was only when he turned his 長，率いる and the light fell on his 直面する in a 確かな way that new lines were brought out—lines that made him look suddenly older, 円熟した, 均衡を保った—with the 記録，記録的な／記録する of countless experiences written in them, and 指示，表示する物s of restless energy and 運動ing will-力／強力にする that would not let him be 静かな.
A grim smile （機の）カム as he looked at himself. Secret スパイ／執行官 X. The man of a thousand 直面するs—a thousand disguises—a thousand surprises! The man of whom it was whispered that he had the 非公式の 許可／制裁 of a 広大な／多数の／重要な 政府 in his fight on the 犯罪の hordes preying upon society. The man said to be 公式に dead in the 記録，記録的な／記録するs of the 司法省—his supposed death arranged that he might disappear and fight 罪，犯罪 in a new and startling way.
His real 指名する and background were mysteries known, if at all, only to a chosen few. Who was Secret スパイ／執行官 X?
Suddenly a frown crossed his 直面する.
He ちらりと見ることd at the 電報電信 that lay open on a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in the strange room.
It was in code and it had been sent from Washington, D.C., to a 確かな Elisha Pond, care of the First 国家の Bank. Its seemingly meaningless words were 燃やすd into his mind like a brand.
"Six 犠牲者s （人命などを）奪う，主張するd in 拷問 信用," the code words of the 電報電信 明言する／公表するd. "Why aren't you on the 職業?"
He 選ぶd the yellow sheet up and walked toward a metal strongbox that 残り／休憩（する）d on a shelf. For a moment he hesitated.
持つ／拘留するing the 電報電信 in his left 手渡す, he ran the fingers of his 権利 delicately along the lid of the strong-box till he reached a 確かな raised rivet 長，率いる. He 圧力（をかける）d this, and there was heard a faintly audible "click."
The rivet 長，率いる corresponded to the safety catch on an (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. But the 軍隊s that it held in leash were a thousand times more destructive. There were two 続けざまに猛撃するs of TNT 隠すd in a 誤った 底（に届く） of the box which, unless the safety catch was 圧力（をかける）d, would 爆発する when the lid was raised. The terrible 爆発性の guarded スパイ／執行官 X's secrets from anyone who might 侵入する his （犯人の）隠れ家 during his absence.
He laid the 電報電信 for 安全な keeping on 最高の，を越す of a special 文書 that the box 含む／封じ込めるd.
The 文書 bore a 政治の coat of 武器. It was couched in 簡潔な／要約する and simple 条件, but its words carried a strange portent.
In 承認 of brilliant work 成し遂げるd and faithful service （判決などを）下すd, we 会談する upon you the 肩書を与える of Secret スパイ／執行官 X. Your way will be a lonely one. You will 戦闘 罪，犯罪, fight ceaselessly against those who 捜し出す to destroy 法律, order, and the decencies of civilization.
You will stand ready to 危険 your life in the 原因（となる） of humanity as you did while serving your country in the 知能 分割 during the World War. For 推論する／理由s, which you will comprehend, there can be no 公式の／役人 acknowledgment of your work or 許可／制裁 of your methods.
Your 基金s, however, will be 制限のない. Ten public-spirited men of 広大な／多数の／重要な wealth, unknown to you and unacquainted with your 指名する, have subscribed a 基金 for your use. A fraction of this 基金 is on deposit in the First 国家の Bank. It can be drawn by you under the cognomen of Elisha Pond This account will be 補充するd whenever it becomes low. 利用する it as you see fit.
With a quick movement, the Secret スパイ／執行官 の近くにd the box and 解放（する）d the safety catch again. There were those who knew of his 存在 and had 絶対の 約束 in his methods. He would 努力する to live up to that 約束.
He began going over his 直面する again with quick, deft fingers. The boyish lines disappeared under the 魔法 touch of his 手渡すs. Gray hairs appeared at the 寺s. The flabby contours and dignity of middle age （機の）カム into 存在. He leaned 今後 and 星／主役にするd intently at his own reflection. The man of a thousand 直面するs had again 達成するd a master disguise.
Jeffrey Carter, clubman and gentleman of leisure!
That was his 役割 for the 残り／休憩（する） of the evening. It was after one o'clock, but he had no 意向 of going to bed. Sleep was a thing he seldom indulged in. Restless, dynamic 軍隊s seemed always 運動ing him on. And tonight there was work to be done—a 一連の hideous 殺人s to 調査／捜査する.
He had taken the photographs, the sound 記録，記録的な／記録する, and the 測定s of Jason Hertz for a 目的. No 苦痛s were too 広大な／多数の／重要な, no 成果／努力s too laborious in creating a new disguise. When the time （機の）カム to impersonate Hertz, he would do it with the 技術 of an artist and a scientist. But the time for the impersonation had not come.
He rose, 除去するd the 着せる／賦与するs he had been wearing, and, from a closet 含む／封じ込めるing a 広大な wardrobe, selected a 削減する tuxedo. It fitted perfectly his lithe, muscular 人物／姿／数字; but, as he slipped into the coat, he winced again at the twinge of 苦痛 近づく his heart.
That and the scar on his chest, drawn into the lines of a 天然のまま X where a piece of shrapnel had ploughed, might いつか give him away. It was a 危険 he was 用意が出来ている to take.
THE SECRET AGENT, 偽名，通称 Jeffrey Carter, took a taxi downtown. He told the driver to swing left at Twenty-third Street, and he gave a number in a 封鎖する of medium-定価つきの apartment houses. Through the スパイ／執行官's mind a 一連の 宣告，判決s were moving, repeating themselves again and again. Bellaire Club! Panagakos! A blue vase on the dance 床に打ち倒す!
He paid the driver, 解任するd the cab, and walked 今後. This was not a night-club section, but スパイ／執行官 X had special 商売／仕事. Halfway 負かす／撃墜する the long, silent 封鎖する he stepped 支援する into an angle formed by the 交差点 of two 塀で囲むs. Here the 深い 影をつくる／尾行するs lay as 黒人／ボイコット as 署名／調印する.
For a moment the スパイ／執行官's 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd. He was 星／主役にするing 上向き, along the brick 直面するing of an apartment building opposite. There was a light showing behind the drawn shade in a window on the sixth 床に打ち倒す.
The スパイ／執行官 fingered the 黒人／ボイコット batwing tie above his immaculate shirt 前線, gave his silk muffler a deft twitch, then moved briskly out of the 影をつくる／尾行するs and crossed the street.
He entered the building, passed through a small foyer where a switchboard 操作者 was sitting, and 上がるd by an elevator. Walking left along a 回廊（地帯）, he 圧力（をかける）d the button of apartment No. 63.
There （機の）カム a sound of high heels clicking over the parquet 床に打ち倒すing inside. A moment later the door opened and a girl with blond hair and a petite 人物／姿／数字 stood on the threshold.
She raised an uneasy 手渡す, patted her gleaming coiffure nervously, and 星／主役にするd closely at スパイ／執行官 X, her blue 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするing in worried 憶測.
"行方不明になる Betty Dale, I believe," the スパイ／執行官 said. "May I come in?"
His 発言する／表明する now was cultured, softly modulated. The 熟達した disguise he had 影響する／感情d tonight hid his real 身元. He was playing a part for a 目的.
"My 指名する is Jeffrey Carter," he continued. "I'd like to talk to you a few moments if you can spare the time."
As he spoke, he watched the girl's 直面する 辛うじて. It 表明するd uneasiness, 疑問, perplexity. 明白に she did not know who he was. 明白に, to her he was a perfect stranger and a 怪しげな one at that.
"Come in," she said at last, a 公式文書，認める of 不本意 in her トン.
She turned, her small pretty 直面する screwed up in worry, and led the way into the sitting room.
The long, powerful 手渡すs of Jeffrey Carter moved then. One of them flickered out, the fingers 持つ／拘留するing something that was like a thin stick of pomade.
He made a quick movement の近くに to the 塀で囲む as he passed by, then slipped the mysterious stick 支援する into his pocket. There was a faint smile on his 直面する. His disguise had proven 適する under the gaze of a girl whose 知能 and cleverness he 率d as high as her beauty.
He reached out and snapped off the electric light switch, 急落（する），激減（する）ing the room into 不明瞭.
The girl gave a little gasp of surprise and 恐れる; but the stranger's 発言する／表明する 安心させるd her.
"A beacon 向こうずねs for all good 水夫s," he said.
She turned. On the 塀で囲む at her 支援する was a glowing X, shimmering there with a strange eerie light. It was the 示す of the Secret スパイ／執行官—written in the purest radium paint—paint made by a secret 決まり文句／製法 and 含む／封じ込めるing thousands of dollars' 価値（がある） of the world's most expensive metal.
"It is you then?" she said, 救済 in her 発言する／表明する.
The Secret スパイ／執行官 had given her many moments of worry in his 願望（する） to use her as a 実験（する）. He had come to her in dozens of different disguises. She never felt sure of her ground until he gave her some characteristic, identifying 調印する.
His manner changed now. He was no longer the suave clubman. There was a tenseness in his 態度 that the girl sensed. When they were seated in the next room, Jeffrey Carter talked quickly, moving his long-fingered 手渡すs restlessly.
"Blue vases are the devil's choice," he said suddenly.
The words were 理解できない to the girl; but she relaxed in her 議長，司会を務める, all uneasiness gone. The スパイ／執行官 一般に spoke in metaphors and parables, the significance of which she learned in 予定 time. Almost everything he said had some 二塁打 meaning.
尊敬（する）・点 and 激しい 忠義 mingled in her blue 注目する，もくろむs as she regarded the man who tonight called himself Jeffrey Carter. Whoever the Secret スパイ／執行官 really was, she knew that he had been a friend of her dead father's—the father who had been a police captain, 殺害された by 暗黒街 弾丸s.
She had been brought up to feel an 激しい 憎悪 of 犯罪のs. The death of her father had crystallized this feeling.
This man, her father's friend, was working against the 暗黒街. She 信用d him, relied upon him, knew that he was kindly and 勇敢に立ち向かう. There had been times when he had placed sums of money collected from 犯罪のs in her 手渡すs—to give to charity, to help the poor and those who had been victimized by 暗黒街 陰謀（を企てる）s.
She knew that he kept nothing for himself, asked nothing but to live 危険に, recklessly, 賭事ing with 運命／宿命. There were moments when wonder filled her as to what sort of 直面する lay behind those brilliant disguises. Would she ever know? Or would death （人命などを）奪う，主張する him before she had 侵入するd the secrets of his life?
The スパイ／執行官 spoke mysteriously again, his 注目する，もくろむs gleaming with some hidden emotion.
"You are an 遂行するd ダンサー, 行方不明になる Dale, and to dance beautifully is an art. Tonight I ask you to dance with me."
She gave a start of surprise and 紅潮／摘発するd わずかに. "What do you mean?"
"The Bellaire Club is calling us, Betty. There is music to be danced to and a blue vase to be looked at. Put on your best frock."
She shrugged, nodded, and flashed him a smile. Something deeper than caprice and a love of dancing, she knew, lay behind his words. And when, at the end of ten minutes, she 現れるd from her boudoir, she was a 見通し of loveliness.
Betty Dale was a girl who knew how to wear 着せる／賦与するs. 宙に浮く and refinement were 直感的に with her and that good taste which is something inborn and can never be taught. Because of these things, she had gotten ahead in the world. She had won a career for herself as a 星／主役にする reporter on the 先触れ（する）. When she was covering society stuff, she could 会合，会う and hob-nob with 流行の／上流の people on their own 計画（する）. This made her invaluable both to the paper and the スパイ／執行官.
More than once she had helped him by going places with him when he needed a feminine companion, by carrying out his orders, and by getting （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） that he 要求するd.
Tonight she was 覆う？ in a white evening dress with a fur 包む draped over her shoulders. Together they went to the street and signaled a taxi.
They were whirled through the brightly lighted thoroughfares of the 広大な／多数の／重要な city to the doors of the Bellaire Club, which, for all its gaudy ostentation, was a place of ill repute, a place where 悪意のある things had happened.
It was たびたび（訪れる）d by the 急速な／放蕩な, 豊富な 始める，決める, and by ギャング（個々）s and gamblers who had made big money. There were 賭事ing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs in the 後部, a dance 床に打ち倒す, and a large orchestra in 前線, with （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs for couples to sit at and drink.
The Secret スパイ／執行官 had asked Betty Dale to …を伴って him tonight because a 孤独な man or woman coming to the Bellaire Club was at once an 反対する of curiosity to マイク Panagakos, the flabby-jowled, sloe-注目する，もくろむd 経営者／支配人. The スパイ／執行官 did not want that.
He whirled Betty Dale around the room once, and his 注目する，もくろむs gleamed as he saw a blue vase on a low settee by one 塀で囲む. It was a 罰金 piece of Turkish pottery that somehow fitted in with the gaudy, exotic atmosphere of the club. It seemed to have been placed there as a receptacle for flowers, but it was empty now.
As they whirled past it, the Secret スパイ／執行官's 手渡す flicked out. The 公式文書，認める he had made Jason Hertz 令状 fell into the vase.
By that 行為／法令／行動する he believed he was 開始 a 追跡する that might lead him into the 影をつくる／尾行する of hideous 殺人 and mysterious death.
When the dance had ended, they seated themselves at a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する to watch the moving （人が）群がるs about them; the sinuous, over-painted women, and the immaculately dressed men.
Then Betty Dale suddenly caught her breath, and the Secret スパイ／執行官's 長，率いる turned quickly.
Across the room a group of people had scattered. A woman gave a hoarse cry of 恐れる.
From the 中心 of the group, a man ran 今後 into the circular 位置／汚点／見つけ出す cast by an 総計費 light. He was 持つ／拘留するing his 手渡すs to his 直面する, staggering drunkenly—and, as スパイ／執行官 X watched, he let 前へ／外へ a 叫び声をあげる of agony that shivered through the 空気／公表する with the keenness of a knife thrust. Then he 崩壊（する）d and lay writhing on the polished 床に打ち倒す.
GASPS OF HORROR went up from those in the room. The orchestra, playing a languorous concert number, （機の）カム to a discordant stop. Men and women （人が）群がるd 今後, craning their necks.
スパイ／執行官 X arose. There was a steely brightness in his 注目する，もくろむs, tenseness in the low whisper of his 発言する／表明する.
"Satan has struck," he said.
Leaving the girl at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, he moved across the 床に打ち倒す to mingle with the （人が）群がる around the fallen man. Silently, 速く, he 押し進めるd his way の近くに. Looking over the shoulder of an elaborately dressed woman, he got a glimpse of the man on the 床に打ち倒す.
The man's 手渡すs were still covering his 直面する. Between the quivering fingers スパイ／執行官 X saw inflamed, mottled flesh, pockmarked and drawn together. Faint ガス／煙s curled up. The man's 肌 had been hideously 燃やすd. Someone had thrown 酸性の at him.
スパイ／執行官 X turned. He ran to the nearest （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, grabbed a 瓶／封じ込める of olive oil and shouldered his way 支援する, ひさまづくing by the fallen man. With quick, deft fingers, he 注ぐd the 甘い oil over the man's 拷問d 直面する.
It was a simple 治療（薬）, but, quickly 適用するd, it might save the man from death or life disfigurement. The man moaned and twitched. One 味方する of his coat fell away. The 辛勝する／優位 of a gleaming badge showed. He was a （警察，軍隊などの）本部 探偵，刑事. He writhed again, pawing at his 負傷させるd 直面する, then went limp. 慈悲の unconsciousness had come.
The Secret スパイ／執行官 got up quickly. マイク Panagakos, the fat, sleek-haired 経営者／支配人, was 押し進めるing his way 今後.
"Call an 救急車," said スパイ／執行官 X 厳しく. But another 発言する／表明する 削減（する） in on him.
"It's already been done. Everybody keep 静かな. Don't try to leave the room. There are men 駅／配置するd at the doors with orders to shoot."
The man who had spoken was 激しい-始める，決める, 厳しい-注目する，もくろむd. He looked out of character in the tuxedo that wrinkled baggily around his lumpy 団体／死体. He was 探偵，刑事-Sergeant Mathers of the 殺人 Squad.
"It's a （警察の）手入れ，急襲!" cried a woman, the quavers of hysteria in her 発言する／表明する.
"（警察の）手入れ，急襲 is 権利! There's been a 殺人 試みる／企てるd. There's a 殺し屋 in this room. Every man and woman of you is gonna get searched."
In Sergeant Mathers's words was a savage 公式文書，認める. He glared at the people around him with a ferocity that was mixed with bafflement and 恐れる.
"Sh!" whispered somebody hoarsely. And a sudden 静かな descended on the room, broken only by the 緊張した breathing of 恐れる-stricken people. Horror seemed to seep out of the corners. The fat 直面する of マイク Panagakos turned a sickly dough color. The whites of his 注目する，もくろむs moved.
スパイ／執行官 X's quick brain grappled with the 状況／情勢. 探偵，刑事s, he realized, must have been 地位，任命するd in the room all evening. The police, too, must know that Joe Catrella had hung out at the Bellaire Club. They were leaving no 石／投石する unturned in their 成果／努力s to solve the hideous 拷問 殺人s. And the "拷問 信用" in its （選挙などの）運動をする of terror had turned 残酷に on the police 軍隊 itself.
スパイ／執行官 X looked around the big room. At the main 入り口, a man with a police (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 in his 手渡す was standing alertly. There was another の近くに to the door of Panagakos's 私的な office in the 後部. A third guarded the window by the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape. Sergeant Mathers had worked quickly, efficiently.
"Squad cars are on the way," he barked. "There'll be policewomen to search the ladies. 視察官 Burks himself is coming."
The imperious clanging of an 救急車 bell sounded in the street outside. It stopped at the door of the Bellaire Club. A moment later, the 探偵，刑事 at the main 入り口 stepped 支援する as two white-coated 抑留するs entered, a 担架 in the 手渡すs of one.
Sergeant Mathers spoke again, pointing to the 人物／姿／数字 on the 床に打ち倒す.
"Get that man to the hospital as 急速な／放蕩な as you can."
The medics moved like automata. 開始 the collapsible 担架, they 解除するd the unconscious 探偵，刑事, placed him on it, and carried him out of the room. The gong of the 救急車 sounded again, growing fainter as it 負傷させる its way through traffic that had stopped as if frozen. The bell seemed to leave behind it a 黒人／ボイコット 棺／かげり of mystery and terror.
In staccato 宣告，判決s, 厳しい as the 割れ目 of a whip, Sergeant Mathers began 尋問 Panagakos.
"Donelly was a good man. He's the third who's had stuff thrown in his 直面する. The first one cashed in. Where was Donelly when he got his?"
Panagakos shook his 長，率いる. He drew the 支援する of his 手渡す across lips that were moist and quivering.
"I—I didn't see nothing," he said. "I was in my office. When I heard the ゆすり I （機の）カム out."
A foreign-looking waiter in a short-tailed jacket （機の）カム の近くに to Sergeant Mathers. He made movements in the 空気／公表する with his 手渡すs.
"It was from the kitchen that he （機の）カム, senyor. It was there that I first saw him—the policeman. But I saw no one else."
Mathers 圧力（をかける）d 今後, the （人が）群がる に引き続いて, led on by morbid curiosity, and スパイ／執行官 X followed, too.
HE SAW MATHERS 一連の会議、交渉／完成する up and question the kitchen staff. Saw them shake their 長，率いるs. They had seen no one. A hallway led to a big pantry and storeroom beside the kitchen. スパイ／執行官 X knew the angles of the building. He made it a 商売／仕事 to learn such things. There was likely to be an 空気／公表する 軸 in the storeroom. Why didn't Mathers search there? But he couldn't 示唆する it. It would attract attention to himself. The 探偵，刑事s would have to work their way. He would work his. But there was worry in his 注目する，もくろむs.
Any moment cars filled with policemen and policewomen might arrive at the Bellaire Club. Every person in the room would be searched. It was something that スパイ／執行官 X did not care to 危険. There were strange articles 隠すd in his 着せる／賦与するing—articles that it would be embarrassing to have the police find. いつかs quick changes of disguise were necessary. Painstaking care had gone into the 創造 of featherweight, portable make-up. 半端物 肉親，親類d of 構成要素 were cleverly 隠すd in the linings of his coat and vest.
To make 事柄s worse, 視察官 Burks of the 殺人 Squad was a bitter enemy of the スパイ／執行官's. Discrediting 噂するs that X was working against the 暗黒街, the formal, 決まりきった仕事-loving police 視察官 regarded the スパイ／執行官 as a 特に vicious 犯罪の.
More than once their ways had crossed. More than once スパイ／執行官 X had led the 視察官 along the 権利 path to apprehend some evil-doer. But he had done it so subtly, so deviously, that Burks never realized he had been 補佐官d. He had only redoubled his 成果／努力s to 罠（にかける） the man whose trademark was a gleaming X. His 疑惑s would be 誘発するd if he 設立する hidden disguises on the man who tonight called himself Jeffrey Carter.
With a grim smile on his 直面する, スパイ／執行官 X made his way 支援する toward the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する where he had left Betty Dale. He must get away and take the girl with him before 視察官 Burks arrived. With 武装した men at every door and window, this seemed impossible. Only brilliant 戦略 could 遂行する it.
There were 恐れる 影をつくる／尾行するs in Betty Dale's 注目する，もくろむs as he approached her. One わずかな／ほっそりした 手渡す was 圧力（をかける）d against her breast.
"We're 罠にかける," she said. "They'll search you! What will you do?"
"いつかs a ヒョウ can change his 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs," he said enigmatically.
Her 注目する，もくろむs grew wide with wonder as she 星／主役にするd at him. Sergeant Mathers had said that no one was to be 許すd to leave the room. No 事柄 what disguise he wore, it would be the same, she thought. Even the スパイ／執行官 couldn't 遂行する the impossible.
の近くに to their （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する was a 激しい drapery across the 前線 of the 私的な booth for diners who 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be alone. The booth was empty tonight. The drapery was 部分的に／不公平に drawn 支援する.
With the light of 目的 in his 注目する，もくろむs, the スパイ／執行官 stepped 静かに into the booth. インチ by インチ he 辛勝する／優位d the drapery across till the booth was covered—till he was out of sight.
The girl looked quickly about. The men and women in the room were 星／主役にするing at Sergeant Mathers, に引き続いて his every word and gesture as he cross-診察するd マイク Panagakos and the kitchen staff. No one had seen the スパイ／執行官 go behind the drapery. She looked toward the booth for an instant.
A faint light showed under the drapery's 辛勝する／優位. The スパイ／執行官 was mysteriously at work. But 恐れる and perplexity still mingled in her 表現. Her ears were 緊張するd to catch the wailing of police サイレン／魅惑的なs outside 発表するing the arrival of the （警察，軍隊などの）本部' cars.
Then she gave a sudden gasp. The drapery in the 前線 of the booth moved. A man stepped out—but not Jeffrey Carter, the clubman who had brought her to the Bellaire Club.
The man who 現れるd had a hard, pale 直面する. His mouth was a thin line.
There was a frown between his 注目する，もくろむs. His eyebrows, in contrast to his white hair, jutted blackly. He carried himself with 築く, 軍の 耐えるing. She had seen that man before. He was 視察官 Burks of the 殺人 Squad.
Betty Dale drew in her breath.
She could not be mistaken. One man had gone into the booth; another had stepped out—but she knew they were one and the same man—Secret スパイ／執行官 X. She knew that his uncanny mastery of disguise had 遂行するd the impossible.
He didn't try to 実験（する） his make-up this time. He looked at her, smiled an instant, and nodded. Then his 直面する 始める，決める again into grim lines. He gestured toward the 前線 入り口 and 手渡すd her 包む to her. She understood.
With wildly （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing heart, but covering her agitation, she walked toward the door.
The burly 探偵，刑事 guarding it 閉めだした her way. "You heard the sergeant's orders, lady—nobody goes out!"
Then the 探偵，刑事 gave a 明白な start. His 注目する，もくろむs 広げるd. He drew himself up respectfully and lowered the gun.
"It's all 権利," said a 冷淡な 発言する／表明する. "I'll show her to the street. See that nobody else leaves."
"Certainly, 視察官!"
The 探偵，刑事's puzzled frown 示すd that he couldn't やめる piece things together. He could only go by what he saw. 視察官 Burks was at the girl's 肘. The 殺人 Squad 長，率いる must, it seemed, have come in the 支援する way. He must have a good 推論する／理由 for making an exception in the girl's 好意. The 探偵，刑事 stood 支援する, and Betty Dale and the Secret スパイ／執行官 moved unmolested 負かす／撃墜する the carpeted stairs.
They did not hurry. The man at Betty Dale's 味方する 持続するd his stiffly 築く 耐えるing.
But, at the downstairs 入り口, his 支配する on her arm 強化するd. He gave a swift look 権利 and left and suddenly drew her across the street. Up the 封鎖する, headlights ゆらめくd piercingly; a swift car 発射 around the corner; squealing rubber; and a サイレン／魅惑的な rose into a 叫び声をあげるing, pulsating wail.
"The police!" gasped Betty Dale, the words like a sob of 恐れる in her throat.
THERE WASN'T TIME to do more than draw the girl into a dark area beside a stoop. スパイ／執行官 X did so, crouching beside her. To be seen now disguised as 視察官 Burks would put an end to his 計画（する）s.
He waited tensely as the car with the 叫び声をあげるing サイレン／魅惑的な （機の）カム to a 停止（させる） opposite. The real 視察官 was the first to get out, his 築く, 軍の 耐えるing and pale 直面する making him 平易な to identify. After him 宙返り／暴落するd three plain-着せる／賦与するs men and two grim-直面するd policewomen. They crossed the sidewalk and disappeared in the entranceway of the Bellaire Club.
A second squad car 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd the corner and （機の）カム roaring 負かす／撃墜する the 封鎖する, 事情に応じて変わる to a screeching 停止（させる） behind the first. All the 探偵，刑事s in the city seemed to be concentrating on this one point. The サイレン／魅惑的なs had attracted attention. 長，率いるs were peering out windows. A small （人が）群がる was collecting. Any moment sharp 注目する，もくろむs might 秘かに調査する out スパイ／執行官 X and the girl beside him. But she was 安全な now. He 動議d toward the street and she understood.
"You?" she said. "What will you do?"
"The 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs of the ヒョウ will change again," he replied.
Her 直面する was pale and uneasy as she left him and mingled with the （人が）群がる on the street. A moment later she signaled a taxi, stepped into it and was 素早い行動d away.
The スパイ／執行官 turned his 支援する. 長，率いる 負かす／撃墜する amongst the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the areaway, his long fingers began to move. They were working in the 不明瞭 now, working by instinct and the uncanny 技術 that past experience had developed.
He left the white hair on, but drew the jutting 黒人／ボイコット eyebrows off and peeled away the plastic 構成要素 from his 直面する. He slipped rubber cheek plates against his gums to broaden his features, smoothed the frown of 視察官 Burks from his forehead, then turned.
As he sauntered out into the light of the street, no one would have known him for either of the two men he had impersonated earlier in the evening. He looked older now, fatter—and the glittering nose glasses with a 黒人／ボイコット cord 大（公）使館員d that he slipped on 高くする，増すd the 影響 of dignity and age.
The 発言する／表明するs in the （人が）群がる around him were 緊張した, electrified with 恐れる. 噂するs were running like wildfire. The "拷問 信用" had （人命などを）奪う，主張するd another 犠牲者. A newspaper man with a flash-light camera was taking pictures of the 前線 of the Bellaire Club. Soon the 圧力（をかける）s of the tabloids would be grinding out another story of mystery and horror for a thrill-loving public to devour at their leisure.
But the game that X was playing was a game of life and death.
He slipped through the （人が）群がる, moving along the 味方する of the building to the mouth of an alley that tradesmen used. He 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する it, ちらりと見ることd 支援する along the street, then 急落（する），激減（する）d out of sight.
The dignity of his movements fell from him suddenly. He snapped the eyeglasses off, placed them in his pocket. His 注目する，もくろむs were 有望な and piercing as bits of polished steel.
Above him were the lighted windows of the Bellaire Club. He followed the alley on up to the corner of the building. Ahead was a 中庭 filled with boxes and バーレル／樽s. A 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape snaked up the 味方する of the club, passing the windows of the kitchen, going on up to the roof.
X stood a moment, trying to 位置を示す the position of the 空気／公表する 軸 he had 人物／姿／数字d was there. It was either by that or the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape that the 酸性の 投げる人 had entered and gone.
Then he drew in his breath. Far above him, silhouetted a moment against the starlit sky, he saw faint movement. It might have been a man's 長，率いる or 手渡す. He couldn't be 確かな which; but he crouched 支援する in the 黒人／ボイコット 影をつくる／尾行するs of the 中庭.
Then, 速く as a cat, he crossed the flagstones and leaped up. His fingers caught the end of the 負わせるd 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape ladder. The ladder （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する slowly, its rusty hinges squeaking.
スパイ／執行官 X paused and listened. No sound （機の）カム from the 不明瞭 above. He 機動力のある the ladder 速く, up past the kitchen windows, reaching the 不明瞭 beyond just as one opened. 視察官 Burks was on the 職業 now and would be more 徹底的な than Sergeant Mathers had been.
X took the アイロンをかける steps two at a time. Speedily, silently, he reached the roof, while behind him a 警官，（賞などを）獲得する stepped out on the second-床に打ち倒す 上陸. The police, too, were going to search the roof. The スパイ／執行官 had escaped from one difficult 状況／情勢 only to be 伴う／関わるd in another. His 血 raced madly. Once again he was pitting his wits and courage against the 軍隊s of 運命／宿命. What if there were no other way 負かす／撃墜する from the roof? What if the police 罠にかける him?
But he didn't dwell on the dangers of the 状況／情勢.
Lightly as a cat, he leaped to the 対処するing of the roof and balanced there on the balls of his feet.
The 最高の，を越す of the Bellaire Club stretched before him. Beyond was another building, higher still—a sheer cliff of offices の近くにd for the day. But against its brick 塀で囲むs he saw vague movement again. A 巨大（な） spider seemed to be creeping up its 明らかにする 味方する.
The スパイ／執行官's 注目する，もくろむs had been trained to work in 半分-不明瞭—to see things that other men 行方不明になるd. There was an アイロンをかける ladder up the 味方する of the building beyond. Someone was climbing it 速く—a 人物／姿／数字 which, even at that distance, had something macabre and 悪意のある about it.
スパイ／執行官 X started in 追跡. He was ahead of the police, one jump in 前進する on the 追跡する of a would-be 殺害者. As he reached the higher building, he looked behind him across the roof of the Bellaire Club and saw the 長，率いる and shoulders of the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する. Then his 手渡すs were on the ladder and his feet had 設立する the rungs.
It ran straight up, a sheer hundred feet, to the roof above. It passed by unlighted windows, and, as he 機動力のある, it was as though he were hanging in space.
Then, far behind him, he heard a cry. A pinpoint of 炎上 blossomed in the 不明瞭. There was a sharp, whiplike 報告（する）／憶測. Something struck the bricks beside him and 叫び声をあげるd away into the night like a 脅すd banshee.
The Secret スパイ／執行官 smiled. It wasn't the first time he had been under 解雇する／砲火／射撃. The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する on the roof below had glimpsed him just as he had glimpsed the man ahead. But there could be no 正確な 狙撃. The policeman's second 弾丸 went wider of its 示す than the first. The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する was 存在 blinded by the flash of his own gun.
スパイ／執行官 X continued to climb. The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する below turned on a flashlight, but its beam wouldn't reach. スパイ／執行官 X was too high up. A moment later, however, the アイロンをかける ladder gave out faint vibrations, 警告 the スパイ／執行官 that the man below had reached it and was 開始するing, too.
X 横断するd the last rungs at dangerous 速度(を上げる）. He 丸天井d over the 辛勝する／優位 of the roof and stood there like a man on 最高の，を越す of the world. The twinkling lights of the city lay below him, 平和的な as though 殺人 were not stalking through the night.
He turned and looked along the roof. All seemed 静かな. He could see no movement now; but with quick, silent strides, he skirted the 辛勝する／優位 of the roof, then leaped 今後.
At a point opposite where he had come up, another ladder went 負かす／撃墜する. It had become a mad game of hide-and-捜し出す on the rooftops of the city. There was no place up here for a man to hide. X tried the one skylight window and 設立する that it was locked on the inside. The man ahead, whoever he might be, was showing that he knew his ground. His fiendish 行為／法令／行動する tonight had been as 審議する／熟考する as it was diabolical, planned with the cunning that characterized every movement of the "拷問 信用."
スパイ／執行官 X しっかり掴むd the 最高の，を越す of the second ladder and began the 降下／家系 as quickly as he had climbed. Six stories below, his feet touched another, lower roof. He crossed it, reached a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape 機動力のある on the next building. He was moving along the 封鎖する on the rooftops.
He looked 支援する again, and, far above, 輪郭（を描く）d against the high office building, he saw movement. The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する was の近くに on his 追跡する.
A sense of menace seemed to descend on him out of the night. He could outwit the police, but he was pitting himself against 犯罪のs as fiendish as they were cunning. He reached under his coat, drew out a ピストル. It was one of the 武器s he いつかs used in moments of 緊急—not an ordinary gun. The スパイ／執行官 did not kill. To 虐殺（する） a man was a 天然のまま way of 取引，協定ing with a 状況／情勢. The スパイ／執行官 operated with finesse, ingenuity, and impetuous daring. The 議会s of this gun 含む／封じ込めるd concentrated anesthetizing gas of a high 明確な／細部 gravity. Even in the open, 解雇する／砲火／射撃d into a man's 直面する, it could 原因（となる） unconsciousness.
He gripped the ピストル, climbed still faster. He was on the last flight of the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape now, with the roof of the third building ahead. He 星／主役にするd up twelve feet. And, as he did so, a 黒人／ボイコット 形態／調整 suddenly blotted out the 星／主役にするs. So quickly that the スパイ／執行官 didn't have time to raise his gun, a man's arm flashed out.
With that 直感的に 返答 which had more than once saved his life, the Secret スパイ／執行官 新たな展開d his 団体／死体 sidewise. He hung by one 手渡す and foot, swaying perilously away from the アイロンをかける ladder, out over dizzy space.
Something hissed by in the 空気／公表する の近くに to his 直面する. The stench and reek of 化学製品s made his nostrils quiver. 燃やすing, acrid ガス／煙s made his 注目する，もくろむs blink and smart. Then the flesh of his left wrist felt as if a red-hot brand had suddenly been 圧力（をかける）d upon it. The 苦痛 was so excruciating that his muscles 契約d and he almost let go his 持つ／拘留する. The silhouette above disappeared.
Biting his lips with 苦痛, the Secret スパイ／執行官 continued to climb. By a few インチs only he had 行方不明になるd the liquid 拷問 from the roof above. A few 減少（する）s of the 酸性の-投げる人's torment had struck his wrist, showing what terrible thing he had escaped.
His 注目する，もくろむs glowing like points of steel, he went on up, peering 慎重に over the roof, the gas gun in his fingers. But the roof was 砂漠d now.
The スパイ／執行官 saw why. With a bound he crossed the tarred space to a 激しい trapdoor cover. He tugged at it with 緊張した fingers, but it was bolted inside. Then, stooping 負かす／撃墜する, he placed his ear against the sheet metal. From below （機の）カム the faint 動かす of descending footsteps. The 酸性の-投げる人 had made good his escape.
Philosophical always in 敗北・負かす, 企て，努力，提案ing his time, the Secret スパイ／執行官 stood up. He couldn't go 支援する the way he had come. He walked across the building to the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape at the 後部 and quickly began the 降下／家系.
This one seemed to end in a 空いている 中庭 below. He paused a moment listening. All was 静かな.
He reached the 底（に届く）, dropped to the flagstones and started toward a 盗品故買者 in the 後部, then suddenly crouched 支援する. A 有望な beam pierced the 不明瞭 の近くに ahead. The ray of a flashlight made his eyelids 狭くする.
"Stand still, guy," a 厳しい 発言する／表明する said.
Against the glow of a street light beyond the 法廷，裁判所, スパイ／執行官 X got a sudden glimpse of the visored cap of a city 警官，（賞などを）獲得する.
IT WAS A SITUATION that he hadn't 心配するd—a dangerous turn of events. The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する's 発言する／表明する held deadly 目的. The スパイ／執行官 knew that a gun was trained on him. He knew also that the police were nervous, fearful, and ready to shoot at the 減少（する） of a hat. Calmness would be necessary and brilliant 戦略.
A slow smile spread over the スパイ／執行官's 直面する. He made his 発言する／表明する drawling.
"Don't be 迅速な, old man. Nothing to get excited about, you know."
With 悪化させるing 審議, he dusted his palms together, wiped a speck of dust from the 前線 of his tuxedo and reached toward his vest pocket.
"Keep yer 手渡すs in sight," snarled the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する. "Go for a gat and I'll 演習 yer."
"Really!" said the スパイ／執行官, 均衡を保った and unruffled. "I don't think you fully しっかり掴む the 状況／情勢."
With the tips of his fingers, he delicately drew his eyeglasses from his vest. He breathed upon them, wiped the gleaming レンズs on his sleeve, and placed them carefully on his nose. Then he raised his 長，率いる. Looking straight at the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する he spoke arrogantly.
"Now, my good man, I'd 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる it if you'd take that light of yours out of my 注目する，もくろむs. It's やめる annoying."
The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する （機の）カム closer, still tautly 警報.
"What were yer doing on that roof? Who the hell are yer?"
"指名する's Claude Fellingsfort," said the スパイ／執行官. "Thought I saw a fellow running around up 最高の，を越す. Went up for a bit of a look. Heard that the police were having a man 追跡（する）. Thought I'd 援助（する） them."
"Yeah?"
"やめる—and now, if you'll just step aside, I'll be on my way."
"You'll be on your way 権利 enough. You're gonna have a talk with the 視察官. He's up the 封鎖する. I've got my orders and I'm gonna follow 'em."
"The devil you say! You'd better give me your number. I ーするつもりである to 登録（する） a （民事の）告訴 about this."
The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する's gun thrust against his 味方する. "Move along where I tell yer! Keep your 手渡すs away from your pockets."
"You'll hear from me, my good man."
The スパイ／執行官's 発言する／表明する was 乱暴／暴力を加えるd now. His 提起する／ポーズをとる was that of the 負傷させるd man-about-town; a 国民 furious at the ingratitude of 失敗ing 公式の／役人s. But he moved in the direction the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する 示すd. He might learn something from a 雑談（する） with the 視察官.
The （人が）群がる in 前線 of the Bellaire Club made way for the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する and his 囚人. They climbed the carpeted stairs to where 視察官 Burks was standing just inside the door of the main room. The search of the fifty or more guests of the club was still in 進歩. The 警官，（賞などを）獲得する spoke 厳しく.
"I 設立する this guy stepping off a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape 負かす／撃墜する the 封鎖する, 長，指導者. He 手渡すd me a line. I thought maybe you'd want to talk to him."
視察官 Burks 焦点（を合わせる）d the 十分な glare of his 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs on スパイ／執行官 X. They were 直面する to 直面する—the 公式の／役人 長，率いる of the world's greatest 殺人 squad and the man who worked outside the 法律 for the 原因（となる） of 法律 and order. But the スパイ／執行官 was 保護するd by his 熟達した disguise.
The 視察官's pale, aquiline 直面する 登録（する）d no 承認. He was in a dangerous mood, though, ready to しっかり掴む at any straw that （機の）カム his way. The 圧力（をかける） was clamoring that the "拷問 信用" be 粉砕するd. The police were 存在 非難するd.
"Who the devil are you!" he snapped.
The Secret スパイ／執行官 adjusted his glasses again, 一打／打撃ing the 黒人／ボイコット cord.
"I told this fellow here," he drawled, gesturing toward the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する. "My 指名する's Fellingsfort, in 事例／患者 you want to know."
"What do you do for a living?"
"A bit of 財政上の work. 社債 selling and that sort of thing."
"What have you got to 証明する it?"
The スパイ／執行官 reached into his coat pocket, drew out a wallet and opened it. He carried a dozen or more cards with him always, different 指名するs upon them. His disguises went more than 肌 深い. He 避けるd trouble by checkmating it in 前進する.
From a 深い inner pocket in the wallet, he drew a card 耐えるing the 指名する Claude Fellingsfort, with the legend "High Grade 社債s" 直接／まっすぐに after it. With an (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する 繁栄する he 現在のd it to the 視察官. Burks glared at it suspiciously.
"What were you doing climbing 負かす／撃墜する off the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape, Fellingsfort?"
"One couldn't stay on it forever," said スパイ／執行官 X suavely. "Since I went up, I had to come 負かす／撃墜する."
"Why did you go up in the first place?"
"I thought I saw a fellow こそこそ動くing around up there as it were. It turned out I was 権利."
The 視察官's 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd into 積極的な pinpoints of light.
"What the hell do you mean?"
Deftly the Secret スパイ／執行官 stretched out his arm, pulled up his coat, and drew 支援する his cuff. An inflamed 位置／汚点／見つけ出す showed on his wrist where the 肌 had been 燃やすd.
"The bally idiot threw 酸性の 負かす／撃墜する on me, you know. Sort of an unfriendly devil. I didn't ぐずぐず残る to 追求する our 知識."
"酸性の!" Burks's 発言する／表明する had the sharpness of a whiplash.
"やめる. There's the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す—燃やすd rather painfully if I do say so."
"Where did the man who threw it go?"
"負かす／撃墜する the 封鎖する—fifth house from the end. It might 支払う／賃金 you, 視察官, to send a couple of men to search the place."
For an instant the トン of the man who called himself Claude Fellingsfort changed. Then he 再開するd his irritating drawl.
"And now, if you've no 反対s, I'll be on my way."
Burks reply was icy.
"You'll go 負かす／撃墜する to the 駅／配置する house, Fellingsfort. I'm going to 持つ／拘留する you for 調査—check up on your 信任状."
He gestured toward two husky 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs.
"Take this man 負かす／撃墜する to the 駅／配置する—keep him there till I come."
"I say!" 抗議するd Fellingsfort. "That's what I call 感謝! I'm late for an 任命 now. I really can't 許可／制裁 this!"
He drew a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it with a frown.
"Take him away, boys," was the 視察官's answer.
The two 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs stepped 今後, one on each 味方する of the Secret スパイ／執行官.
The watch was still in the スパイ／執行官's 手渡す, and suddenly a strange thing happened. His thumb moved delicately. There was a faint click inside the timepiece. Then the スパイ／執行官's arm 述べるd a quick arc in the 空気／公表する before the two 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs' 直面するs and a thin jet of vapor spurted from the watch's 茎・取り除く.
With gasps the two policemen fell 支援する, wiping their 注目する，もくろむs, momentarily blinded by 害のない 涙／ほころび-gas. And, quick as a 逃げるing wraith, the スパイ／執行官 leaped to the door and ran 負かす／撃墜する the stairs.
視察官 Burks cried out 厳しく and another 警官，（賞などを）獲得する at the 入り口 試みる／企てるd to stop "X," but a second jet of gas sent the 巡査 支援する. An instant later and the Secret スパイ／執行官, 偽名，通称 Claude Fellingsfort, had run into the street and disappeared, lost in the （人が）群がる.
視察官 Burks 星／主役にするd again at the card Fellingsfort had given him, then gave a sudden gasp of amazement.
The card had turned 黒人／ボイコット in his 手渡すs, the 指名する disappearing. In the 中心 of the card a glaring white 人物／姿／数字 stood out. It was a mysterious letter "X," come there as though by 魔法.
IT WASN'T UNTIL twenty-four hours later that スパイ／執行官 X returned to the Bellaire Club—and this time he went alone. In the 合間 he had followed 報告（する）／憶測s in the papers, questioned 非常に／多数の people, and done all he could to trace 負かす／撃墜する the hidden members of the "拷問 信用." But in each instance he had drawn a blank.
There was one lead still open, however—the most 重要な of all, the one upon which スパイ／執行官 X depended for success—or death.
As a news item, the escape of Jason Hertz from the 明言する／公表する 刑務所 had not been important. The story had been tucked away on the second and third pages of the 主要都市の papers. The police hadn't linked up his break for liberty with the 悪意のある activities of the "拷問 信用." But スパイ／執行官 X knew that somewhere in the city knowing 注目する，もくろむs had read of Hertz's escape.
He returned therefore to the Bellaire Club disguised as a young man-about-town. But into his disguise he 注入するd a sleekness of 外見, a sharp, hungry look, that anyone 激烈な／緊急の enough would sense. He had the 外見 of a man 所有するd with the 賭事ing fever.
And only after he had lost two hundred dollars at cards, 静めるing the 疑惑s of マイク Panagakos and the 探偵，刑事s 駅／配置するd around the room, did he seat himself at a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する by the dance 床に打ち倒す. He ordered a drink and sat hunched over it, smoking a cigarette morosely, like a man despondent at the loss he has 苦しむd.
The （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する wasn't ten feet from the blue vase on its polished settee.
Minutes passed, and the スパイ／執行官's 手渡す moved to the cord of the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する-light running below the cloth. No one noticed, but in his fingers was a pair of singularly 形態／調整d pliers. They bit 負かす／撃墜する on the cord and did not 切断する it; but a needle point thrust itself through the outer silk covering into the two 巡査 cables inside.
There was a small 誘発する, a hiss, the odor of 燃やすd insulation, and every light in the room went out as the main fuses blew. X had deliberately 原因（となる）d a short 回路・連盟.
In the hubbub that followed he moved quickly. He crossed in the 不明瞭 to the blue vase, slipped his 手渡す inside and withdrew it. In his fingers was a piece of paper.
He pulled the pliers from the light cord, stopping the short 回路・連盟. When the blown fuses had been 取って代わるd by someone in the kitchen, スパイ／執行官 X was again sitting 静かに at his （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. A half hour later, attracting little attention, he gathered up his coat and left.
It wasn't till he reached a secluded avenue that he opened the 公式文書，認める in the hollow of his 手渡す. Then his heart leaped with excitement.
"Come to Forty-four MacDonough Street, J.H., and （犯罪の）一味 the bell seven times," the 公式文書，認める said. And スパイ／執行官 X knew that in those 簡潔な／要約する words lay the seeds of success—or hideous death—depending on his own wits and the cards that 運命／宿命 dealt him.
FOR HOURS THAT NIGHT, the スパイ／執行官 worked in his secret room in the old Montgomery mansion. ネズミs scuttled across the 砂漠d 床に打ち倒すs. Mice squeaked in the 塀で囲むs of the 古代の house. From outside （機の）カム the 時折の noises of the city. The rumble of a 激しい トラックで運ぶ. The faint blare of a taxi horn. But the スパイ／執行官's 議会 was like a little world in itself shut away from the lives of ordinary men.
He had been extraordinarily careful tonight. He had 熟考する／考慮するd closely the faithful 記録，記録的な／記録するing apparatus in the cellar, making sure that no one had 乱すd the privacy of the house. He had taken special 苦痛s to throw any possible shadower off the 跡をつける.
Now, feeling 安全な・保証する, he 始める，決める to work methodically to 達成する the most 熟達した disguise of his career. On its perfection his very life depended, and perhaps the lives of others, innocent 犠牲者s of the "拷問 信用."
He took out the movie films, the sound 記録，記録的な／記録する, and the 測定s made during his interview with Jason Hertz. The film he had already developed in his small photographic 研究室／実験室.
He 始める，決める a projector on a tripod, 焦点（を合わせる）d it on a silver 審査する, and switched off the lights in the room.
Then he snapped on the bulb behind the projector and started the machine in 動議.
Hertz's image appeared on the 審査する. スパイ／執行官 X 熟考する／考慮するd it again and again, 公式文書，認めるing each movement and facial 表現. He had made a 一連の still enlargements from the movie film, and these he 熟考する／考慮するd also.
He placed the hard-rubber 記録，記録的な／記録する on a phonographic machine and listened to Hertz's 発言する／表明する.
For twenty minutes he practised the vowel and consonant sounds, perfecting tongue and lip movements, until he had mastered the timbre and pitch—until it seemed that Hertz himself was speaking in the small room. Then he seated himself before his ３倍になる mirror, and, with the 測定 chart at his 味方する, began the (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する make-up.
He used his finest pigments, built up his plastic 構成要素, working in thin 層s with constant 言及／関連 to the 公式文書，認めるs he had made. He 再建するd each 計画（する） and line of the 前科者's features; then practised characteristic 表現s. He laughed, frowned, 登録（する）d 恐れる, surprise, and arrogance as he had seen Jason Hertz do.
Even then he wasn't 満足させるd—not until he had risen and moved about the room, imitating Hertz's walk and arm movements. When at last he put his 器具／備品 away, Hertz's own mother wouldn't have known that the man in the room was not her son.
X dressed himself as a 犯罪の and 銃器携帯者／殺しや: a cheap, flashy 控訴, a （土地などの）細長い一片d silk shirt, a tie that shouted to the world.
But, in the linings of the 控訴, he hid other articles. There was no telling what desperate 緊急s might arise. He took one keen look at the little 議会 before leaving. It might, for all he knew, be the last he would ever get.
A taxi sped him to within a few 封鎖するs of MacDonough Street. He got out and paid the driver, 疑問ing that the cabman would 認める him as Hertz. The police 長，率いるs would know him. The 探偵，刑事 軍隊 would be tipped off. He must 避ける 代表者／国会議員s of the 法律. But he didn't 恐れる 国民s or ordinary 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs except in the 地域 that Jason Hertz had たびたび（訪れる）d.
MacDonough Street was in a dark, cluttered section 近づく the riverfront. Number forty-four was in a 封鎖する of 古代の, unpainted houses that seemed like a 沈滞した backwater left by the city's swift 進歩 northward. The Secret スパイ／執行官's heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 faster as he climbed the stoop and 圧力（をかける）d the bell of number forty-four seven times.
It was at least two minutes before the door opened. Then a slatternly old woman stood before him. Her beady, ratlike 注目する，もくろむs were 始める，決める in a 直面する as evil as a witch's. She licked thin, toothless gums and 星／主役にするd at him out of the 黒人／ボイコット 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of the hall. Then she jerked her 長，率いる.
"Come in," she said 厳しく.
She hadn't asked him his 指名する. He knew she had 認めるd him as Jason Hertz. He followed her along a dusty smelling 回廊（地帯） into a 後部 room. Here she switched the light on, の近くにd the door after her, and left him alone.
But he had the uncanny sense that 注目する，もくろむs somewhere were 熟考する／考慮するing him. He waited breathlessly, and seconds later a closet door opened and a man stepped out.
The man was small, dressed in gray, and his 直面する had the dead, listless color of putty. His 注目する，もくろむs, too, were listless, reptile-like; but they 焦点（を合わせる）d on X's with 冷淡な, calculating 知能.
For seconds the man 熟考する／考慮するd X at の近くに 範囲, then took a pad from his pocket and the stub of a pencil. He scribbled a 宣告，判決 on the pad and 手渡すd it to the スパイ／執行官.
"Come with me," the 宣告，判決 read.
And X realized with a start that the gray-覆う？ man before him was a deaf-mute. Looking closer, he saw that the masklike 直面する of the man seemed to 隠す some horrible inner maladjustment. Was he insane, or a 麻薬 （麻薬）常用者? There was something chillingly 悪意のある about him, as though he were the very 特使 of death.
HE LED THE AGENT out a 後部 door of the house, through a 支援する yard into another street as evil-looking as the one in 前線. A car was waiting at the 抑制（する）. It was a dark-colored, の近くにd 乗り物, and at the wheel of it sat another man of the same type as X's guide. His features were not the same, but there was a weird similarity of coloring and manner that puzzled the スパイ／執行官.
He got into the car at a gesture from the guide. The 自動車 moved away. It glided through 砂漠d streets, passed 狭くする, one-way alleys, then, in a 特に 黒人／ボイコット 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, the gray-覆う？ man at X's 味方する leaned 今後. In his 手渡す was a （土地などの）細長い一片 of dark cloth. He raised it, slid it across X's 直面する and blindfolded him.
The 行為／法令／行動する made the Secret スパイ／執行官's 神経s tingle with excitement. There was no 恐れる in his heart—except the 恐れる of possible 失敗. The 警戒s taken by the deaf-mute 警告するd the スパイ／執行官 that he was coming in 接触する with some 最高の 犯罪の who left nothing undone.
The car stopped at last. スパイ／執行官 X, blindfolded, unable to see a step he took, was にもかかわらず making 正確な inner 記録，記録的な／記録するs. His uncanny memory was at work, his 最高の-極度の慎重さを要する faculties 登録（する）ing impressions.
He was drawn out of the car, guided by one of the evil gray men. He heard a door open, and 示すd in his mind the position of it. He was led along a passageway, and he kept 跡をつける of each individual step. He turned to the 権利, went 負かす／撃墜する a flight of stairs, up another, walked straight ahead through a second 回廊（地帯）.
His ears even 登録（する）d the acoustic 所有物／資産／財産s of the hall. Another flight of stairs and his guide stopped him. The スパイ／執行官's 注目する，もくろむs behind the cloth were 有望な. 簡潔な／要約する as the time had been, he felt 確かな he could retrace his steps. The blindfold had failed of its 目的.
Then スパイ／執行官 X had a sense of 冷気／寒がらせる, a sense of 静かな, a sense that he was in some old, dark building where 暗い／優うつな 影をつくる／尾行するs lay. Slowly he was 押し進めるd to the 中心 of a room. The blindfold was taken from his 直面する; footsteps withdrew; he was left in 絶対の 不明瞭.
For seconds that seemed endless, he stood there, wondering what was to come next. There was no movement in the room, no sound. Then suddenly a light flashed on. It was a bulb 始める，決める in a reflector, a small サーチライト, and it was 焦点（を合わせる）d 直接／まっすぐに on his 直面する.
He waited, 星／主役にするing toward the light, 確かな that other 注目する，もくろむs behind it were upon him, 確かな that he was 存在 観察するd, 分析するd, 選ぶd to pieces. Would his disguise stand the 実験（する）?
徐々に his gaze adjusted itself to the brightness of the light. He could see the faint 照明 it shed in other parts of the room. He could see the 塀で囲むs, the furniture. Then he gave an inner start. Perfectly 連係させた 神経s held it in （一時的）停止. But he let his 直面する muscles 下落する as Jason Hertz would have done. He 登録（する）d an uneasiness he didn't feel.
For there were three 黒人／ボイコット 人物／姿／数字s in the room. They sat on 議長，司会を務めるs like three ravens of death 直面するing him. There were 黒人／ボイコット hoods over their 長，率いるs, 追跡するing 黒人／ボイコット cloth over their 団体／死体s. Through 穴を開けるs in the hoods he saw the evil glitter of 注目する，もくろむs.
There was not one 犯罪の, then, but three behind the 殺人s that had taken place. He was in the presence of the "拷問 信用," the men whose 残忍な brains had plotted hideous villainy.
A 発言する／表明する （機の）カム out of the gloom, 冷淡な and 正確な and dangerous as the buzz of a rattler's tail.
"What have you got to say for yourself, Jason Hertz?"
The スパイ／執行官 gulped, stirred, and imitated Hertz's トン as he had learned it from the phonographic 記録，記録的な／記録する.
"I—I lammed out of 動かす. I 人物／姿／数字d maybe you'd have something fer me to do. That's how come I dropped the 公式文書，認める. A guy's gotta eat."
"We know you got out of the 刑務所. We have 注目する，もくろむs. We read the papers. But we know your 制限s, Hertz. It seems remarkable that you could have escaped without outside help. Will you please tell us 正確に／まさに how you did it?"
The スパイ／執行官 knew at that moment how perilous was the ground upon which he stood. There were brains of diabolical cunning behind those 悪意のある 黒人／ボイコット hoods. His life hung upon the answer he made.
SLOWLY HE DREW HIS LIPS into a smile. He straightened his 団体／死体, threw out his chest, 直面するing the spectral trio with the arrogance of a 犯罪の proud of his handiwork.
He was a student of human psychology, and he 行為／法令／行動するd now as he believed Jason Hertz would do in his shoes.
"You gotta 手渡す it to me," he said. "You're king-pins an' you're smarter than me. But I pulled a 急速な／放蕩な one when I slipped outta the big house. There ain't many guys could 'a done it."
"You 港／避難所't answered our question, Hertz!" There was a relentless 公式文書，認める in that cultured, 手段d 発言する／表明する.
These men, X sensed, were not ordinary 犯罪のs. They bore no relation to the 暗黒街 of 凶漢s, gunmen, 脅迫者，不正手段で暴利を得る者s, and gamblers—except that they lived by death and the 恐れる of it that their 行為s 奮起させるd.
He smiled again. "You wants hear about it 権利 from the start?"
"That's what we want."
"井戸／弁護士席, I bought a hacksaw from a snowbird 指名するd Cooper. His brudder 密輸するd it to him, see? An' he was too 不安定な to use it. I give him money to buy coke instead. I snitched a 重要な from a guard when he had his 支援する turned talkin' to another guy. The 重要な was on a chain. I stuck a piece of soap on it, see, and made a nifty pattern."
スパイ／執行官 X, 偽名，通称 the 罪人／有罪を宣告する, Hertz, chuckled again as though at his own cleverness.
"There was 道具s in the machine shop," he continued. "I was a good guy. They made me a trusty. I made me a 重要な from the pattern in the piece of soap. When I got the chance I slipped out and went to the empty 独房-封鎖する up 最高の，を越す. I 削減（する） a 穴を開ける through the 天井 and got amongst the rafters. That's the way a guy they told about in the papers did it."
"Then," （機の）カム a 発言する／表明する in the gloom, "you 削減（する） the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s of an end window—and climbed 負かす／撃墜する to the yard. We read all that, Hertz. But how about the 塀で囲む?"
X laughed again.
"You must 'a seen about the rope, too," he said. "I left it there. There's lots of things a trustee can do. I snitched that rope in the cellar, the one they used to 運ぶ／漁獲高 ash cans out on a pulley. I tied a bolt to it an' slung it over the 塀で囲む. There was a 宙返り飛行 on it. I caught the 宙返り飛行 on a を締める that the wires on 最高の，を越す of the 塀で囲む was fastened to. I did a pretty 悪賢い 職業."
There was silence as he finished his tale. He knew that evil brains were 審議ing, 重さを計るing the story he had told. He believed it rang true. Hertz had been a trusty. 罪人／有罪を宣告するs in the past had used 正確に／まさに the methods he had 述べるd to escape.
But there was a slow constriction around his heart and he could feel his pulses 続けざまに猛撃するing. What if he had 誘発するd their 疑惑s?
Then another of the 黒人／ボイコット-hooded trio spoke. His 発言する／表明する was lower, hoarser, but it, too, had a cultured 公式文書，認める.
"You've done 井戸／弁護士席, Jason Hertz. You are cleverer than we thought. We may be able to use you again. But for a time you will have to 嘘（をつく） low. We will call you when we need you."
There was finality in the 発言する／表明する. The スパイ／執行官's heart sank. He must find out something 限定された. He couldn't wait around for weeks while the hideous 殺人s went on.
His disguise had worked. He was not 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd, but he had learned little. Who were these men? What 直面するs lay behind those 黒人／ボイコット hoods? Where did they live?
He 星／主役にするd again beyond the 範囲 of the サーチライト, looked at the 黒人／ボイコット-hooded 人物／姿／数字s with quick 侵入／浸透. His 注目する，もくろむs （機の）カム to a 焦点（を合わせる） on one.
The 権利 foot of the middle man was thrust わずかに 今後. The toe of a shoe 事業／計画（する）d from under the 黒人／ボイコット 式服 that dropped to the 床に打ち倒す. On that shoe the sharp 注目する，もくろむs of the スパイ／執行官 （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd streaks of mud—mud that had caked recently, mud that formed an 不規律な pattern. And, in that 簡潔な／要約する glimpse, his astute brain 登録（する）d an impression that was photographic.
The hooded men, so far as he could see, made no signal; but one of the mask-直面するd deaf-mutes returned. The スパイ／執行官 was familiar with the 正規の／正選手 deaf-and-dumb language, but he could not follow the strange finger conversation that 続いて起こるd between the trio and the mute. It must, he 結論するd, be in code.
The blindfold was slipped over his 注目する，もくろむs again; the light in the room went out. He was led through 不明瞭. The 悪意のある trio 明白に believed him to be Jason Hertz. But they were taking no chances. Besides themselves only the deaf-mutes were 許すd to know the secrets of this hidden place.
スパイ／執行官 X was 蓄える／店ing impressions again. He was 存在 led out by a different 大勝する. The stairs were different, so were the 回廊（地帯）s. The acoustic 所有物／資産／財産s of the latter, 答える／応じるing to his footfalls, gave out different echoes.
When they reached the street, he was 押し進めるd into a car and the blindfold wasn't 除去するd until they had driven many 封鎖するs. But the スパイ／執行官 had been 場内取引員／株価 the 交差点s in his mind by the different sounds that the street 開始s made. They had passed four. The rumbling 公式文書，認める of the wheels changed each time. They 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd a corner, went two more 封鎖するs, then another corner. The blindfold was taken off. The car slid into MacDonough Street.
He was 動議d up the steps of No. 44 again, and a deaf-mute rang the bell, two longs and a short. Then the mute wrote on his pad: "Stay here," and thrust it under X's nose.
The witchlike landlady led X to a second-床に打ち倒す room. She lighted a gas jet and left him alone. He heard the deaf-mute descend the stoop and the car 運動 away.
He crossed the room quickly, thrusting his 長，率いる out the door. He could hear the faint, shuffling steps of the landlady somewhere below. Taking off his shoes, he tiptoed out, walked 負かす／撃墜する the hall and reached the 前線 door. He made no sound. He kept の近くに to the 塀で囲むs. In a moment he had opened the door and slipped out.
Thinking he was Jason Hertz, escaped 罪人／有罪を宣告する, they would 推定する／予想する him to stay in the house, glad of a 避難. But the real Jason Hertz was far away, and the man impersonating him had a perilous 仕事 to 成し遂げる.
He moved along the 封鎖する like a wraith, ducked into a 砂漠d alley, listened a moment, then 始める，決める to work.
Under the quick movements of his 技術d fingers, the brilliant disguise （機の）カム away. It would take long minutes of 患者 labor to build it up again; but only a few seconds were 要求するd to 除去する it. And in his coat lining, he had another quick disguise ready.
When he 現れるd from the alley, he appeared as a young, red-長，率いるd street loafer. The silk shirt was gone.
The sweater he had worn under it, surreptitiously, was in 証拠, drawn up around his neck. His coat and trousers, 特に tailored to be turned inside out, had 完全にするd the change. He no longer remotely 似ているd Jason Hertz.
Keeping の近くに to the 影をつくる／尾行するs, he walked 支援する along the way he had come. He thought out each step, turned the 権利 corners as he （機の）カム to them, pausing at last by a 抱擁する empty 倉庫／問屋.
His pulses were tingling now. It was into this building that the deaf mute had led him. It was out of it that the 悪意のある trio must come.
Carefully, casually, he skirted the big 倉庫／問屋. It 占領するd nearly the whole of a small 封鎖する. Three 味方するs of it were on streets. But there was a clutter of empty houses in the 後部. スパイ／執行官 X moved by these. Then his heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 faster.
In the street outside he saw the glint of moisture. A puddle, barely 乾燥した，日照りのd, 反映するd the light from a distant street lamp. The mud around the puddle was a light yellow. 乾燥した，日照りのd, it would probably appear white. It formed a precious 手がかり（を与える）.
He took up his position in the 影をつくる／尾行するs across the street. There was no telling how many secret 入り口s the 議会 in the 倉庫／問屋 had. The most subtle 警戒s had been taken to guard them. Yet the スパイ／執行官 felt 確かな that at least one of the trio had passed in through these old buildings in the 後部. Might he not be 推定する／予想するd to come out the same way?
Night 勝利，勝つd moaned along the street. The 星／主役にするs glittered coldly. Somewhere far up on the 倉庫／問屋 a piece of loose tin flapped and groaned like a 負傷させるd vampire. The street was 冷淡な, 荒涼とした, and 砂漠d. But the Secret スパイ／執行官 waited.
IT WAS NEARLY AN HOUR later that he crouched 支援する in his hiding place. A door in one of the 砂漠d buildings had at last opened. A man in a long ulster stepped 静かに out, の近くにing the door after him. His movements were not furtive. They were 静める, 保証するd. The man's 直面する was even-featured and 静める, too, and he was 井戸／弁護士席 dressed.
But the スパイ／執行官 leaned 今後 tensely. On the man's shoes were pale streaks of mud. He 選ぶd his way past the puddle as though a 最近の unpleasant experience had taught him to be careful.
影をつくる／尾行するing was one of X's specialties. He had done much of it in his life. He knew all the tricks. Yet it took every 資源 at his 命令（する） to keep sight of the man in the gray ulster.
The man walked four 封鎖するs up the street at a 早い pace. He turned left, walked four 封鎖するs more to a main thoroughfare and waited for a taxi.
At a 急速な／放蕩な clip, 手渡すs in pockets, 長，率いる bent low, the スパイ／執行官 walked on by him. His heart was （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 速く with the excitement of the chase. What if another taxi did not come? What if he lost sight of the man in a traffic jam? These were 危険s a shadower must always take.
Then he saw a cab approaching from the other direction. He stepped into the street, signaled it. The driver seemed loath to stop because of X's unpresentable 外見. But X waved a 法案 in his 直面する.
"Make a U turn," he said. "Then 運動 ahead slowly."
The driver did so and the スパイ／執行官 looked 支援する. He saw another cab glide in to the 抑制（する） and 選ぶ up the man behind. It （機の）カム on up the street and passed.
"Follow that car," said the スパイ／執行官.
The driver of the cab obeyed. But the man ahead, as though it were part of a customary 決まりきった仕事, changed cabs three times, walked many extra 封鎖するs, and used other tricks to throw off possible 追跡.
The 追跡する led at last to a house in the 郊外s—a house on a 静かな, respectable street. There were no lights in it when the man in the gray ulster entered. But they flashed on soon after. He was evidently staying alone.
The スパイ／執行官 waited outside till long after midnight, till the lights finally went out for good. Then he slipped a handkerchief over his 直面する crossed the street, and moved to the 後部 of the house. If he should be caught, he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be thought a ありふれた 夜盗，押し込み強盗.
He took from his pocket a 道具 of tiny chromium steel 道具s. There was a glass 切断機，沿岸警備艇 with a 十分な diamond point の中で them. He selected the windows of the library, placed a rubber suction レコード against a pane, 削減（する） the glass noiselessly, and, 持つ／拘留するing the レコード, drew the glass toward him with a faint snap.
In a moment he was in the library, playing the beam of a tiny flashlight over the 塀で囲むs and furniture. There were 調書をとる／予約するs, many of them, and a desk with papers on it.
From these he learned the 指名する of the man who lived in the house. Professor Ronald Morvay, psychologist.
That was something. The スパイ／執行官 蓄える／店d it in his memory. He 回転／交替d the beam of his flash, then stopped. It was 焦点（を合わせる）d on the 塀で囲む, on the circular 前線 of a small sunken 安全な.
The スパイ／執行官 walked to it quickly. House—and 安全な-breaking were 含むd in his activities—when it was the house of a 殺害者 he broke into and the 安全な of a 殺害者 he opened.
But there were no 手がかり（を与える）s as yet that would help unravel the 陰謀（を企てる） behind the mysterious "拷問 信用." He knew it was an ゆすり，強要 ゆすり. The police knew that, too. But what diabolical minds were 支援する of it, and how could they be caught?
He knelt before the 安全な, touched the dial with his long fingers, put his ear to the metal. In the 追跡 of 犯罪のs he had 熟考する／考慮するd their methods, and he was familiar with the mechanics of 安全な-breaking. There were few that he could not open by listening to the faint movement of the lock tumblers.
At the end of a minute he had the door of the 塀で囲む 安全な in Professor Morvay's library swinging outward on its hinges. Then his 手渡す reached inside.
A ありふれた 夜盗，押し込み強盗 would have been disappointed, but the スパイ／執行官 felt rewarded. There were in the 安全な several small 調書をとる／予約するs filled with a 罰金, の近くに script. And as the スパイ／執行官 turned the beam of his flash on them and 熟考する／考慮するd them, his 注目する，もくろむs gleamed 熱望して. He began to read—and read on, devouring the lines, page after page.
He was held in the 支配する of such appalling horror that his 肌 felt 冷淡な. Here was a 記録，記録的な／記録する of human ingenuity and fiendishness beyond anything he had ever run into. No wonder the 調書をとる／予約するs had been placed in the 安全な!
They told of a 一連の 実験s by a scientist—a psychologist—who used his knowledge for 犯罪の 目的s. They told of the 実験s of Professor Morvay on that part of the human brain which harbors the sadistic 傾向s—the lust to 拷問 and kill. They told how men with a trace of sadism in their 構成 could be trained into 残忍な monsters. And スパイ／執行官 X, grim-直面するd, thought of the gray-覆う？ deaf-mutes with their 悪意のある features. These were Professor Morvay's 支配するs, the men he had 実験d on. These were the sadistic fiends who were only too glad to carry out the orders of their masters. These were the 酸性の 投げる人s!
But the other two members of the 殺人 trio were unknown to him. And there would have to be proof beyond this to 納得させる any 陪審／陪審員団 that the respectable Professor Morvay was a hideous 犯罪の.
X began searching through the second 調書をとる／予約する. Then he stopped. A faint noise had come. He put the 調書をとる／予約するs 支援する in the 安全な, の近くにd the door 速く and started to turn toward the window. But instead, he held himself as though every muscle were frozen.
For the lights in the room suddenly flashed on, and standing in the door which he had silently opened stood Professor Morvay. There was an (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 in his 手渡す, and its 黒人／ボイコット, deadly muzzle was pointing straight at the Secret スパイ／執行官's heart.
IN THE SPACE of a second, the スパイ／執行官 knew what he 直面するd. The menace of death hung 激しい in the room. There was death in Professor Morvay's green-gray 注目する，もくろむs and in the thin, cruel line of his lips. 合法的に he could find justification for 狙撃 the スパイ／執行官 who appeared now as a ありふれた どろぼう. Morvay would say to the police that he had 発射 in self-弁護. Any instant the スパイ／執行官 推定する／予想するd to feel the 衝撃 of a 弾丸 above his heart.
But the 恐れる that gripped him was not for himself. It was for the success of his 計画（する）s. Death would bring an end to them all.
But Morvay did not shoot. Instead, he （機の）カム 今後 slowly, the gun held in fingers that were as 緊張した as a bird's talons. His 注目する，もくろむs were 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon the スパイ／執行官, boring in, trying to 侵入する behind the handkerchief.
X understood. Morvay was taking no chances. Curiosity was 抑制するing the quick 圧力 of his 誘発する／引き起こす finger. The スパイ／執行官 appeared as a ありふれた 夜盗，押し込み強盗. But there was a chance that he might be someone else—a 探偵，刑事, for instance.
This 疑問 was the slender thread upon which the スパイ／執行官's life hung. He would live until Morvay's curiosity was 満足させるd.
In those 簡潔な／要約する moments while the psychologist approached, X 熟考する／考慮するd him. He saw the high, 頂点（に達する）d forehead, the aquiline nose, the ruthless 知能 of the 注目する，もくろむs. Morvay, he 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd, was an 知識人 巨大（な） who had gone wrong, a man with erudition and a 広大な 蓄える／店 of knowledge at his 命令（する）. If the other members of the "拷問 信用" were like him, no wonder the police had been baffled. The professor and his 同僚s were masters of death, cunning, pitiless, diabolical, laying the threads of their ゆすり，強要 ゆすり like a 悪意のある tarantula's web.
Morvay spoke then, and X's 熱心に attuned ears 認めるd his 発言する／表明する as one of those he had heard in that mystery room where the deaf-mute had taken him.
"Stand still—解除する your 手渡すs—or you die!"
Slowly the Secret スパイ／執行官 raised his 武器. The acceleration of his pulses had stopped. They were normal now. An icy 静める 所有するd him. His brain was working with the silent, faultless precision of some finely adjusted 機械装置. He was matching his wits against death.
持つ／拘留するing the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 in his 権利 手渡す, standing only three feet from the スパイ／執行官, Morvay reached out with his left. He drew the handkerchief 負かす／撃墜する over the スパイ／執行官's 直面する. Whom he 推定する／予想するd to see, X did not know. The スパイ／執行官's disguise was that of a ありふれた 凶漢—a street loafer 誘惑するd into the byways of 罪，犯罪.
And, as Morvay 熟考する／考慮するd him, the スパイ／執行官 saw curiosity give way to another emotion. A 悪意のある message was flashing from the professor's 注目する，もくろむs. The pupils had 契約d. The whites glinted evilly. He had the look of a crouched ジャングル beast ready to spring. Morvay was planning to kill, planning it deliberately, ruthlessly, 満足させるd now that his nocturnal 訪問者 had nothing to do with the police.
In X's 権利 shoe was a 武器 he might have used—a tiny 空気／公表する gun in the 前線 of the 単独の, 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing a stupefying dart, and 発射する／解雇するd by 圧力（をかける）ing 支援する in a 確かな way on his heel. It was one of many 熟達した 防御の 武器s he had 工夫するd. But he 解任するd the idea of 雇うing it now.
There was a greater 問題／発行する than his own life at 火刑／賭ける. There was the work to which he had 献身的な that life. To use the dart now would give away to Professor Morvay that he wasn't what he appeared—a ありふれた 夜盗，押し込み強盗. Morvay, when he 回復するd from the dart's stupefying 影響, would be 怪しげな, on his guard ever after—and he would 警告する the other members of the "拷問 信用." They might disappear and carry on their fearful 操作／手術s in some other community. X must stick to the 役割 he had elected for himself.
With the quickness of a striking snake, he 攻撃するd outward and 上向き with his foot. He bent his 団体／死体 支援する, threw his whole 負わせる 今後, and the toe of his shoe struck Morvay's gun arm.
The gun 爆発するd with a deafening 報告（する）／憶測 as Morvay's 緊張した fingers jerked the 誘発する／引き起こす. The 弾丸 went over the スパイ／執行官's 長，率いる, so の近くに that he felt it flick the cloth of the cap he wore. His toe broke Morvay's 持つ／拘留する on the 武器. It spun in the 空気／公表する, clattered to the 床に打ち倒す, and Morvay staggered 支援する with a cry of 苦痛.
In an instant スパイ／執行官 X had swept up the gun and had 逆転するd the direction of its muzzle. He snarled in his throat like a vicious 凶漢.
"Stick 'em up, guy. Make any play and I'll 燃やす yer guts. Thought yer was smart didn't yer?"
His 注目する，もくろむs glittering like those of a snake, the professor obeyed. Those 注目する，もくろむs were upon X now, watching, calculating. And X knew that Morvay's 疑惑s were not 完全に 静かなd. The スパイ／執行官 spoke again.
"Open that 安全な."
To 強調する his words, he thrust the gun closer, skinning his lips 支援する from his teeth, making his 直面する hideous.
"Open it, or I'll 演習 yer."
With a shrug Morvay turned. He knelt before the 安全な. His long fingers turned the dial. The 安全な's door swung outward.
"Stand 支援する!"
With his gun, スパイ／執行官 X 動議d Morvay against the 塀で囲む. Then, his 直面する greedy, he stepped 今後 and thrust his left 手渡す into the 安全な. He withdrew it, fingers clutching the 調書をとる／予約するs. He thumbed them, 星／主役にするd at them closely, then flung them to the 床に打ち倒す with a 厳しい 悪口を言う／悪態.
"Where's the dough? What are yer tryin' to 手渡す me?"
The professor was silent, and X 圧力（をかける）d the gun savagely against his 団体／死体.
"I'll give yer two minutes to come across."
Morvay nodded toward the desk. "You'll find money in there. The 底（に届く） left drawer."
スパイ／執行官 X 支援するd away, crouched, fingers curled over the butt of the gun—the picture of a cash-crazed crook.
He jerked open the drawer of the desk with his left 手渡す, pulled out an envelope. His fingers slipped it open, drew 前へ／外へ a sheaf of 法案s. There were many of them—tens, twenties, several hundred in cash, he 概算の. Growling exultantly, he wadded the 法案s up, stuffed them in his pocket. There was a telephone on the desk. He yanked the cord loose, breaking it away from the box on the 塀で囲む.
Then slowly, still 持つ／拘留するing the gun trained on Morvay, he 支援するd toward the window. He thrust his feet out, 緩和するd his 団体／死体 backward, and in a moment the 不明瞭 had swallowed him.
HE WAS CERTAIN NOW that his 事実上の／代理 had 納得させるd Professor Morvay—確かな that Morvay believed him to be a mere どろぼう. He crossed through several 支援する yards, gliding between night-darkened houses. In the glow of a street lamp, he 診察するd the roll of 法案s he had taken. There were more than he had thought—nearly four hundred dollars. It was money that he would turn over すぐに to Betty Dale.
That was his practice when he took cash from 犯罪のs. There were worthy people upon whom the 影をつくる／尾行する of 罪，犯罪 had fallen ひどく. There was, for instance, the mother of a lad he knew, a boy who had foolishly taken part in a crap game that the police had （警察の）手入れ，急襲d. He had been sent to the workhouse for six months. The mother was destitute. This cash, taken from the 殺害者 Morvay, would give her food and a roof over her 長，率いる while her son was in 刑務所，拘置所. Betty Dale would see to that.
The スパイ／執行官 placed the sweater under his silk shirt again, making himself more presentable. He took a taxi to the 封鎖する Betty lived on.
Walking along the 封鎖する, he puckered up his lips and his strange, melodious whistle filled the 空気／公表する. It awoke echoes along the 静かな street, 麻薬を吸うd eerily の中で the rooftops and whispered to silence in the dark areaways.
He （機の）カム to a stop opposite her apartment building, then stepped 支援する into the 影をつくる／尾行するs formed by an angle where two 塀で囲むs met. Looking 上向き, he saw that her windows were dark. Betty Dale was out or had gone to bed. He stood for a moment irresolutely.
Then something on the ground caught his 注目する，もくろむ. A whitish 位置／汚点／見つけ出す lay at his feet. He stooped 負かす／撃墜する.
の近くに to one toe of his shoe was a cigarette stub. A little さらに先に away was another. He had trained himself to 観察する small things, to 行方不明になる nothing. What were these cigarette stubs doing here? Here in the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where he always stood watching Betty's windows after whistling for her? He 星／主役にするd more closely. There was a third stub just behind him. They told a story to the スパイ／執行官. Someone else had stood here, waiting, watching—long enough to finish three cigarettes.
He struck a match and stooped 負かす／撃墜する. Then he drew in his breath with a hiss. His fingers, suddenly 緊張した, reached 負かす／撃墜する and 選ぶd one of the stubs up. His 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd to steellike pinpoints as he 診察するd it.
On the cigarette butt were yellowish, uneven stains—the 示すs of the fingers that had しっかり掴むd it. And the スパイ／執行官's spine began to はう with horror, with a slow, 深くするing dread.
His mind leaped 支援する to those other 手渡すs he had seen—the 手渡すs of the gray-直面するd deaf-mutes—the 酸性の 投げる人s. Their fingers, he remembered, had been stained with the ガス／煙s of the liquid horror they carried. One of them must have been standing out here, watching Betty Dale's window. He crossed the street at a run, entered the building. The night switchboard 操作者 was lolling before his plugs, half asleep. The スパイ／執行官 asked a question in a トン that brought the man up with a jerk.
"行方不明になる Dale," X said. "Is she in?"
The switchboard 操作者 shook his 長，率いる.
"She got a call from her paper a half hour ago."
Dread 深くするd in the スパイ／執行官's heart. The 先触れ（する） seldom called Betty Dale at night.
"Get the paper at once," he said. "Let me speak to the night editor."
He went to the booth in the apartment's ロビー, 選ぶd up the 器具. The 操作者 at the switchboard plugged in a number. The crackling 発言する／表明する of the 先触れ（する）'s night editor （機の）カム to the スパイ／執行官's ears.
"Hello. Who is it?"
"Let me speak to 行方不明になる Betty Dale, please."
"行方不明になる Dale? She's not here."
"Didn't you call her a half hour ago?"
"No—she 作品 here in the day."
"You don't know where she is then?"
"Home, I guess—why? Who's calling?"
The スパイ／執行官 didn't answer. His 手渡すs trembled for a moment as he hung up. 恐れる 所有するd him—an icy 恐れる that crept along his spine like the touch of some loathsome reptile—not 恐れる for himself but for small, 勇敢な Betty Dale, who had 補佐官d him so often.
Someone other than the 先触れ（する）'s editor had called her from the outside, 誘惑するd her away. Someone had 秘かに調査するd upon her movements, left cigarette butts with 酸性の stains upon them—the badge of a hideous profession. Betty Dale had fallen under the 黒人／ボイコット and awful 影をつくる／尾行する of the "拷問 信用!"
WITH NO INKLING of the menace creeping upon her, Betty Dale had settled herself for a 静かな evening at home. She had slipped into a comfortable and becoming pair of lounging pajamas, propped pillows on a sofa, and drawn the bookmark from an 利益／興味ing new novel.
The reading light sprayed radiance on her gleaming blonde hair, touched her long 攻撃するs, caressed the soft contours of her 直面する and 人物／姿／数字. She lay 支援する relaxing after a hard day at the office.
When at midnight the call from the 先触れ（する） office （機の）カム, it surprised her. She was seldom called at night.
"The editor wants you," said a 発言する／表明する. "A big story's broke. He thinks you can help—an' wants you to come 権利 負かす／撃墜する."
With a sigh and a philosophical shrug, Betty Dale rose and dressed. Her career had been won by a lot of hard work and self-discipline. When the paper 手配中の，お尋ね者 her, she made it a point to be ready.
She 砕くd her 直面する, gave her hat a smart 攻撃する, dabbed lipstick on, and descended to the street. A 割合 of her success had been 伸び（る）d by always appearing chic and 警報.
She took a cab at the corner and told the driver to make it snappy. The paper had called. The 圧力（をかける）s were waiting. There was no time to lose.
The cab rolled 速く through the 砂漠d streets 負かす／撃墜する to the 封鎖する where the 先触れ（する） building rose with the lights in its many windows gleaming cheerfully. Men in the linotype and composing rooms were hard at work.
She paid the driver and stepped smartly toward the building's 入り口.
Then someone moved from the 影をつくる／尾行するs beside the door. He held up his 手渡す, signaled to her. He was a small man dressed in gray. She could not see his features, for he had a cap pulled 負かす／撃墜する. They appeared to be strangely gray, masklike. She had never to her knowledge seen him before. にもかかわらず she stopped.
And, in that instant, the man glided up to her. His movements were so quick, so purposeful, that she thought he was going to 手渡す her something—thought that he must be an 従業員 of the paper.
Instead, his fingers reached out, clutching her arm. With a quick movement that unbalanced her, he drew her 支援する into the 影をつくる／尾行するs. She started to 叫び声をあげる, but he clapped a を引き渡す her mouth. She tried to break away and something jabbed into her arm.
It was a sharp, keen 苦痛 like the prick of a needle. It was followed by a 冷静な／正味の sensation in the surrounding flesh.
Betty Dale gasped and struggled, and a wave of icy terror filled her. She felt a sudden roaring in her 長，率いる, felt her 膝s giving way under her, felt as though the night were 圧力（をかける）ing in upon her from all 味方するs. The lighted windows of the 先触れ（する） building seemed to move in all directions. They seemed to 爆発する, gyrate, whirl 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する like a 星雲 of 惑星s 広範囲にわたる across an infinite sky.
Then the roaring 中止するd. The 惑星s grew 薄暗い. Betty Dale slipped into unconsciousness.
WHEN SHE AWOKE, feeling faint and dizzy, she sensed a jouncing 動議. She tried to see, but something was over her 注目する，もくろむs. She tried to speak and felt something else constricting her lips. She knew then that she was on the seat of a car, and she leaned 支援する fighting the icy terror that 所有するd her. Her 団体／死体 still felt numb, 麻ひさせるd beyond the point of movement.
She realized that the sharp 苦痛 in her arm had been a hypodermic needle, an 注射 of some sort of 麻薬. But who had 圧力（をかける）d it in? Who was the strange, gray-直面するd man she had seen, and where was she 存在 taken?
恐れる rose in her mind. She had heard of unspeakable things, of the white slave traffic, of dark, slimy alleys of 副／悪徳行為. 恐れる lay over her mind like a leaden 棺／かげり.
She lost 跡をつける of time. It might have been hours and it might have ten minutes later that the car stopped. Then a door opened. She was propelled 今後 for a seemingly endless distance, through an infinite duration of time. She was in some building, somewhere, but she couldn't see or cry out.
She was 押し進めるd into a 議長，司会を務める. The covering was taken from her 注目する，もくろむs, and a gag was 除去するd from her mouth. But she was in utter 不明瞭 and could still see nothing. She drew in 広大な／多数の／重要な gasps of 空気／公表する, but she did not cry out. She wasn't the sort of girl who 叫び声をあげるs or faints easily. She waited and listened in a frozen 態度 of dread.
Then a light flashed on 直接／まっすぐに in her 注目する，もくろむs. For minutes she could see nothing and no one spoke. More seconds passed and the light was suddenly dimmed. She could see around it now, behind it, and she caught her breath fearfully.
Two 黒人／ボイコット-式服d 人物／姿／数字s were sitting, regarding her. She saw the glitter of their 注目する，もくろむs through slits in the 黒人／ボイコット hoods that covered their 直面するs. Somehow she sensed that she was in the presence of 存在s so evil that no human 控訴，上告 would 登録（する）. She did not speak. She waited to see what was to come.
A 発言する／表明する （機の）カム out of the 半分-gloom, out from behind a 黒人／ボイコット hood. It was 手段d, impersonal. The トンs were cultured.
"行方不明になる Betty Dale! You are here to answer 確かな questions. A few nights ago you were seen at the Bellaire Club with a man who called himself Jeffrey Carter. There was a police （警察の）手入れ，急襲. You left the club with a man who looked like 視察官 Burks of the 殺人 squad. You were seen crossing the street with him into the 影をつくる／尾行するs of a building. すぐに afterwards the real 視察官 Burks arrived from （警察，軍隊などの）本部. Who was the man who led you out? Who was Jeffrey Carter?"
Betty Dale sat still, her keen brain grappling with the 状況／情勢. Were these men 探偵，刑事s? Was this a new 肉親，親類d of third degree?
"I don't know," she said at last. "I don't know who Jeffrey Carter really is."
The 発言する／表明する spoke again.
"Are he and the man who calls himself Secret スパイ／執行官 X one and the same?"
Betty Dale gasped. Whoever these men were they seemed の近くに to the truth. The facts 夜明けd on her. Horror crept through her veins like a flow of icy water. These men were the 長，率いるs of the hideous "拷問 信用." They had learned, or guessed, that the スパイ／執行官 was after them. But what could she tell them even if she cared to speak? She knew little about the スパイ／執行官, and that little was a sedulously guarded secret. Courage and stubbornness 影を投げかけるd 恐れる.
"I will tell you nothing," she said.
One of the hooded 人物／姿／数字s spoke again, his トン as 乾燥した，日照りの and 悪意のある as the 捨てる of a serpent's 規模s across 石／投石する.
"Others have said that. But there are things that will make any man or woman talk. There are things so terrible that human flesh はうs in the 直面する of them. Things that make the human will 崩壊する. Do you think that you, a mere girl, can 耐える such things?"
Betty Dale kept silent. She sat in her 議長，司会を務める, frozen. They might （犯罪の）一味 the truth out of her, make her 収容する／認める that Jeffrey Carter was the Secret スパイ／執行官. She was not a superwoman. She might babble that if they 軍隊d her. But she knew it wouldn't 満足させる them. They would want more, and she couldn't tell more. It was better to say nothing and let them think she knew all. It was better to 立ち往生させる for time.
She did not see either of the hooded men signal, but suddenly two men slipped into the room—two men dressed in gray, with 直面するs as gray as their 着せる／賦与するs. They were men with masklike 表現s and reptilian cruelty in their lusterless 注目する，もくろむs.
One of the hooded 人物／姿／数字s 解除するd his 手渡すs, making a 一連の 動議s in the 空気／公表する with his fingers—動議s that the gray-直面するd men seemed to understand.
They drew Betty Dale from her seat and led her out of the room. The blindfold was slipped on again. She was led along 回廊（地帯）s, 負かす／撃墜する stairs, her numbed feet moving as though in a dream. She felt the damp coldness of a 地階 at last. She felt 石／投石する under her feet. Then she saw a light around the 辛勝する／優位s of the blindfold.
Suddenly she was tipped backwards, 軍隊d into what appeared to be a big 議長，司会を務める. A 叫び声をあげる of terror, her first, （機の）カム from her lips as she felt 冷淡な 禁止（する）d of steel snapped over her wrists and ankles. The blindfold was 除去するd and, glassy 注目する，もくろむd, she 星／主役にするd about her.
The room she was in had a 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す like a 研究室／実験室. The white 棚上げにするs along the 塀で囲むs were 負担d with 瓶／封じ込めるs and tubes which 高くする，増すd the 影響. But the 議長，司会を務める into which she had been thrust had no place in a 研究室／実験室. It was 大規模な, 激しい, made of steel and 厚かましさ／高級将校連 like a 議長，司会を務める in a barber shop. The metal that encircled her 武器 and ankles was bolted to the 味方するs of the 議長，司会を務める. She was held as tightly as a 囚人 in chains.
And a second look 明らかにする／漏らすd that the room was not a 研究室／実験室. A 研究室／実験室 would be 充てるd to science, 研究, human enlightenment. This room was 献身的な to the opposite—to agony, 恐れる, unspeakable horror. The room was a 拷問 議会.
One of the deaf-mutes was working at a shelf now. He had taken the stopper from a tall flask. He 注ぐd the contents into another flask, 追加するing a few 減少（する）s from still another.
Betty saw greenish, slow-moving ガス／煙s curling up like steam from a hideous witches' cauldron. They rose around the deaf-mute's 直面する, but he didn't seem to mind. It was as though の近くに proximity to evil had made him 免疫の to the terrible things in which he dealt.
Betty 叫び声をあげるd again, 緊張するing at the metal cuffs. But it was useless, hopeless, and the two men in the room could not even hear her cries. Their 直面するs were impassive, devilish.
The man with the flask turned and （機の）カム toward her. He held the flask in one 手渡す and in the other was a stick with a swab on the end of it. He dipped the swab into the flask, brought it out, and she saw that it was wet with a green, 悪意のある liquid.
Slow ガス／煙s 花冠d up, curling lazily into the 空気／公表する, hideous and terrible as the 静かな uncoiling of a serpent. The man moved the swab toward the fresh beauty of her 直面する, toward her 肌 that was as smooth as the velvety petal of a rose. On his 直面する for the first time was a 限定された 表現. It was a terrible smile—a smile that seemed to take some of the lackluster from his 注目する，もくろむs. It was a smile of fiendish 楽しみ, as though the thing he was about to do would give him exquisite delight.
Betty Dale 叫び声をあげるd again. She 叫び声をあげるd because she could not help it, because her 注目する，もくろむs were 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon those lazy, terrible ガス／煙s, because terror seemed to writhe through her 団体／死体 like a living thing.
Then the wave of terror 深くするd. It （海，煙などが）飲み込むd her in a 黒人／ボイコット flood that 圧力（をかける）d against her heart. With a piercing, agonized 叫び声をあげる on her lips, she fainted.
THE SECRET AGENT, sensing the awful significance of Betty Dale's 見えなくなる, sprang into 活動／戦闘. There were times when he could be 患者, times when he could wait, catlike, hour after hour to 達成する some end. This was not one of them.
He felt 責任がある the 運命／宿命 that had overtaken Betty Dale. If she had not 補佐官d him, been seen with him, this would not have happened.
He left the apartment building in long, quick strides. At the corner taxi stand where all-night cabs were 利用できる, he spoke to the drivers.
One was the cabman who had taken Betty Dale to the 先触れ（する） building. He was taciturn at first under the スパイ／執行官's sharp 尋問, but a dollar 法案 緩和するd his tongue.
"Did 行方不明になる Dale go to the 先触れ（する） office?" The スパイ／執行官 asked.
The cabman could not remember. He had gone on after collecting his fare, he said.
"Was there anyone around—any other car 近づく by?"
The taxi driver 一打／打撃d his chin. Yes, he remembered now. There was a の近くにd car parked 負かす／撃墜する the 封鎖する. It had made little impression on him. There were always cars around the 先触れ（する） office.
The スパイ／執行官 nodded. There was the 厳しい glint of steel in his 注目する，もくろむs. He jerked open the door of the cab, got in, and gave the driver a number.
スパイ／執行官 X, unknown to anyone but himself, had 投資するd some of the 基金s ゆだねるd to him in several cars. In his perilous work he needed one always handy. Each car was 登録（する）d under a different 指名する. He kept one, a sleek, 急速な／放蕩な roadster, in a 中央の-town garage.
The number he had given the driver was two 封鎖するs away from the garage. When the cab stopped, he got out, paid the driver and disappeared into a shadowy areaway beside the street. There he 影響する／感情d another disguise. He was H.J. ツバメ now, the man in whose 指名する the 中央の-town car was 登録（する）d.
He strode quickly to the garage, and the night attendant got the car out for him. A minute more and he was スピード違反 toward the West 味方する riverfront—toward the dark alleys and 悪意のある dives around MacDonough Street.
The traffic lights had been turned off for the night. The streets were almost 砂漠d. He drove with 無謀な abandon seemingly, but really with such 技術 as few men could duplicate. His 直面する grim, his 手渡すs 緊張した on the wheel, he ロケット／急騰するd around corners, 急落（する），激減（する）d through 味方する streets, raced against time. He passed through MacDonough Street and onward, a half dozen 封鎖するs to the 周辺 of the 倉庫／問屋.
There he slowed the car's 速度(を上げる）, creeping 今後, lights out, the engine barely turning over, till the big car was の近くに to the 広大な 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of the 倉庫／問屋 that rose silent and 悪意のある into the night.
He parked the car in the blackest 位置／汚点／見つけ出す he could find 近づく the 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of dilapidated buildings in the 倉庫／問屋's 後部. Then, wraithlike, he slipped from it.
DEATH SEEMED TO LURK in every hidden corner of the street. Death sounded in the soughing of the night 勝利，勝つd, in the far-off whisper of the city. He was in a street of death and evil.
Once again he took the 道具 of steel 道具s from his pocket. There were delicate 骸骨／概要 重要なs hung on a metal （犯罪の）一味. There were 器具s that could open any door. These, 連合させるd with the スパイ／執行官's uncanny 技術, made every lock pregnable.
Moving の近くに to the 塀で囲む, he approached the door out of which he had seen Professor Morvay come. He kept so 近づく to the building that the 薄暗い arc light at the street's corner did not even cast a 影をつくる／尾行する. He was no more than a darker blotch in the 不明瞭 of the night.
One of the small, gleaming 道具s was in his 手渡す. His touch on the lock was as delicate as the touch of some 技術d musician playing a beloved 器具. He moved the steel 道具 softly, turned it, 調査（する）d. The knob of the door 新たな展開d in his 手渡す. The door opened.
A moment more and he was inside the building. And the instant he entered it, he knew that it 構成するd a section of one of the 大勝するs along which he had been led. The faint acoustics of the 塀で囲むs were familiar.
But the 不明瞭 was like a 黒人／ボイコット, evil 棺／かげり, and, at the end of the first 回廊（地帯） was another door. It, too, was locked, and the スパイ／執行官 paused to open it. He passed through it as easily as some disembodied spirit.
He stood listening, heard nothing, and winked on the beam of his pencil-thin flashlight. By 新たな展開ing the end he could 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する its light as water is 削減（する） at the end of a garden 靴下／だます by turning the nozzle. It cast a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す of radiance no bigger than a 薄暗い. He 調査（する）d with it along the 塀で囲むs.
But he had to 収容する／認める that he was at a loss. Where was Betty Dale? There was a chance, a terrible 可能性, that she had not been brought here at all. There was another chance that she was 存在 interviewed by one or more of the mysterious 長，率いるs of the "拷問 信用."
He knew he could find again that 議会 where he had first heard the 発言する／表明する of Professor Morvay. His mind had 蓄える／店d away directions for reaching it. To go there now seemed his only course.
In the 不明瞭, picturing himself as still blindfolded, he began retracing his steps, going 支援する along the way the deaf-mutes had led him. Up a flight of stairs, along another 回廊（地帯）, still on. He was in the 倉庫／問屋 proper now.
There was a feeling of solidity around him. A 侵入するing dampness in the 空気／公表する as of 広大な／多数の／重要な, 冷気／寒がらせる spaces. He was getting の近くに to the secret 会議 room, and every 神経 in his 団体／死体 was taut.
Then he paused. It seemed to him that he heard a faint sound somewhere in the building. It was like an irrepressible whisper, coming through many thicknesses of 塀で囲むs.
He moved 支援する quickly, half the length of the 回廊（地帯）. Then he listened again.
The sound （機の）カム once more, and the hair on the スパイ／執行官's 長，率いる seemed to rise. The sound he had heard was a girl's 叫び声をあげる of terror, faint, muffled, seemingly subterranean, but with such a 公式文書，認める of agony in it that it was like a stifling, icy 実体 constricting his heart.
He gave up any idea of going to the 会議 議会 now. Betty was not there. Somewhere 負かす／撃墜する in the dark sub-cellars of the 倉庫／問屋 she had been taken. He dared not think what they were doing to her, what had 奮起させるd that awful 叫び声をあげる.
His ears were 緊張するing, his brain trying to 位置を示す the exact direction of the sound. He was 猛烈に afraid that he might go the wrong way.
He reached a door along the 回廊（地帯）, opened it, turned on his flash, and saw that it led up. He ran on till he （機の）カム to another. Dampness （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 against his 直面する as he swung the door 支援する. There were stairs 主要な 負かす／撃墜する.
He descended and 設立する himself in a place that was like a series of catacombs. Each second seemed like a lost hour. He moved 今後 frantically, searching, groping, icy 恐れる for the girl 運動ing him on.
Ahead, nearer this time, the 叫び声をあげる sounded again. There seemed to be only a few thicknesses of 塀で囲むs between it and himself. His ears had caught its exact 場所. He moved on with greater 速度(を上げる）.
There was another door before him. He opened it with one of his master 重要なs, melted through it, 設立する himself in a dank 回廊（地帯） beyond. Running 速く, he reached the 回廊（地帯）'s end and stopped short. 直接／まっすぐに ahead was a faint 割れ目 of light 向こうずねing below the 辛勝する／優位 of a door.
Silently as a 影をつくる／尾行する, he crept up to it. A third frenzied 叫び声をあげる （機の）カム from behind it, so の近くに that it was like a knife を刺す.
The スパイ／執行官 had to 安定した his 手渡す as he tried the knob. It, too, was fastened. He had never moved so quickly in his life as he did thrusting the 重要な into the lock aperture. His 手渡す grew 安定した again. In this 危機, 神経s and muscles were 協力するing. The 割れ目 of the door 広げるd.
Swift as a streak of light, the Secret スパイ／執行官 was in the room. Then horror 広げるd his 注目する，もくろむs.
Betty Dale sat in a metal 議長，司会を務める that was somehow reminiscent of a 刑務所，拘置所 death house. He saw the metal 禁止（する）d that held her, saw her 直面する, white as parchment, her 注目する，もくろむs stark with terror. He saw the gray-直面するd deaf-mute who bent over her, the swab of 酸性の-soaked cotton in his 手渡す.
And in that instant the スパイ／執行官 leaped across the 床に打ち倒す. There was no time for subtle 活動／戦闘. A 減少（する） of the greenish, horrible fluid had already fallen off the swab. It had fallen on Betty's dress の近くに to her white neck. ガス／煙s of it were curling up. ガス／煙s from the swab itself were の近くに to her nostrils, の近くに to the satiny softness of her 直面する, as the torturer brought it nearer.
Betty had come out of her faint only to find her tormentors waiting, ready to go ahead with their terrible 行為. The スパイ／執行官 did not know this. He only knew that, mercifully, he had been in time.
So quickly that the mute in 前線 of Betty did not see him until it was too late, he leaped 今後. His 手渡す struck the swab from the torturer's fingers. His other 手渡す, balled into a hard 握りこぶし, struck the gray-覆う？ man in the 味方する of the 長，率いる, sending him reeling away.
The other mute whirled and （機の）カム toward スパイ／執行官 X with a tube of 酸性の in his 手渡す. He flung it. Reeking ガス／煙s filled the 空気／公表する. But the スパイ／執行官 sidestepped and 急ぐd in.
He swung again and sent the man 衝突，墜落ing 支援する against a shelf filled with 瓶／封じ込めるs. The 瓶／封じ込めるs leaped and fell with a clatter of breaking glass. More ガス／煙s filled the room.
From the corner of his 注目する，もくろむ, スパイ／執行官 X saw the first man he had struck rise and scuttle from the 議会 like a streaking gray ネズミ.
But there was no time to follow. The 空気／公表する was 窒息させるing, deadly. He turned to Betty Dale. She was sitting in the 議長，司会を務める, her 直面する almost corpselike with the 恐れる that had filled her. She could barely speak.
She watched him dumbly as he 星／主役にするd at the cuffs that held her. Seconds were precious. Where had the deaf mute gone? To 警告する his masters? To get 増強s?
X's 手渡すs were trembling—unusual for him. The steel bracelets 現在のd difficulties. The keyholes in them were too small for any of his master 重要なs.
Then he turned and leaped to the man who lay on the 床に打ち倒す. The mute was breathing stertorously. He was unconscious. X fumbled in the man's pockets, exclaiming with 救済 when he 設立する a （犯罪の）一味 of 重要なs. Two of them were small, 壊れやすい.
He thrust one into the locks of the cuffs on Betty's wrists and ankles, and the cuffs snapped open. But it had taken time, and time was a precious thing.
He 解除するd her out of the 議長，司会を務める, stood her on her feet, but she could not walk. 恐れる and the cramped position she had been in had 強化するd her muscles.
He 選ぶd her up bodily; turned toward the door of the 議会. Somewhere in the 広大な building 総計費, there was a faint noise. It was like a signal bell. 負かす／撃墜する a long 回廊（地帯） he saw a 薄暗い flicker of light. He didn't like it. Deaf-mutes could not hear, but they could see. What if there were others? There was no way of knowing how many of his terrible 支配するs Professor Morvay had trained.
Running as 速く as he could, he carried Betty 支援する the way he had come. But he 設立する that one door had snapped shut again. He had to put her 負かす／撃墜する and work with his master 重要な. That took time.
At the level of the ground 床に打ち倒す, at a junction of 回廊（地帯）s he paused. There was a whisper of sound behind—the sound of running feet. Pursuers were coming out of the 不明瞭. He and Betty would すぐに be 圧倒するd. The girl must be gotten away at all costs. If she were 負傷させるd, 燃やすd with 酸性の, it would haunt him to the end of his days.
He stooped and whispered to her.
"ネズミs are coming out of the night. A terrier may have to 持つ／拘留する them in check. Do as the terrier says."
He carried Betty along a passage into the 後部 group of buildings. He 始める，決める her 負かす／撃墜する and 設立する she could walk now. Then he spoke again, calmly, as though death were not の近くに at their heels in the 不明瞭.
"Go straight ahead and out the door. A car waits across the street. 運動 away—as 急速な／放蕩な as you can. Go to the Hotel Graymont. Wait for the terrier there!"
He heard her breath come quickly, felt her fingers clutch him. She did not want to obey—did not want to 砂漠 him. But a steely touch of his 手渡す on her arm gave accent to his order. He 押し進めるd her 今後, heard her footsteps receding.
He was glad he had done it. The sounds in the 回廊（地帯） behind were の近くに now. Betty Dale could not walk 速く. Carrying her, he would have been overtaken surely. Her only chance of escape was for him to make himself a dike against the human flood of evil and horror that was 殺到するing in upon him.
He waited tensely till the sounds of the running feet were の近くに. Then he whipped out his gas ピストル and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d. There were only six gas-filled 爆撃するs in the gun. He 発射する／解雇するd them all, laying a momentary 一斉射撃，（質問などの）連発／ダム in the 回廊（地帯）.
There was the noise of a つまずくing, 落ちるing 団体／死体. Gasps of 恐れる （機の）カム out of the 不明瞭 and the footsteps receded. Then the gas cloud （疑いを）晴らすd and the 猛烈な／残忍な wave 前進するd again. The blackness vomited leaping, 飛行機で行くing 人物／姿／数字s. There were a half-dozen of the gray-覆う？ men.
Struggling ひどく, fighting against the human 激流 that （海，煙などが）飲み込むd him, the Secret スパイ／執行官 went 負かす／撃墜する in a 飛行機で行くing welter of 武器 and 脚s and 攻撃するing 握りこぶしs.
HE FOUGHT ON blindly in the 不明瞭, 推定する／予想するing momentarily to have scalding 減少（する）s of 酸性の dashed into his 直面する, to feel his eyeballs, nostrils, and lips 存在 seared into shapeless lumps of quivering, 苦痛-prodded flesh. But 非，不，無 （機の）カム.
The gray-覆う？ men seemed for the moment to have discarded the liquid horror that they dealt in. They 手配中の，お尋ね者 evidently to take him alive, uninjured.
He 衝突，墜落d a balled 握りこぶし into a man's writhing 直面する. He felt teeth snap, felt the 肌 of his knuckles 引き裂く. But the next instant two men were on his 支援する and snakelike fingers were encircling his throat. He reached up, tried to break their 持つ／拘留する, and someone butted him in the stomach, 二塁打ing him up in breathless agony. Then it seemed that a dozen vises had been clamped upon him. 手渡すs pinioned him from all 味方するs. The 圧力 on his throat 増加するd till his breath was shut off, till he lay gasping.
With unconsciousness の近くに at 手渡す, he relaxed. The fingers on his throat were 緩和するd わずかに. He could breathe again feebly. A light was turned on and he saw a forest of 脚s around him.
The 直面するs looking 負かす／撃墜する at him were impassive, hideous as death-masks in their reptilian immobility. One of the men lay moaning, nursing his bleeding gums, but there were five others.
They yanked the Secret スパイ／執行官 to his feet. A gun was 圧力（をかける）d against his 支援する so forcefully that it bruised the flesh. He was 押し進めるd along the 回廊（地帯）, 支援する the way he had come.
He wondered dully why they didn't shoot, why they didn't kill him now, or throw 酸性の in his 直面する. Then he realized that these men were slaves, 存在 disciplined in evil and committed to do the will of their masters. They were taking him upstairs again, to the 会議 議会s.
Four of them held him outside the door while the fifth slipped inside. X had no 疑問 the man was telling, his story in finger-language to the hooded masters of death, the story of Betty Dale's escape and his own 入ること／参加（者）.
The fifth mute （機の）カム 支援する, his 直面する still impassive, and スパイ／執行官 X was thrust through the door into the presence of the 黒人／ボイコット-式服d men. But there were only two now. The third had not returned. That one, the スパイ／執行官 guessed, was Morvay.
The スポットライト was turned on his 直面する again. He 信用d to his disguise, but wondered what their reaction to it would be. He was 提起する／ポーズをとるing as H.J. ツバメ now, a sandy-haired, plump-直面するd 実業家.
The two men behind the 黒人／ボイコット hoods 星／主役にするd at him, their 注目する，もくろむs glittering through the slits. At a gesture from one of them, the deaf-mutes withdrew to the 味方する of the room. X stood alone like a 囚人 before the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業.
The 発言する／表明する of one of the hooded men （機の）カム slowly, tauntingly.
"So—a young Sir Galahad who has 救助（する）d a fair lady in 苦しめる!"
The other one, his 発言する／表明する gruffer, asked a question. "Who are you?"
The スパイ／執行官 answered bluntly, quickly, playing his part as always. "My 指名する's ツバメ. You devils can't get away with what you tried to do to 行方不明になる Dale. I （機の）カム just in time."
A low, evil laugh sounded from behind the hood.
"She escaped—but nothing can save her now. She was only 存在 脅すd to make her talk. But she will be 設立する now—wherever she is—and the beauty of her 直面する will become a thing that men will turn their 注目する，もくろむs from in loathing."
The Secret スパイ／執行官 clenched his 握りこぶし. His 発言する／表明する was 緊張した, high-pitched, as he continued his 提起する／ポーズをとる.
"Whoever you are, you can't get away with it, I say. You'll all go to 刑務所，拘置所, or the 電気椅子. You're devils, 殺害者s."
They ignored his 熱烈な speech.
"Tell us one thing—Mr. ツバメ. How did you find your way here? How did you get in?" There was a sneer in the 発言する／表明する—a taunting 公式文書，認める.
The スパイ／執行官 sensed what it meant; but he kept up his bluff.
"You're not as clever as you think. Betty's a girl friend of 地雷. I learned she'd gotten a phony call. I 設立する she'd disappeared and I followed her."
"Yes?"
"Yes."
One of the hooded 人物／姿／数字s leaned 今後. His 手渡すs were gripping the 味方するs of his 議長，司会を務める. His 注目する，もくろむs were glittering points of light behind the 注目する，もくろむ-穴を開けるs of his hood, and his 発言する／表明する was low, 厳しい and deadly.
"Don't think you can fool us—ツバメ. We know who you are. We know there is only one man who could have 設立する his way to this place and come through the locked doors. We know there is only one man who could have saved Betty Dale!"
The room was still as death for an instant. Then a low, 乾燥した，日照りの chuckle sounded.
"We compliment you—Secret スパイ／執行官 X! You have 証明するd your cleverness. Your disguise is beyond reproach. So it was when you played the part of Jeffrey Carter—and when you impersonated 視察官 Burks of the 殺人 squad. So, too, it was when you made us believe you were Jason Hertz. That was your master 一打／打撃, 'X.' But we had Hertz watched. When he so mysteriously disappeared from the 避難 we had given him, we began to 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う we had been tricked."
スパイ／執行官 X's heart stood still. The 発言する／表明する of the hooded man droned on.
"What you did with Hertz we do not know. That is neither here nor there. We know that you helped him out of 刑務所，拘置所, impersonated him so cleverly that you fooled us for a time. But you cannot go on fooling us as you can the police. Your methods are dashing, sensational, 劇の. You have annoyed us and will continue to do so if you are not 抑制（する）d. But we have スパイ／執行官s of our own. You have been watched, 秘かに調査するd upon from the night you went to the Bellaire Club. Your impersonation of 視察官 Burks was seen by the man you chased over the roof."
The chuckle （機の）カム again.
"I am 存在 frank with you, because I 推定する／予想する you to be frank with us. Your history is intriguing. Just who is 雇うing you? For what particular 原因（となる） are you working?"
The 発言する／表明する had become almost 事柄-of-fact now. It was as though X's answers were foregone 結論s. But he was silent. The 発言する／表明する behind the hood changed again. It had a steely, imperious 公式文書，認める in it.
"You will give us all this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, スパイ／執行官 'X.' It is necessary for us to know. There may be an 成果／努力 made to 取って代わる you when..."
The 発言する／表明する 追跡するd off with 悪意のある 関わりあい／含蓄.
"Yes, death for you is 必然的な. You are aware of that yourself. You are aware that you cannot leave this place alive. But we can give you a choice of two deaths—one quick, painless; the other so ぐずぐず残る, so horrible, so 妊娠している with agony that you will 中止する to be a man and will become a blind, babbling creature, a death so 考えられない that you would choose to die a thousand ordinary deaths."
Still the スパイ／執行官 was silent, standing stiffly 築く, 星／主役にするing straight before him. Momentarily his will seemed 一時停止するd. Momentarily he could only wait and listen. The 発言する／表明する droned on.
"You have seen the 直面するs of men who have been dead many days. Your 直面する will be like that while you are still alive, the flesh eaten away, the 注目する，もくろむ sockets empty, the teeth skull-like."
Sweat broke out on the Secret スパイ／執行官's forehead. It was not so much 恐れる as fury against these men—a fury so terrible that it left him white and shaking. Then he grew 静める again.
"What would you ask me to do?" he said.
"A small thing. We will 供給する you with pen and paper and a place to 令状. You will give us a 報告（する）／憶測 of all your activities. You will 指名する your （犯人の）隠れ家s, your methods, tell us 正確に／まさに who you are and who is behind you. We know you work alone. We know that no one 株 your secrets; but you are 供給（する）d with money. That is evident. There have been whispers that the 政府 is 支援 you."
"Ask the police," said the スパイ／執行官 coldly.
"The police 追跡（する） you, too. They regard you as an enemy, a 犯罪の—that is part of your game. But you will tell us—everything."
There was silence again, and the スパイ／執行官 could feel the 注目する，もくろむs of the ravenlike pair before him boring into his own.
"What's your answer?" （機の）カム a 発言する／表明する at last.
The スパイ／執行官 held himself more 築く. His lips remained の近くにd. He 星／主役にするd calmly, silently at his 質問者s.
"You will not speak! We are not surprised. You are clever in your disguises. You are 確信して of your ability. But there are things which will 侵入する and destroy any disguise. There are 酸性のs hungry for the flesh of men. We will give you a small taste of what hell is like—then we will leave you 均衡を保った on the brink of hell, and—who knows—you may be willing to talk—to 避ける the last terrible 急落（する），激減（する）!"
THE HOODED MAN'S HANDS moved in the 空気／公表する before him. His fingers made quick 動議s, 配達するing imperious orders. Four of the gray-覆う？ mutes stepped 今後 and しっかり掴むd the スパイ／執行官's 武器. The fifth man held the gun at his 支援する. He was marched out of the room.
He had no 計画（する） of 活動／戦闘. He saw at the moment no way of escape. He waited for that small, 簡潔な／要約する 適切な時期 which might checkmate the awful 運命／宿命 ahead of him. He couldn't do what had been asked of him—betray the secrets that he guarded so jealously. Yet to keep them guarded he would have to 服従させる／提出する to more than human flesh could 耐える. Would it be better, he wondered, to make a break now and 招待する a 弾丸 in his 支援する?
But he pictured himself lying 負傷させるd, helpless, with flesh-eating 酸性の 存在 注ぐd into his 直面する. There was nothing that these men would stop at.
He walked 静かに downstairs and through the 回廊（地帯）s. They had not blindfolded him—a 尊敬の印 to his cleverness, to the knowledge that no blindfolds could keep him from knowing where he was. And it was 証拠 of the certainty that he was to die.
They （機の）カム at last to the door of the 拷問 議会. The four men 持つ／拘留するing him redoubled the 軍隊 of their 支配する on his 武器. The man with the gun stepped 今後, 打ち明けるing the door. He 圧力（をかける）d a switch and light （機の）カム from inside.
For the moment this fifth man with the gun was dead ahead, silhouetted against the light behind him. There would never be another 適切な時期. Within the next minute スパイ／執行官 X would be in the 議長，司会を務める with the steel cuffs snapped over his 脚s and ankles—cuffs that no human strength or will could break. It was now or never.
His four captors didn't notice the 動議 of his foot, or if they did they mistook it for a 縮むing 支援する in 恐れる. He 解除するd his toe, swayed his 団体／死体 sideways, bringing his 十分な 負わせる 負かす／撃墜する on the 権利 heel, 圧力（をかける）ing the rubber and flattening it so that the metal stud inside that was the 誘発する／引き起こす of the tiny 空気／公表する gun was 押し進めるd home.
They did not hear the faint hiss that （機の）カム from the end of the minute tube 隠すd in the 厚い 単独の of his shoe.
The man in the door of the 拷問 議会, the man with the gun, gave a throaty, inarticulate cry. His 直面する 登録（する）d 激しい surprise. He turned slowly, stood swaying on his feet, and, just as slowly, his 直面する changed. The masklike look （機の）カム again. The 直面する muscles sagged, knotted, and sagged again. The man's gun fell from his inert fingers and clattered to the 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す. The man's 膝s buckled under him, and he 崩壊（する）d.
The four mutes 持つ／拘留するing スパイ／執行官 X 強化するd with amazement. Their lusterless 注目する，もくろむs showed utter incomprehension. Their 支配する on his 武器 relaxed for a fraction of a second. And, in that fraction of time, he put all the strength of his muscles into one mighty heave. He wrenched himself loose and leaped backwards.
He heard the 続けざまに猛撃するing of feet behind him, saw lights flash again as a secret signal system was put into 操作／手術. The gray-覆う？ men were swift 走者s, too. They sensed now that the 崩壊（する） of the man with the gun had been a trick of the スパイ／執行官's. Their fury was animal-like. He could hear their babbling, incoherent cries—the cries of mutes trying to give 表現 to 残忍な 激怒（する）.
He passed an open passageway and saw two more 人物／姿／数字s running toward him. He flashed past; but something streaked out, 燃やすing his 脚 so that for a moment the 苦痛 almost 麻ひさせるd him and 軍隊d him to slow 負かす／撃墜する. A splash of 酸性の 投げつけるd by one of the men in the 回廊（地帯） had struck his ankle. He ran on, his 直面する contorted.
He had the feeling now that flitting gray 形態／調整s were everywhere, that another spray of 酸性の might come out of any dark corner. But he could not see his way. He turned on the pencil-thin beam of his flash for an instant. 直接／まっすぐに ahead was the 回廊（地帯） 主要な through the jumble of buildings in the 倉庫／問屋's 後部. Beyond it was the street.
He reached the street with 飛行機で行くing 人物／姿／数字s の近くに behind him. He burst out the door into the 冷淡な night 空気／公表する. But Betty had taken his car as he had told her to. Death was の近くに at his heels.
Wincing with 苦痛, limping, he 急落（する），激減（する）d along the street. Looking 支援する, he saw gray 形態／調整s moving behind him like wolves in the night. The "拷問 信用's" horrible horde was の近くに behind. The street seemed to harbor death.
He put on a burst of 速度(を上げる） that pumped 血 into the 燃やすd 位置／汚点／見つけ出す on his ankle, 増加するing the 苦痛 until it was as though a hot rivet had been driven into his flesh.
He turned a corner, ran on with the pursuers 伸び（る）ing. It was late, the streets were 砂漠d. Even if there were a 警官，（賞などを）獲得する in sight he would be of no 援助（する）. He would only 会合，会う a hideous death, too.
Two more 封鎖するs and the スパイ／執行官 saw something that made him 増加する his 成果／努力s. There was an all-night lunch-room at the next corner. A taxi stood before it, its engine idling to keep warm. The driver was inside.
Even as he leaped into the cab's 前線 seat, he heard the sound of another 自動車 starting up behind, 支援 out of a garage. He remembered the car that had taken Betty Dale away from the 先触れ（する） office, the car in which he had ridden to MacDonough Street.
He raced the taxi's engine, drew the 転換 lever 支援する, 解放（する）d the clutch, and 急落（する），激減（する）d 今後. He heard the hoarse shout of a man behind him—the taxi driver running from the lunchroom. But he had to take the cab. If anything happened to it, he'd see that the taxi company was reimbursed.
The taxi was an old one. Its 弁s needed grinding. The モーター had poor 好転. The car was already 狙撃 負かす／撃墜する the street, 伸び（る）ing. He 転換d frantically, and 圧力（をかける）d the accelerator 負かす／撃墜する till the engine coughed. The taxi began to 伸び（る） 速度(を上げる）. It rumbled and jounced over the rough pavement. He spun the wheel, made a skidding turn around a corner, and roared on.
At the end of the 封鎖する he heard the 追求するing car duplicate his 作戦行動. The sound of the taxi's engine was rising in pitch now. The big cab was rolling ahead at ever 開始するing 速度(を上げる）. The needle on the speedometer showed forty, fifty, fifty-five. He took another corner, 長，率いるing toward the river to get out of the rough cross-town streets. Then he 設立する himself on a long, wide avenue running 平行の with the water. It too, was 砂漠d, until a 警官，（賞などを）獲得する's whistle blew frantically.
But the taxi lurched and roared past.
スパイ／執行官 X ちらりと見ることd over his shoulder through the 後部 window. The goggling lights of the car behind were 増加するing 刻々と in size. He 圧力（をかける）d the accelerator 負かす／撃墜する as far as it would go—and got up to fifty-five again. But the needle of the speedometer hung there, 事情に応じて変わる 今後 a degree when the street slanted 負かす／撃墜する, going 支援する when there was a slight incline. The 追求するing car was only a half 封鎖する behind.
Then the 倉庫／問屋s and pier sheds to 権利 and left echoed to the sudden staccato clatter of a sub-machine gun. Something whined by in the night. An 爆発性の tinkle of breaking glass （機の）カム from the 後部 window. He looked 支援する and saw that it had disappeared. It was an old model car. Even the windshield was not shatterproof. The glass partition between the driver's seat and the 乗客's compartment was the next to go. Then the windshield flew into 水晶 slivers before his 直面する. Pieces of it whizzed by his 長，率いる, pricked his 肌.
The night 勝利，勝つd （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 against his 注目する，もくろむs with a 軍隊 that made them blink and 燃やす. The cab was 存在 torn to pieces, raked by 弾丸s as the devilish chatter of the machine gun continued with a 手段d, 正確な regularity that had the finality of doom. In a 事柄 of seconds only the 法律 of 普通の／平均（する）s would 施行される; a steel-jacketed 弾丸 would pierce him, and he would 低迷 今後 in his seat. The スピード違反 cab would 衝突，墜落 into a building, be 破壊するd, burst into 炎上. The car behind had 論証するd its 最高位 in 速度(を上げる）.
He 発射 a ちらりと見ること to the left toward the river, his 注目する，もくろむs 有望な as hot coals. Death by 弾丸s was quick, painless. The old 負傷させる in his 味方する had brought him 近づく death often. He was on familiar 条件 with the Grim Reaper. But there was the 原因（となる） for which he worked. There was the "拷問 信用" to be 粉砕するd, and there was Betty Dale! Unless he fought for her, saved her, she would be 跡をつけるd 負かす／撃墜する and hideously mutilated, perhaps killed.
He spun the wheel of the 急落（する），激減（する）ing cab viciously. It 激しく揺するd to the left across the 幅の広い street. For an instant the raking stream of 弾丸s left it. Then they 設立する it again. The car behind had swerved, too. But スパイ／執行官 X pulled the wheel still さらに先に. The fat tires squealed in 抗議する. The cab groaned in every bolt. It skidded 危険に, then roared ahead. The yawning 入り口 to an open ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる was 直接／まっすぐに before it; さらに先に still the oily, 冷気／寒がらせる waters of the river moved sluggishly. The cab 肺d out across the clattering boards of the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる.
The machine gun 中止するd its chattering, but the car behind still followed. The スパイ／執行官 did not 減少（する） his 速度(を上げる）. He sat hunched low over the wheel, 星／主役にするing ahead through the 粉々にするd windshield.
A low 保護するing bulkhead rose at the end of the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. There were capstans spaced at intervals for 強く引っ張るs and excursion boats to tie to. He 目的（とする）d the blunt nose of the cab between them and put on a last burst of 速度(を上げる）, 持つ／拘留するing the wheel 安定した.
The 前線 tires of the cab struck the bulkhead and leaped up. The cab 急落（する），激減（する）d on like a madly bucking horse, 後部ing its yellow 形態／調整 over the end of the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. An instant it seemed to hang in the 空気／公表する, then it 急落（する），激減（する）d to the 黒人／ボイコット river below and struck with a terrific splash. Steam hissed from the hot 麻薬を吸うs of the engine. Yellow 泡，激怒すること seethed and slithered sidewise. A second passed—two—and the cab filled and sank from sight.
THE HEADS OF THE "拷問 信用" were 組み立てる／集結するd again in their secret 会議 議会. All were there, 含むing the 悪意のある Professor Morvay. There was tonight a question of singular importance to be discussed. First, however, one of the gray-覆う？ deaf-mutes entered, stood before the 黒人／ボイコット-式服d trio, and began making 動議s in the 空気／公表する—the 動議s of his strange finger language.
He told for the 利益 of Professor Morvay, who had not been 現在の the night before, just what had taken place. He told of the escape of Betty Dale, of how they had 追求するd the Secret スパイ／執行官, riddled his car with 弾丸s, and seen him 急落（する），激減（する） to his death in the 黒人／ボイコット waters of the river.
The 急速な／放蕩な-moving 手渡す and fingers of the deaf-mute gave a graphic account of that wild chase through the night-darkened streets.
Morvay leaned 今後, his 注目する，もくろむs glowing behind the 黒人／ボイコット hood. His long fingers answered in the same language, then asked a question.
"Are you 確かな he is dead? Did you wait to see whether he rose to the surface?"
"Yes," （機の）カム the answer. "We waited, watched—there was no chance of his 生き残り."
Morvay 登録（する）d grim satisfaction. The deaf-mute was 解任するd. One of the hooded trio spoke.
"You have heard what our slave 報告（する）／憶測s. Secret スパイ／執行官 X is dead. The girl escaped, but she knows nothing. The スパイ／執行官 has no の近くに confidante."
Morvay nodded.
"But to make sure," he said, "you are having the girl 追跡するd? You will have her punished as soon as she is 設立する."
The man he had questioned nodded.
"The 先触れ（する） office and her apartment are 存在 影をつくる／尾行するd," he said. "She will turn up at one place or the other. We will make an example of her."
Again Morvay nodded. He hadn't seen Betty Dale, but he had been told that she was beautiful, piquant. She had chosen to 干渉する with the activities of the "拷問 信用." She was an 同盟（する） of the Secret スパイ／執行官. Because of that, her beauty would be hideously destroyed. She would spend the 残りの人，物 of her life looking 今後 to death. The secret 緊張する of sadism that made Morvay the vicious 犯罪の he was took delight in this prospect. He ran his tongue over thin, cruel lips.
"Let us forget the girl and the スパイ／執行官 now," he said. "One is dead—the other will be 性質の／したい気がして of すぐに. What of the 商売／仕事 in 手渡す?"
The other two men leaned 今後. There was the glitter in their 注目する，もくろむs of men whose greed for money and 力／強力にする 量s to fanaticism. Money—力／強力にする! For these they had 虐殺（する）d, maimed, and spread terror. They had だまし取るd thousands from 恐れる-crazed millionaires. They began to picture themselves as czars of 罪，犯罪, masters of death, invincible 支配者s of the 暗黒街. And, 軽蔑（する）ing the 国民s of the 暗黒街, they planned to 組織する its riffraff into a 広大な disciplined legion. That would come later, however, when they had more 力／強力にする. Tonight there was something 固める／コンクリート to go over—詳細（に述べる）s of the most daring 罪，犯罪 they had ever conceived.
"恐れる of our organization is spreading," said the man on Morvay's 権利. "We are becoming famous. They call us the '拷問 信用.'" A low laugh followed. "It will make our next move easier. We are known across the water."
They then began to discuss the 陰謀（を企てる） they had in mind. It was stupendously daring, yet absurdly simple; but they never 行為／法令／行動するd without long 予選 arguments, 重さを計るing each move with 冷淡な logic. They had the training, the discipline, of men in high positions. Each could have made a decent living in the world of honest men. But there was in each a hidden 緊張する of criminality coupled with a ruthless かわき for 力／強力にする.
The 計画（する） under discussion tonight dealt with Sir Anthony Dunsmark, British financier; one of the 長，率いるs of the 広大な／多数の／重要な Bank of England; a man of international repute; a man whose opinions were taken as gospel truth and whose 声明s had to be 問題／発行するd guardedly because they had 力／強力にする to 影響（力） 在庫／株 quotations in many countries. Dunsmark had shouldered his 株 of the 財政上の 重荷（を負わせる）s of the World War. He was on his way to America now to take part in a 会合 of 銀行業者s, to do his bit toward helping along world 回復. Traveling on the liner Victoria, …を伴ってd by one 長官, he would arrive in three days.
The hooded trio were like buzzards before a feast 準備するing for his arrival. So far their ゆすり，強要 ゆすり had fallen on rich men in the city only. But here was an 適切な時期 to 延長する 操作／手術s.
What if Anthony Dunsmark disappeared upon arrival in America? What if his 政府 should receive a letter 需要・要求するing a 広大な sum which, if not paid over, would bring about the death of Dunsmark by the ぐずぐず残る horrors of 酸性の?
No 政府 would 許す such a thing to happen to one of its best-known 国民s. The sum asked would be paid, no 事柄 how 広大な／多数の／重要な it might be. To have Sir Anthony Dunsmark 会合，会う his death at the 手渡すs of American 犯罪のs would be a blot on the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs. America would 与える／捧げる to his 身代金 if necessary. Thus the 黒人／ボイコット-式服d trio 推論する／理由d. But there were still 詳細（に述べる）s to be worked out. Dunsmark would be met at the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる by a police 護衛する. There would be secret service operatives mingling in the （人が）群がる. To steal him away in spite of this was a big order. But the trio had 信用／信任 in their ability.
"There are many methods," said the man on Morvay's 権利. "Dunsmark will be lionized for days after his arrival. He will be 招待するd everywhere. We will watch him ceaselessly and wait for an 適切な時期."
Morvay laughed softly.
"One of us," he said, "might even 招待する him to our own home. We are not without social position ourselves."
The man on his left growled an 反対.
"There must be no hint of 疑惑 directed at us."
"We will 会合，会う again tomorrow night," Morvay answered. "I have feelers out. I will know then the 指名するs of some of the people who 計画（する） to have Dunsmark as a guest."
The others nodded assent. Discussion 中止するd. One by one they arose and left the 会議 議会, each leaving by a different 大勝する. Morvay passed through the buildings in the 後部 of the 倉庫／問屋. He breathed easier now that the Secret スパイ／執行官 was gone. X was the only man so far who had given them any worry. The police were still wandering in 混乱させるd circles and floundering in a bog of 疑問.
It was raining as Morvay stepped into the dark street. He rolled his collar up and strode quickly along, his ulster flapping about his heels. He turned at the corner, 長，率いるing toward the avenue four 封鎖するs away where it was his custom to 選ぶ up a taxi.
Then, の直前に he reached it, he was pleased to see a 巡航するing cab coming his way. The rain had 増加するd. This was a bit of luck, he thought.
He held up a finger, signaled the cab, and climbed in. He gave the 指名する of a hotel, one of the points where he いつかs changed taxis, in the 決まりきった仕事 they all followed to throw shadowers off the 追跡する. He lit a cigarette and leaned 支援する against the seat, going over in his mind the 詳細（に述べる）s of the daring 罪，犯罪 planned.
The driver, sitting 低迷d behind the wheel, drove the cab on through the 冷気／寒がらせる winter rain. 減少（する）s of moisture splattered against the glass in the door. Morvay was glad the windows were の近くにd. He did not see the 手渡すs of the driver creep 負かす／撃墜する to a small hidden lever beside his seat. He could not, for there was a 前線 partition cutting off his 見解（をとる）.
But he began to feel a slow dizziness creeping over him. The 空気／公表する in the cab seemed to be getting stale as though the exhaust had sprung a 漏れる and 一酸化炭素 were seeping into the car's 内部の.
Morvay leaned 今後, reaching toward a window. But the dizziness 増加するd to such an extent that he swayed in his seat.
He tried to raise his 手渡す and it seemed to 重さを計る many 続けざまに猛撃するs. His cigarette dropped from shaking fingers. He tried to cry out to the driver, but his 発言する／表明する sounded faint and far away.
He 低迷d sidewise in the seat, struggling frantically to 保存する his faculties. For a moment his 直面する turned toward the 天井 of the cab, and a sudden shudder of amazement passed through his 団体／死体. He made a desperate 成果／努力 to rise, but 後継するd only in flopping to the 床に打ち倒す where he lay, still 星／主役にするing toward the roof with glassy, horrified 注目する，もくろむs.
Over his 長，率いる, in the 中心 of the fabric covering the taxi's roof, something glowed with an eerie, wavering light. It was a letter, an "X," written in some 肉親，親類d of radiant paint. And, as Professor Morvay slipped into unconsciousness, it seemed to hover before his gaze like an 告発する／非難するing, all-seeing 注目する，もくろむ.
THE TAXI ROLLED ON through the dreary, rain-swept night. In the 後部 compartment the inert 団体／死体 of Professor Morvay lurched grotesquely with every jounce the car gave. His still 直面する and glassy 注目する，もくろむs were like those of a 死体. But he was not dead.
The driver of the cab 圧力（をかける）d the small lever beside his seat a second time, cutting off the flow of odorless anesthetizing gas that had swept Morvay into the dreamless depths of unconsciousness. The driver's 直面する was expressionless, but under his visored cap his 注目する，もくろむs glowed with piercing brightness.
Several times fares stepped to the 抑制（する）, signaling him to stop, supposing the cab empty. But the cabman drove by them briskly. He 避けるd the lighted streets, turned west, and whirled into a long avenue that led uptown. He bore 刻々と ahead through the rain with the purposefulness of a man who has a 限定された 客観的な.
Wheeling into the 幅の広い 運動 that skirted the river, he passed millionaires' homes and 封鎖する upon 封鎖する of expensive apartment houses, magnificent with their liveried doormen and glittering foyers.
Once he turned his 長，率いる and ちらりと見ることd sidewise at a 暗い／優うつな old house that rose on a corner. Its windows were boarded up. There was an 空気／公表する of decay and desolation about the place. It was the old Montgomery mansion which the litigation of 相続人s had kept empty for years.
A faint, grim smile 新たな展開d the mouth of the cabman, 偽名，通称 Secret スパイ／執行官 X. In a 議会 of that house he had 達成するd his 現在の disguise. The past twenty-four hours had been exciting ones. A man 率d as dead had come to life. The members of the hideous "拷問 信用" believed he had gone 負かす／撃墜する with the スピード違反 taxi that had 急落（する），激減（する）d off the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. Their sadistic slaves had watched for him to rise to the surface, and he had not risen. The 衝突，墜落 of the cab had been something he had planned deliberately.
They did not know that he could 持つ／拘留する his breath a 十分な two minutes under water and swim with the swift, powerful 一打／打撃s of a 飛び込み カワウソ. They hadn't seen him when he reached the surface under the inky 影をつくる／尾行するs of the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる. And they didn't know that he had communicated with Betty Dale, told her to keep under cover in her room at the Graymont Hotel.
There was tonight a glint of ironic amusement in the スパイ／執行官's 注目する，もくろむs. This was the second taxi he had driven within a space of twenty-four hours. The first he had stolen and destroyed. This one he had bought. But he preferred to consider the first a 貸付金, for money from the account of Elisha Pond would 支払う／賃金 for them both 結局. He wasn't a 犯罪の, and when he 設立する it necessary to destroy 所有物／資産／財産, he took 苦痛s to reimburse the owners. The 現在の cab had been 購入（する）d for the 目的 of 任命する／導入するing the hidden 戦車／タンク of compressed gas, the lever 支配（する）／統制する, and the 出口 tube in the 乗客's compartment. To 援助（する） in 逮捕（する）ing a man like Morvay, to break the hideous "拷問 信用," the 投資 seemed 合法的.
But he was not taking Morvay to 刑務所，拘置所.
The cab passed on up the 運動, turned east, then north, and continued through the heart of the city. スパイ／執行官 X drove with the 緩和する of a man to whom all types of cars are familiar.
He （機の）カム to the 郊外s at last, but still (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むd on through the rain-swept night. Miles beyond the city 限界s, he turned off on a little dirt road. The cab jounced and pitched like a ship on a 嵐の sea. The 団体／死体 of the Professor Morvay rolled with it, his glassy 注目する，もくろむs still directed toward the 天井 and the X that glowed there. But the 注目する，もくろむs were unseeing now.
スパイ／執行官 X stopped the cab. He opened the door and 解除するd Morvay out as though he had been a 解雇（する） of meal. He carried him, 武器 and 脚s dangling, through the pelting rain, to the 薄暗い 輪郭（を描く）s of a house. It was an old, ramshackle farmhouse—the same one to which he had taken Jason Hertz on the night Hertz escaped from 刑務所，拘置所.
He held Morvay over his shoulder with one 手渡す for a moment. A 重要な grated in the lock, the door opened, and スパイ／執行官 X and his 囚人 were inside.
The rain drummed 刻々と on the worn shingles of the roof. There was the musty, stifling smell of old carpets and moldy 塀で囲むs. The スパイ／執行官 took Morvay to a 支援する room and struck a light.
There he 始める，決める to work quickly, 熱望して, for he had much to do. He deposited Morvay in a 議長，司会を務める, 支援するd the 議長，司会を務める to an upright supporting the big beams in the 中心 of the room and, after 製図／抽選 Morvay's inert 武器 about the upright, snapped 手錠s over his wrists, Morvay was now a 囚人, held 築く in the 議長，司会を務める by the metal cuffs.
スパイ／執行官 X went to a shelf and drew out a 瓶／封じ込める and a piece of cotton. He dipped the cotton into the 瓶／封じ込める and held it の近くに to Morvay's nose. The pungent smell of carbonate of ammonia filled the room.
Slowly Morvay stirred and began to breathe more 深く，強烈に as the powerful 興奮剤 overcame the 影響s of the gas. In three minutes he 解除するd his 長，率いる. His 注目する，もくろむs opened, の近くにd, and opened again. They were no longer glassy, but were alive, intelligent. Morvay had returned to consciousness.
But 恐れる and horror overspread his features. He tugged at his manacled 手渡すs, 緊張するd till the cords stood out in his neck, then began 悪口を言う／悪態ing 厳しく. There was the look of an evil, predatory beast on his features.
The スパイ／執行官's 直面する was 荒涼とした, unyielding. His 注目する，もくろむs under his visored cap glowed like coals of 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
"スパイ／執行官 X! You are still alive then?" said Morvay. "They did not kill you—the fools, the fools!" There was bitterness in his 発言する／表明する and fury 国境d on the insane. The 失敗ing deaf-mutes were to be pitied if he ever got 解放する／自由な.
スパイ／執行官 X （機の）カム closer. He hadn't spoken, but his 注目する，もくろむs were boring into those of the professor's. His 発言する／表明する was low, persuasive.
"You are a 殺害者, Professor Morvay—one of a trio of 殺害者s. The 電気椅子 を待つs you. But there is one road of escape. It is a road which no man of decency or 原則 would think of に引き続いて. But you have 証明するd that you are neither. Therefore, I am 申し込む／申し出ing you this road. Turn 明言する／公表するs' 証拠, tell me the 指名するs of your two friends, your fellow 犯罪のs and 殺害者s, and you will escape the 死刑."
スパイ／執行官 X knew it would be futile to 雇う the method he had used so 効果的に with Jason Hertz—the method of hypnosis. A man of Morvay's type, a psychologist and hard-長，率いるd 知識人, could never be hypnotized.
Morvay blinked at the スパイ／執行官 for a moment, as though 重さを計るing the proposition. Then his lips curled 支援する in an ugly sneer and a mocking laugh （機の）カム from them.
"Fool! Fool! I will tell you nothing! You have no 証拠 against me! No proof! You will never find out who my 同僚s are, nor learn our secrets!"
His 厳しい laugh sounded again, and seconds passed as their 注目する，もくろむs 衝突／不一致d. X might have 訴える手段／行楽地d to 拷問 to make Morvay talk. But that was not his way. He knew that men are not always truthful under 拷問—and the truth was what he 手配中の，お尋ね者.
He stood frowning, irresolute, with Morvay's 厳しい laughter （犯罪の）一味ing in his ears. He might turn Morvay over to the police, but the 証拠 against him was still too weak. There were 行方不明の links in the chain; and it wasn't the スパイ／執行官's 関心 to have individuals 逮捕（する）d. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 粉砕する the whole hideous pattern of the "拷問 信用."
He turned then, brought his movie camera out, and 焦点（を合わせる）d the calcium ゆらめく on Morvay's evil 直面する. The professor 悪口を言う／悪態d and struggled in his 議長，司会を務める as the camera clicked. Before he realized what was 存在 done, X had started the Dictaphone machine also, making a 記録，記録的な／記録する of his 発言する／表明する. Morvay grew wise suddenly, and 中止するd speaking. There was a light of fury in his 注目する，もくろむs, and he followed every movement the スパイ／執行官 made like a tiger hoping for a chance to spring.
スパイ／執行官 X, silent and 意図, filled a hypodermic needle from a small vial in a rack. There were other vials beside it, each 示すd with a different number of hours. He selected the one labeled, "Thirty-six."
Morvay began 悪口を言う／悪態ing again as スパイ／執行官 X approached him with the hypo needle. He 明らかにするd his teeth like a cornered animal and the light in his 注目する，もくろむs was 悪魔の（ような）. But calmly, deftly, the スパイ／執行官 thrust the point of the needle into his arm and 圧力（をかける）d the plunger home.
Morvay's 悪口を言う／悪態s became incoherent, babbling. His lips quivered, his 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd again. In a few moments his 長，率いる fell 今後. For thirty-six hours he would be dead to the world.
スパイ／執行官 X unsnapped the 手錠s from about the upright and carried the professor to the attic. There he deposited him on a pile of straw and carefully went through his pockets, taking Morvay's 重要なs, watch, and 私的な papers. He descended to the first 床に打ち倒す room, 除去するd the 記録，記録的な／記録する from the Dictaphone machine, the film from the movie camera, and left the farmhouse, 運動ing 支援する through the rain to the city. His interview with Morvay had not been 満足な. He had failed to learn the 身元s of the other members of the "拷問 信用." He was still working in a 黒人／ボイコット 棺／かげり of mystery.
For hours that night he labored in his hidden room in the old Montgomery mansion. Sleep seemed unnecessary to the スパイ／執行官. 決定的な, nervous 軍隊s drove him on. He developed the movie film, 負傷させる it on a 乾燥した，日照りのing reel, put the Dictaphone 記録，記録的な／記録する under a phonograph needle, and listened to Morvay's 発言する／表明する.
Once he thrust a 手渡す into his pocket and brought out a box of varicolored, transparent 要約する／（宇宙ロケットの）カプセルs. They were about an インチ long, filled with さまざまな essences and strange looking 実体s. The スパイ／執行官 selected several and swallowed them.
He continued his work until the slow, gray fingers of 夜明け crept across the street outside and made steely glints on the surface of the river.
BY THE NEXT EVENING スパイ／執行官 X had a disguise of Professor Morvay as perfect as the one he had done of Jason Hertz. He left the Montgomery mansion as twilight descended and took a taxi to Morvay's house in that respectable street in the 郊外s. There he once again opened the 安全な and began a more 包括的な 査察 of the 調書をとる／予約するs it 含む／封じ込めるd. He 設立する something he had not had time to 調査／捜査する before—a 非常に長い paper written in code. It appeared meaningless, unintelligible. Groups of five letters were spaced at intervals across the page. Where did Morvay keep the code 調書をとる／予約する which would make the paper 理解できる? He searched the room for a half hour without results.
Then, philosophically, with a box of cigarettes, a pencil and sheets of paper handy, he settled himself in a big 議長，司会を務める under the light. Patience and perhaps hours of work lay ahead of him, but he knew how to go about the 仕事 in 手渡す.
In forty-five minutes, by use of word frequency （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs, he had mastered the code of Morvay's paper. His 注目する，もくろむs gleamed with excitement. Besides giving methods of work, countersigns, times of 会合, and types of 酸性のs used by the "拷問 信用," there were two 指名するs 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）d. The 指名するs were Albert Bartholdy and Eric 先頭 Houten, M.D. 指名するs which had a （犯罪の）一味 to them—指名するs which seemed to carry dignity and prestige.
The スパイ／執行官's 直面する 常習的な. 罪，犯罪 in its most hideous form いつかs blossomed in high places just as the deadliest fungi grew in the richest 国／地域. It was not always the spawn of the poor, the downtrodden, and 苦しむing who turned to the byways of evil. Nature worked strange contrasts.
He put the paper away in his pocket and reached for the telephone 調書をとる／予約する, then paused. There had come a sudden strident （犯罪の）一味ing of the 前線 door bell. Supposing it were 先頭 Houten or Bartholdy come to 支払う／賃金 a social visit to their 同僚 in 罪，犯罪? His disguise would fool them, but could he play his part, knowing nothing of their relations with Morvay?
With wildly （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing heart he strode to the door, opened it, then stepped 支援する, for once finding it difficult to 持続する his composure. For the man who stood before him was 視察官 John Burks of the city 殺人 Squad.
TENSE AND ALERT, AGENT X 星／主役にするd at the man before him. Then he noticed the 表現 on Burks's 直面する. That 表現 was 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, thoughtful—not the look of a man who has come to make an 逮捕（する） or cross-question a 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う. He waited for the 視察官 to speak first.
"You don't know me," the 探偵，刑事 長，指導者 said, "I'm 視察官 Burks. They told me about you at City College. They said you might be a good man to talk to."
Again the スパイ／執行官 設立する it difficult not to show amazement. A man of a thousand 直面するs should 推定する／予想する to create strange 状況／情勢s. But this one was unbelievably fantastic.
"Come in, 視察官," he said, making an 成果／努力 to keep his 発言する／表明する casual.
The 視察官 entered stolidly, his pale, gaunt 直面する composed.
"It's about these 拷問 殺人s, Morvay," he said when they were seated. "I've got a theory I want to talk over with an 専門家—someone like you. These 殺人，大当りs strike me as 存在 the work of an 異常な man."
"A sadist," said the スパイ／執行官 静かに.
Burks leaned 今後 in excitement.
"That's the word. But would a man like that—a sadist who likes to 傷つける people—have enough brains to 遂行する／発効させる such a 一連の 罪，犯罪s? Wouldn't he be deficient mentally?"
The スパイ／執行官 leaned 支援する in his 議長，司会を務める, a cigarette in his long fingers, smoke curling lazily from his nostrils. He was enjoying the 状況／情勢 now. What would Burks do if he knew his real 身元? It was grotesque, ironic, that the two men 追求するing the same group of 犯罪のs should 会合，会う under such circumstances.
"Have you ever thought," he said "that these 酸性の 投げる人s may be only the 道具s of some greater 犯罪の, or 犯罪のs? The money だまし取るd by the '拷問 信用' has been gotten with the greatest cleverness. There are cunning brains behind this."
The 視察官 leaned 今後, his 注目する，もくろむs snapping.
"By God, I know it! And if there's a master 犯罪の 支援する of this ゆすり, I know who it is!"
"You do?"
"Yes, a man who calls himself Secret スパイ／執行官 'X.' A man who's as cunning as a fox."
For a moment there was silence so 完全にする that the clock on the mantel seemed to give out sledgehammer blows. Then the スパイ／執行官 spoke.
"Why not go after him?"
The 視察官 swore 激しく.
"I had him the other night. A 警官，（賞などを）獲得する caught him こそこそ動くing 負かす／撃墜する a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 escape after an 酸性の throwing. But he got away—I won't say how. There are twenty （警察，軍隊などの）本部 men out looking for him now."
"Tell them to keep at it," was the スパイ／執行官's 静める rejoinder.
Burks didn't catch the faintly mocking 公式文書，認める, and if he had he wouldn't have understood. He asked another question relating to sadism. And スパイ／執行官 X, 提起する／ポーズをとるing as the psychologist Morvay, began a learned discussion of the 支配する.
When 視察官 Burks left, he was impressed with the fact that Morvay was a 井戸／弁護士席-知らせるd man.
THE INSTANT THE DOOR had の近くにd, スパイ／執行官 X sprang out of his 議長，司会を務める and 始める，決める to work again on Morvay's desk. All his casualness of manner had left him. A 猛烈な／残忍な inward 解雇する／砲火／射撃 seemed to be 運動ing him on. He hadn't forgotten those terrible moments in the subterranean 回廊（地帯）s of the 黒人／ボイコット-式服d trio's （犯人の）隠れ家. He hadn't forgotten the haggard, terror-stricken look on Betty Dale's 直面する when he had come in time to save her from awful mutilation. And at any moment the "拷問 信用" might strike again. The 脅し of it was a 黒人／ボイコット, ever 現在の menace. The 視察官's words had brought home to him the utter bafflement of the police.
He finished with the desk and took out Morvay's wallet. It 含む／封じ込めるd sixty dollars in 法案s, 会員の地位 cards to several 排除的 clubs, a driver's license. Then, in an inside pocket, he 設立する a crumpled, newspaper clipping.
It was 示すd by pencil and 発表するd the sailing to America on board the steamship Victoria of Sir Anthony Dunsmark, distinguished 公式の／役人 of the Bank of England.
For long seconds the スパイ／執行官 星／主役にするd at the clipping, his 注目する，もくろむs glowing strangely.
He reached again for the telephone 調書をとる／予約する. Albert Bartholdy and Doctor Eric 先頭 Houten were both 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）d, their 演説（する）／住所s given. The スパイ／執行官 paused in 疑問. He was 直面するd with one of the biggest problems of his life.
If Bartholdy and 先頭 Houten were the other members of the trio, he would have to proceed with the greatest 警告を与える. A 誤った step now would put them on their guard. Yet he would have to 行為／法令／行動する quickly before the 見えなくなる of Morvay was 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd. That tiny clipping について言及するing the coming of Dunsmark might be the 重要な to the 状況／情勢. Why was Morvay 利益／興味d in Dunsmark?
The スパイ／執行官 left Morvay's house and went first to the 演説（する）／住所 of Albert Bartholdy. He changed his disguise on the way to H.J. ツバメ.
Bartholdy lived in a 流行の／上流の apartment building. 提起する／ポーズをとるing as a credit 捜査官／調査官, スパイ／執行官 X learned from the apartment 経営者／支配人 that Bartholdy was a lawyer 雇うd as an assistant in the 検察官's office. That explained the trio's uncanny knowledge of police movements.
He got his car out of the 中央の-town garage, drove to Doctor 先頭 Houten's 演説（する）／住所, and his 注目する，もくろむs brightened. It was a 私的な home.
He parked his car far up the 封鎖する, then, under cover of the 不明瞭, he slipped through a servant's alley, crossed a 支援する yard, and circled the house till he 位置を示すd the windows of what appeared to be an office.
Using fingers and toe 持つ／拘留するs and 危険ing a 落ちる, he climbed stealthily up the 味方する of the building till he got a 見解（をとる） into the window under the 狭くする space below the shade.
A thin, gray-haired man inside was sitting at a desk interviewing a lady. X could not hear what was 存在 said, but the thin man's manner was 熟考する／考慮するd, professional, He drew a prescription pad from a drawer of the desk, wrote something on it, and 手渡すd it to the lady as X watched. The man was unquestionably Doctor 先頭 Houten.
The スパイ／執行官 熟考する／考慮するd him carefully. 先頭 Houten, too, had a 直面する of 知能; but the nostrils were thin, the mouth small, and the 注目する，もくろむs 狭くする and の近くに-始める，決める. High, flat cheekbones and a cleft chin gave the features a look of 力／強力にする—but it was a 直面する that might harbor brutality and greed—the 直面する of a possible 犯罪の.
The スパイ／執行官 slid noiselessly to the ground and began a 患者 徹夜 in the 影をつくる／尾行するs across the street. If an 即座の 罪，犯罪 were 存在 plotted, the trio would surely 会合，会う again.
IT WAS CLOSE to ten-thirty when he saw the 人物／姿／数字 of Doctor 先頭 Houten 現れる. Many 患者s had gone in and come out. The doctor's office hours were over.
With the 技術 of long experience, the スパイ／執行官 影をつくる／尾行するd his man. His heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 faster. Doctor 先頭 Houten was getting into a cab.
At a 安全な distance the スパイ／執行官 followed. Where was 先頭 Houten bound? The doctor's next move 納得させるd him. For 先頭 Houten got out, 解任するd the cab and walked several 封鎖するs. Then, after a ちらりと見ること around him, signaled another taxi.
The スパイ／執行官 overtook the cab, passed it, and went on out of sight. He 圧力（をかける）d the gas button 負かす／撃墜する and drove his roadster like a demon. He ちらりと見ることd at the clock on the 器具 board. It was twenty minutes to eleven. Could it be that a 会合 was scheduled to take place in the mysterious 会議 議会 at that hour? 先頭 Houten's furtive movements seemed an affirmative answer.
He raced ahead of the doctor, reaching the 砂漠d 倉庫／問屋 at ten minutes of eleven. Somewhere inside the 悪意のある deaf-mutes might be lurking, but there was one 大勝する through which the スパイ／執行官 felt he could go unmolested. Morvay always entered by the 後部 buildings, and Morvay would not be 現在の tonight.
Using his master 重要なs, he let himself in through the now familiar door. The place seemed silent and 砂漠d. But X sensed the presence of death and horror. He stopped a moment, his 推論する／理由ing faculties working.
The trio always wore 黒人／ボイコット hoods and 式服s. Was it to hide their 身元s from their 犠牲者s? Or did they want to remain unknown to their slaves, the deaf-mutes, 同様に? Morvay had not had the weird 衣料品s with him when he had 現れるd. They must be 蓄える／店d の近くに at 手渡す, for, if they were to 保護する Morvay from the gaze of the deaf-mutes, he would not want to 横断する the 回廊（地帯）s without them.
危険ing （犯罪，病気などの）発見, スパイ／執行官 X 調査（する）d carefully with the beam of his flash. Then he stepped 今後. 推論する／理由 had led him aright. There was a locked closet の近くに to the first door. He groped, opened it, and drew 前へ／外へ the hood and 式服—symbols of 不明瞭 and death.
Standing in the blackness of the 回廊（地帯）, he adjusted them over his 団体／死体 and walked 今後. Twice he turned on the flashlight, fearless now of 存在 discovered by the mutes.
He was the first to reach the 会議 議会 and he had a strange sense of eeriness as he settled himself into the middle 議長，司会を務める. He was taking a terrible chance tonight, going into the very jaws of death. A slip might betray him—some overt 行為／法令／行動する that he couldn't 心配する.
A tiny bulb flashed on, throwing 薄暗い 影をつくる／尾行するs around the room. He 星／主役にするd at the 床に打ち倒す, saw a slight bulge in the carpet の近くに by his foot and understood then how secret signals had been flashed to the mutes.
The seconds seemed to pass with はうing slowness. He heard no sound in the room or in the vastness of the building outside. Had he been 権利 about 先頭 Houten? Was the man coming here tonight?
Slow footfalls approached. They sounded first as a ghostly whisper, 手段d, 正確な. They made his scalp はう.
Waiting tensely in the dimly lit room, he did not know what the next few minutes would bring.
A faint noise （機の）カム from the door. It opened slowly and another hooded 人物／姿／数字 （機の）カム in. Without 調印する or word of 迎える／歓迎するing, the 人物／姿／数字 moved across the room to a 議長，司会を務める at X's 権利 and sat 負かす／撃墜する. 注目する，もくろむs met the スパイ／執行官's from behind the 黒人／ボイコット hood. Was this 先頭 Houten or Albert Bartholdy, he wondered?
The man did not move or speak, and when minutes had passed, a third 人物／姿／数字 entered. It was only then that the first man opened his lips.
"What news?" he said in a low, 厳しい 発言する／表明する. "Are there any new 計画（する）s to discuss? The Victoria ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れるs tomorrow night. When do we move?"
スパイ／執行官 X wondered what answers would be given to this. 詳細（に述べる）s, he hoped, would be brought out that would make it possible for him to 再建する what was passing through their minds. But no one spoke.
Seconds passed. The silence in the room 深くするd. It grew oppressive, deathly.
"井戸／弁護士席?" said a 発言する／表明する at last.
The スパイ／執行官 started then. A slow prickle moved along his spine, reaching to his scalp. He grew 緊張した in his 議長，司会を務める, flexing the muscles that the 黒人／ボイコット 式服 隠すd.
For the hooded 人物／姿／数字s beside him were 星／主役にするing his way—the man who had asked the questions and the other who had just spoken.
He could see a sharp, expectant glitter in the gaze that they fastened on him. And all at once he understood. Professor Morvay had been the master mind of the trio. And, because he had taken the middle seat, they thought he was Morvay. Now they looked to him for 指導／手引 and 戦略 in the 罪，犯罪 they planned. He was suddenly placed in a terrible position, with death and 敗北・負かす as the 落し穴s into which he would つまずく if the answers he made should be wrong.
HE WAITED BREATHLESSLY while the hooded 人物／姿／数字s at his left and 権利 continued to 星／主役にする at him with hard, 侵入するing ちらりと見ることs. They, too, were waiting, and スパイ／執行官 X （疑いを）晴らすd his throat.
"I have been thinking—" he said, then paused, his tongue feeling 乾燥した，日照りの against his teeth. It had taken an 成果／努力 to make his 発言する／表明する sound like Morvay's.
"You said you would 調査／捜査する—discover where Dunsmark would first be 招待するd," said the man at his 権利 who had first spoken.
"Yes," the スパイ／執行官 spoke slowly, 立ち往生させるing for time. "Many 招待s have been sent to him. It will depend upon his own 計画（する）s. We will not know till he lands."
Aggressiveness crept into the 発言する／表明する of the （衆議院の）議長 at his 権利.
"It has been our method to strike 速く and depend on surprise and terror. We must not 延期する too long. We must 行為／法令／行動する while the public and 圧力（をかける） are still in a 熱狂的興奮状態—while 恐れる of us is はびこる. Then Dunsmark's 政府 will 支払う／賃金."
Behind the 黒人／ボイコット hood the 注目する，もくろむs of スパイ／執行官 X gleamed like bits of steel. He 星／主役にするd from one hooded 人物／姿／数字 to the other. There was silence in the room again, silence that was 妊娠している, filled with the greed of men who could not wait. He had learned enough. His 発言する／表明する was low, hoarse when he spoke, but still the 発言する／表明する of Morvay. There was 信用／信任 in his トン. They looked to him as the leader, and he would give them leadership undreamed of.
"You are 権利," he said. "We must strike soon—why not すぐに, the moment he lands?"
The man on his 権利 spoke はっきりと. "We discussed that last night. A police 護衛する will be there and secret service operatives will undoubtedly be guarding him."
スパイ／執行官 X made an impatient, deprecatory gesture.
"There is a way. One man can いつかs 遂行する what many cannot do. I will 逮捕（する） him myself—bring him here. I have thought of a method."
Exclamations of 疑問 and amazement followed his words.
"You can't 遂行する the impossible. How do you 提案する to go about it?"
"信用 me," said the スパイ／執行官 静かに.
"We have always gone over our 計画（する）s together. Three minds are better than one. There may be 欠陥s."
The スパイ／執行官 was stubborn. "I will get Dunsmark alone. Our slaves cannot 行為／法令／行動する in this for us. I will 会合，会う him, introduce myself. I will have (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むd papers from a bank. He will think—"
The man at his left interrupted 厳しく:
"It is not feasible. It is folly!"
The スパイ／執行官 saw he would have to fight 対立. His 発言する／表明する became 積極的な, hard as the rasp of a とじ込み／提出する on metal.
"I will 賭事 my 株 of what we ーするつもりである to make," he said.
"That is nothing. We are all 賭事ing. We will all lose."
"Have you a better 計画（する） to 申し込む／申し出, then?"
"Yes." The man at his left spoke now. "The 初めの one. Our slaves will 秘かに調査する on Dunsmark—we will get him to come out alone on some pretext—as we have done with others. We can use the needle and the 麻薬 again."
The スパイ／執行官 sneered. "It may be days before that can happen. He may grow 怪しげな. The police may 主張する on guarding him night and day. There is agitation against us, my friends. The 政府 is watchful. Have you thought of that?"
The others were silent, and X continued, 運動ing home his point.
"恐れる of us is spreading. It is good in one way. 恐れる is powerful and will separate men from their money. It has helped us before. But it may work against us in the 事例／患者 of Dunsmark. There may be no chance unless we 行為／法令／行動する quickly."
There was silence again as cunning brains pondered behind 黒人／ボイコット hoods. The man who had 反対するd spoke at last.
"Very 井戸／弁護士席," he said. "But if you fail, it will end everything. It will be every man for himself."
There was a 悪意のある 脅し behind his words.
"I have as much to lose as any of you," said the スパイ／執行官 静かに.
"You mean then that you will take him as soon as the boat ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れるs."
"Yes," said the スパイ／執行官, "that is what I mean!"
"And you will bring him here."
"Yes—at once."
"Very 井戸／弁護士席."
The 開会／開廷／会期 was over. The Secret スパイ／執行官 had committed himself to a 仕事 that seemed impossible; to the 仕事 of snatching Sir Anthony Dunsmark away under the very noses of the police and the Secret Service 操作者s who would be watching. It was a 仕事 so daring, so unbelievable, that even the members of the hooded trio were skeptical.
One by one they left the 会議 議会. スパイ／執行官 X drove uptown to the old Montgomery mansion, to his secret room, and all through the night he was awake, 警報, thinking, planning.
The next day he went to the photograph department of a big 主要都市の paper and 購入（する）d from their とじ込み／提出するs all 利用できる photos of a 確かな public 公式の／役人—the Commissioner of Police. He followed it by going to a 私的な photographer who 専攻するd in such things and buying others. He now had fourteen photos of the Commissioner in all 提起する／ポーズをとるs—speaking before a （人が）群がる, in uniform, in 私的な life, and at public 機能（する）／行事s.
That evening he arranged these photos around the 塀で囲むs of his secret room and 熟考する／考慮するd them carefully. Then with pen and 署名／調印する, 合法的な-looking paper, and a metal stamp with the 調印（する） of the city on it, he proceeded to draw up a 文書.
THREE HOURS LATER, a speedboat left a secluded ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる along the waterfront and 発射 out across the harbor. It was a roomy boat, with padded leather seats and a powerful engine that ran as 滑らかに as a watch. A muffler 減ずるd the thunderous reverberations of the モーター to a subdued musical hum. The boat left a white wake behind it as it threaded its way の中で the 強く引っ張るs and gliding フェリー（で運ぶ）s plying between the downtown ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れるs and the towns and cities across the harbor.
The time was eleven-thirty. At the wheel of the speedboat was a tall man in a 黒人／ボイコット coat. He had a soft gray hat pulled low, a muffler around his neck. He 星／主役にするd straight ahead across the water, guiding the speedboat with a 技術d 手渡す.
Once 勝利，勝つd whipped the muffler loose, and the man 倍のd it again over immaculate evening 着せる／賦与するs that showed beneath his coat. He was 明白に a personage of dignity and importance, a handsome man, ruddy 直面するd, gray at the 寺s and with a の近くに-clipped mustache lending strength to his 会社／堅い upper lip. It was the 直面する that was known everywhere—the 直面する of the city's police Commissioner.
Any 警官，（賞などを）獲得する would have pointed him out in a （人が）群がる. Almost any 国民 would have 認めるd him, for his picture had appeared in the 主要都市の papers often. And, in 事例／患者 there might be 疑問 as to his 身元, he carried 文書s to show who he was and to 証明する that his 任期 of office had the city's 許可／制裁.
Yet, miles away in the 流行の／上流の mansion of a 豊富な political boss, the real Commissioner was engaged in an exciting game of poker with several of his cronies. He would have been shocked, furious, terrified if he could have seen the man at the wheel of the boat—the man who would, during the next hour, impersonate himself.
The Secret スパイ／執行官 was 賭事ing again on his mastery of disguise, 賭事ing on a 計画／陰謀 that was incredibly daring.
The speedboat slowed, began moving in wide 平易な circles across the 直面する of the dark waters. Once a harbor patrol （手先の）技術 hove into sight and the スパイ／執行官 stilled the モーター and 消滅させるd the red-and-green running lights on the speedboat's 味方するs. The patrol passed by like a gray 影をつくる／尾行する in the night.
Far 負かす／撃墜する the 狭くするs a blotch of radiance appeared. It （機の）カム nearer, 増加するd in size. It was the high, many-windowed superstructure of a 広大な／多数の／重要な liner—the Victoria.
With the majesty of 広大な 本体，大部分／ばら積みの and 広大な／多数の／重要な 力／強力にする under leash, the greyhound of the seas （機の）カム slowly on. Pygmy 強く引っ張るs nosed along beside it. Soon the 広大な／多数の／重要な turbines would be stilled, the 強く引っ張るs would warp the 抱擁する 大型船 into the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる where hundreds of excited people waited, friends and 親族s of the thousand or more 乗客s on board. But before that happened, there was 公式の／役人 商売／仕事 to be gone through. The Victoria would be held at 検疫 until doctors had made 確かな there were no contagious 病気s on board. This might take one hour or several. The ship was one of the 割れ目 liners. The 乗客 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） held many distinguished 指名するs. The 決まりきった仕事 of 検疫 would be as 簡潔な／要約する as possible.
As the 広大な／多数の／重要な ship 重さを計るd 錨，総合司会者 in the 狭くするs, the Secret スパイ／執行官 circled it and watched. He saw the 検疫 boat heave to beside the 非常に高い 味方するs of the liner, saw the 公式の／役人 doctors board her by the stairway that was lowered.
The スパイ／執行官 steered his speedboat の近くに then, gliding silently と一緒に the 検疫 （手先の）技術. He made 急速な／放蕩な a rope and stepped lightly over the 検疫 boat's deck.
A sailor stuck his 長，率いる out of the small hatchway and 星／主役にするd at him in wonder. But スパイ／執行官 X 申し込む／申し出d no explanation.
It wasn't until an officer at the 最高の，を越す of the liner's companionway tried to stop him that he drew out the 文書 showing who he was. The officer saluted and stepped 支援する respectfully.
A minute more and he was in the presence of the Victoria's grizzled captain. One of the 検疫 men and a customs 公式の／役人 were with the captain. They 認めるd the Commissioner at once. His papers this time were not necessary. As he drew the captain aside, his handsome 直面する was 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な.
"Sir Anthony Dunsmark is on this ship, I believe, Captain," he said.
"Yes."
スパイ／執行官 X （疑いを）晴らすd his throat and 星／主役にするd at the Victoria's 長，指導者 officer, frowning. The 検疫 man and the customs 公式の／役人 looked on in wonder. They could not hear what was 存在 said, but it was evident that something of 広大な 輸入する had brought the Police Commissioner out across the harbor.
"There is a 陰謀（を企てる） 進行中で," said the スパイ／執行官, "a 陰謀（を企てる） to 誘拐する Sir Anthony Dunsmark and 持つ／拘留する him for ゆすり，強要 money. He may be 負傷させるd, killed. The city can take no chances. It will be better to spirit him away, keep him out of sight until the police have had a chance to 調査／捜査する. I will take him 直接／まっすぐに to my home, Captain."
The captain nodded 即時に. It was not his 商売／仕事 to question the 知恵 of a move 支持するd by one of the country's greatest police 長，率いるs. スパイ／執行官 X was led 今後 through the ship to the expensive 控訴 of cabins that was 占領するd by Sir Anthony Dunsmark and his 長官. The captain introduced the Commissioner.
スパイ／執行官 X saw a tall, ruddy-直面するd, わずかに stout Britisher. Dunsmark had on a baggy gray 控訴. A pair of eyeglasses hung by a cord from his vest. He was vastly flustered at the news the Commissioner 配達するd in a low, terse 発言する／表明する.
His 直面する had paled a trifle. He was a man unaccustomed to 暴力／激しさ. Most of his days had been spent in 静かな, luxurious offices where people spoke in subdued 発言する／表明するs and where there was an 空気／公表する of efficiency and 安定.
"I am terribly sorry, Sir Anthony," said the スパイ／執行官. "But we can take no chances. You had better come with me at once to 避ける danger later when the boat ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れるs."
Puffing with excitement, Dunsmark 問題／発行するd orders to his 長官.
"Your baggage can wait for the customs men," said the スパイ／執行官. "Your 長官 can stay and take care of that. This is all very unusual."
"Very," echoed Dunsmark.
"But it is made necessary by the 圧力 of circumstances. We must 戦闘 罪，犯罪 as best we can."
"やめる!" said Dunsmark.
He was hustled off the boat so quickly and efficiently that he hardly knew what was happening. Sailors from the Victoria held the わずかな／ほっそりした speedboat while he climbed in. If they or the captain thought it strange that the Police Commissioner should come out alone, they said nothing. This was an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 条件 of 事件／事情／状勢s, met in an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の way.
スピード違反 支援する across the harbor Dunsmark 回復するd some of his composure. He chatted with the man whom he thought was the Commissioner.
"You Americans," he said, "are 独立した・無所属 fellows. Fancy an English 公式の／役人 存在 able and willing to 操縦する his own boat like this!"
It was only after they had reached shore by means of an ill-smelling ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる and climbed into a parked roadster that Dunsmark began to show 調印するs of nervousness again. Several times he ちらりと見ることd uneasily at the man beside him.
His uneasiness visibly 増加するd as the car rolled into a maze of streets that were dark, rough, and cluttered; streets that seemed to have about them a 悪意のある atmosphere of 罪，犯罪. He spoke at last.
"Look here, Commissioner. I don't やめる understand this. I thought—"
His words 中止するd in a startled, choking gasp. His 注目する，もくろむs bulged from his 長，率いる. For the Commissioner had drawn a gun. It gleamed wickedly under the glow of the 器具-board light, and it was pointed straight at his 味方する.
"I'm sorry," said the Commissioner softly. "You will have to come with me and do what I say, Sir Anthony. Any 試みる／企てる on your part to cry out or escape will have very serious consequences."
AGENT X SENSED AT ONCE that Dunsmark was not a man to 原因（となる） him trouble. The Britisher was certainly no coward. His many 勇敢な 行為／法令／行動するs and 決定／判定勝ち（する）s in the world of 財政／金融 had 証明するd that. But he wasn't used to physical 活動／戦闘. And he was still overawed by 報告（する）／憶測s read of 罪，犯罪 条件s in America. He sat 低迷d in his seat, white-直面するd, silent, ready for the worst.
X drove the car on through the night into the 影をつくる／尾行する of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 倉庫／問屋 where hideous things had been done and where others would be done again if he didn't 妨げる them; where the seeds of 殺人 had been 工場／植物d and nourished.
He ordered Dunsmark out of the car, and told him to stand 静かに in the 影をつくる／尾行するs for a moment.
"There are others about, Sir Anthony," he said. "Do as I tell you. Take no chances. 決定的な 問題／発行するs are at 火刑／賭ける." How 決定的な he did not try to explain. Dunsmark could think what he chose for the time 存在.
スパイ／執行官 X went to the 支援する of the roadster, 打ち明けるd the cover of the rumble seat, and 解除するd it. In the spacious compartment in 前線 of the seat was the 団体／死体 of a man 二塁打d up. The man was not dead, only unconscious, for he was breathing 定期的に. It was the 団体／死体 of Professor Morvay.
The スパイ／執行官 reached in, しっかり掴むd Morvay, and 解除するd him out. At sight of his limp 人物／姿／数字 Sir Anthony Dunsmark gasped with 恐れる. Death, mystery, and horror had met him on his 上陸 in America. He regretted that he had come at all. But the sight of a man who appeared to be dead 麻ひさせるd his will. He took 苦痛s to obey the スパイ／執行官's orders.
Carrying Morvay over his shoulder, the スパイ／執行官 動議d Dunsmark to the 味方する of one of the old buildings, and opened the door. He 動議d Dunsmark inside, then 静かに の近くにd and locked the door, and deposited Morvay on the 床に打ち倒す. Then, standing Dunsmark の近くに to the 塀で囲む, he turned a flash light on his 直面する and 熟考する／考慮するd him for long moments.
"Sorry," he said again. "But you must do as I tell you." His 静める 発言する／表明する seemed at 半端物s with his strange 活動／戦闘s.
He took the 黒人／ボイコット hood and 式服 from the closet by the door and adjusted them on his 団体／死体 without even 除去するing the disguise of the Police Commissioner. He had to work quickly now, make every move count in the desperate game he was playing.
With the hood over his 長，率いる and his 注目する，もくろむs glittering through the slits, he looked far more terrible than he had as the 井戸／弁護士席-dressed Police Commissioner. Dunsmark's 直面する went a shade paler. He moved 今後 like a somnambulist as the スパイ／執行官 made 動議s with his gun.
Carrying the 団体／死体 of Morvay, and thrusting Dunsmark ahead, the スパイ／執行官 went slowly 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯）. It was fortunate that the deaf-mutes could hear nothing. It was fortunate, too, that 先頭 Houten and Bartholdy entered and left by different ways. He would not 遭遇（する） them till he arrived at the 会議 議会.
Twenty feet from the door of the secret room, in a closet under a stairway that he had 以前 公式文書，認めるd, he thrust the still form of Morvay. Then he flicked on his light for a moment and 動議d Dunsmark on.
In silence they at last entered the 議会 where so much evil had been plotted.
There was a 薄暗い light 燃やすing in the room; and two spectral 黒人／ボイコット-式服d 人物／姿／数字s sitting on 議長，司会を務めるs. They gave 厳しい exclamations at sight of the British financier. Their 注目する，もくろむs gleamed with a 猛烈な／残忍な, avaricious light.
"I kept my word," said スパイ／執行官 X 静かに.
For a moment there was awed silence, then the man at the スパイ／執行官's left 圧力（をかける）d his foot on a bulge in the carpet. The スポットライト on the 天井 above flashed on. It bathed Dunsmark's 直面する in brilliant radiance. The paleness of his features, the tenseness of his 態度, the combative look in his 注目する，もくろむs, 証言するd to the fact that he had been brought unwillingly. スパイ／執行官 X had relied on that. It was why he hadn't dared take Dunsmark into his 信用／信任. The unpleasant interlude had been necessary if his 計画（する）s were to 後継する.
"Does he know the 推論する／理由 for his 存在 here?" （機の）カム a 発言する／表明する from behind one of the hoods.
"No," said the スパイ／執行官. "I have told him nothing. I have kept my word—brought him. 知らせる him of what we have in mind."
The man at the スパイ／執行官's 権利 spoke in a 厳しい 手段d 発言する／表明する.
"You are an important man, Dunsmark—important to your country and to the world. Neither your country nor the world can afford to lose you. They will, for that 推論する／理由, take 苦痛s to see that you are returned to them uninjured."
The British 銀行業者 slowly nodded his 長，率いる. A sudden 殺到する of 血 swept across his 直面する. His cleft chin jutted.
"You don't understand—"
"I understand everything, Dunsmark. You realize, of course, that 身代金 is 推定する／予想するd for your 安全な return. A child could しっかり掴む that. You can guess that the 量 for such an important person as yourself will be large, staggeringly large, but not too large—not more than your country will 喜んで 支払う／賃金. But you don't understand just where you are. You don't realize what will happen if you fail to 会合，会う our 需要・要求するs."
Dunsmark's 権利 握りこぶし 強化するd into a ball.
"By Gad, gentlemen—I don't care what your 需要・要求するs are. You've 選ぶd the wrong 犠牲者. You can't 脅迫してさせる me!"
A 厳しい, grating laugh （機の）カム from behind the 黒人／ボイコット hood.
"Have you followed the news, Dunsmark? Have you heard of that mysterious organization called the '拷問 信用'? Have you read 報告（する）／憶測s of what happens to men who 辞退する to 会合，会う its 需要・要求するs?"
Dunsmark's 直面する paled again, and its 表現 showed that news of the terrible 一連の 罪，犯罪s had reached England.
"I see you've heard of us," continued the 発言する／表明する. "You have heard of dead men, rich men and their sons, 存在 設立する with their 直面するs gone, eaten by 酸性の. You are a man of imagination. You can picture to yourself no 疑問 what the slow claws of 酸性の can do. You can understand why you will 支払う／賃金."
"Damn you!" cried the Englishman. "I still say you can't 脅迫してさせる me. I won't sell my country out to 身代金 my own carcass."
"No!" the persuasive 発言する／表明する went on. "That is noble of you. That is loyal. You are a man of high ideals, of 広大な／多数の／重要な 原則s. You will sacrifice yourself. But have you ever had liquid 減少（する）s of 拷問 注ぐd on your 肌, Dunsmark? Would you want to return to your country marred beyond 承認? Would you want to spend the 残り／休憩（する） of your life looking so hideous that your friends will turn away from you in horror.
"Damn you—damn you!" gasped the Englishman. "Let me out of here!"
"That will be 平易な," said the 発言する／表明する of his tormenter. "We can ask the 身代金 money without your 同意. But everything will be better, more simple, if you will 令状 a 公式文書，認める yourself directing your country to 支払う／賃金 what we ask. We will make all 手はず／準備 for the 公式文書，認める's 配達／演説／出産, the 配達／演説／出産 of the money, and your 安全な return. It will be 行為／行うd in a 事務的な way."
Dunsmark was quivering with fury now.
"All we ask," said the hooded 人物／姿／数字, "is a sum proportionate to your high position. A sum which your country, or you yourself perhaps, can 井戸／弁護士席 afford to 支払う／賃金. All we ask is five hundred thousand 続けざまに猛撃するs!"
The Secret スパイ／執行官 gasped. They were 需要・要求するing over two million dollars.
Dunsmark, still trembling violently, remained silent.
"What do you say," （機の）カム the 発言する／表明する. "Will you 協力する—make things 平易な for yourself and us? Or must we give you a taste of what hell is like?"
"Go to the devil, all of you," the Englishman cried in a sudden burst of fury. "There are police in America! There is 法律 and order. You'll go to 刑務所，拘置所 and the gallows for this."
The Secret スパイ／執行官 spoke then. "He will not be 納得させるd, my friends. We will have to take him 負かす／撃墜する below. Call our slaves."
The hooded 人物／姿／数字 at his 権利 silently 圧力（をかける）d the button 隠すd under the carpet—the button that flashed lights in the deaf-mutes' ４半期/4分の1s. A moment later four of them glided in, and the same hooded man flashed orders with his fingers.
The スパイ／執行官 spoke then.
"I am going with him," he said. "Let us all go. Let us see that our slaves make no 失敗 in this."
Silently they rose and 負傷させる through the 冷気／寒がらせる 回廊（地帯）s to the cellar below. The door of the 拷問 議会 was 打ち明けるd. Struggling and 抗議するing ひどく, Dunsmark was thrust into the metal 議長，司会を務める. In a moment the metal cuffs had been clamped over his 手渡すs and ankles.
"We have come," said the スパイ／執行官, "to give you a chance to change your mind—before it is too late."
One of the mutes, 正確な as an automaton, had gone to a shelf and taken the stopper from a 瓶／封じ込める of 酸性の.
"You see it," said the hooded 人物／姿／数字 standing by the スパイ／執行官's 味方する. "You see the liquid that no human will can 耐える."
"God!" cried Dunsmark. "There are decent 法律s and police in America, I say. You'll go to 刑務所，拘置所. They won't let this happen."
As though in answer to his words, a sudden sound reverberated through the building. It was a clanging metallic 公式文書，認める. Then somewhere far above, faint and shrill, a whistle sounded. The noise of a blow （機の）カム again, repeated, taken up and echoed, till the whole 倉庫／問屋 shook and trembled, as though a hundred axes were 衝突，墜落ing through the doors.
"The police," hissed the スパイ／執行官, ひどく. "A （警察の）手入れ，急襲. Every man for himself!"
IN HER ROOM at the Hotel Graymont, Betty Dale paced restlessly. She lit innumerable cigarettes, took short quick puffs, ground them out. Her 注目する，もくろむs were dark with worry. Once she went to the window and 星／主役にするd out across the rooftops. Lights showed on the river far away. In the streets below, after-theater （人が）群がるs 殺到するd and jostled, and the faint blare of taxi horns rose in an uneasy murmur.
There was laughter and gaiety in the ceaseless stream of humanity that flowed on the sidewalks around the hotel like a stream washing the base of a 広大な／多数の／重要な cliff. There were smiling 直面するs and lightly moving feet. But Betty Dale had a sense of uneasiness, a sense that strange, 悪意のある things portended.
That afternoon she had had a visit from the スパイ／執行官. He had come to her as H.J. ツバメ, a sallow-直面するd, sandy-haired man. His card had read: "Credit 経営者／支配人, Feeder & Wright Department 蓄える／店s!" She had been fooled as usual until his card had turned 黒人／ボイコット in her 手渡すs, leaving a glowing white X on its surface. Then she had known.
But this time his 指示／教授／教育s had surprised her even more than his disguise. He had discarded for the moment his habit of talking in parables and innuendoes. He had 問題／発行するd short, crisp 声明s.
"I want you to do something for me, Betty. If I don't call 支援する before one o'clock tonight, I want you to phone police （警察，軍隊などの）本部. Ask for 視察官 Burks and tell him that Sir Anthony Dunsmark has been 誘拐するd. Tell him Dunsmark has fallen into the clutches of the '拷問 信用,' and tell him where Sir Anthony and the members of the 信用 can be 設立する."
He had given her explicit directions then—street numbers that Betty 認めるd. The place he 述べるd was the old 倉庫／問屋 where she had been held and 脅すd with 拷問. Her 直面する paled at the recollection.
"And you," she said. "If the police （警察の）手入れ，急襲 the place, where will you be?"
The スパイ／執行官 had remained silent and Betty had noticed that in his 注目する，もくろむs was a strange, 有望な light. When he spoke again his words had not been an answer to her worried query, but その上の 指示／教授／教育s.
"Don't use the hotel telephone, Betty. Go at least four 封鎖するs away. Use a 蓄える／店 phone booth and leave as soon as you have made your call."
He had gone then, leaving Betty Dale anxious, uneasy. The hours had dragged by. All evening she had hoped he would call again; hoped that he would countermand his strange orders. How could even the Secret スパイ／執行官 know that Sir Anthony Dunsmark would be 誘拐するd? The British 銀行業者, she knew, had not landed in America. Had スパイ／執行官 X wormed his way into the innermost circle of the "拷問 信用," and if so what desperate game was he playing?
Twelve o'clock （機の）カム with no その上の word from him. She called the steamship office then. They told her the liner Victoria, on which Dunsmark was arriving, was in the harbor, but that it would be held at 検疫 for an hour or more.
A ４半期/4分の1 of one （機の）カム and Betty put on her hat and coat. She took an elevator to the ロビー, walked through it, and passed out into the street. Five 封鎖するs away she entered a cigar-蓄える／店 telephone booth and dialed a number. The sleepy 発言する／表明する of a desk sergeant at police （警察，軍隊などの）本部 answered her, and Betty said:
"I want to speak to 視察官 Burks."
"You can't, lady," the sergeant said. "He ain't here. He's gone home."
"I must speak to him anyway. This is very important."
"Who are you?"
"Never mind. Get the 視察官. It's a 事柄 of life and death."
The sergeant 不平（をいう）d and complained, but at the end of a minute he had made switchboard 関係s. Another 発言する／表明する sounded over the wire.
"This is 視察官 Burks. What's it all about? What do you want?"
In quick, breathless 宣告，判決s Betty Dale relayed the message that the スパイ／執行官 had asked her to 配達する—the message 発表するing Sir Anthony Dunsmark's 誘拐—and the 視察官's 発言する／表明する rose into a 厳しい irritable rasp.
"That's impossible! You're lying! The Victoria, the boat he's on, hasn't even ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れるd. She's still at 検疫. I know because I've got 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs waiting to look out for him. Who the hell are you, lady?"
But Betty Dale didn't answer. She had done her 義務, done what the Secret スパイ／執行官 had asked. She hung up quickly and left the 蓄える／店 before the police tried to trace the call.
INSPECTOR BURKS AT THE OTHER end of the wire jangled the receiver futilely. His pale 直面する had turned a shade paler. There was an uneasy look in his 注目する，もくろむs. The girl who had called him up and 辞退するd to give her 指名する was 明白に a nut. What she had told him couldn't be true. Dunsmark couldn't be kidnapped before the Victoria landed. But still he was uneasy. And he wasn't a man to let anything pass.
Growling in his throat, still irritable from having been waked up, he 解除するd the receiver again and 需要・要求するd the ship-to-shore service.
"Get me the steamer Victoria—now in the harbor. Let me speak to her captain."
In a moment the call had leaped through the 空気／公表する across the harbor by wireless telephone. The 発言する／表明する of the captain buzzed in his ear. 視察官 Burks asked a blunt question.
"Is Anthony Dunsmark still on board? This is the 長，率いる of the city 殺人 squad."
The captain answered quickly.
"Sir Anthony left nearly an hour ago. The Police Commissioner （機の）カム and got him."
There was an instant of dead silence, then Burks spoke hoarsely.
"The Commissioner—say—he wouldn't do that without letting me know."
"It was the Commissioner I tell you—there's no 疑問 about it."
"What the hell!" 爆発するd Burks.
He was beginning to tremble now. He was beginning to sense that something somewhere was terribly wrong. It wasn't like the Commissioner to do such a thing without 知らせるing the 長，率いるs of his departments.
With shaking 手渡すs, Burks dialed the Commissioner's house and got the Commissioner's red-haired wife.
"I want to speak to Charlie," said the 視察官.
"He hasn't been home all evening. He's out with the boys again—playing cards, I suppose. You'll probably find him at MacDorsey's."
Burks knew who MacDorsey was—one of the city's richest political bosses. He made the telephone dial buzz like an angry bee, and when he got MacDorsey on the wire his 発言する／表明する was a husky croak.
"Better not interrupt the Commish," said MacDorsey. "He's 製図／抽選 for a 王室の 紅潮／摘発する."
"I've got to speak to him. It's important."
Burks gulped for 空気／公表する when he heard the Commissioner's polished 発言する／表明する, a little chiding now at 存在 乱すd during off hours.
"What is it, 視察官? More grief I suppose?"
"Did you go out in a boat tonight, 長，指導者, and take that Englishman, Anthony Dunsmark, off the Victoria?"
"Did I what? Say have you gone crazy, Burks? What are you talking about?"
"You didn't get him off about an hour ago?"
"No. I've been here with the boys all evening. What the hell's the 事柄 with you!"
"Dunsmark's been kidnapped, 長，指導者. The '拷問 信用' has got him. The captain of the Victoria says someone who looked like you grabbed him off the boat. I've been tipped off to where he is. I'm going to （警察の）手入れ，急襲 the place."
The Commissioner's トン was apoplectic.
"For God's sake don't let this get into the papers! We'll all look 甘い. I'll sit in at the （警察の）手入れ，急襲. Where is it?"
In 簡潔な／要約する 宣告，判決s Burks told him. Then he made the wires hot. His rasping 発言する／表明する started the さまざまな departments in 活動／戦闘, got other 視察官s on the 職業. He asked that トラックで運ぶs of the 緊急 squad be sent out, asked the boiler squad to 協力する, and ordered all 利用できる men of the 殺人 squad 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd up.
Half dressed, with his shoes unlaced and his collar unbuttoned, he sent his own car roaring 負かす／撃墜する through the night-darkened streets.
THE BIGGEST RAID in the history of the city police was under way. Telephone wires were humming. Captains and sergeants were bawling orders.
A green, high-速度(を上げる） トラックで運ぶ of the 緊急 squad, 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs 粘着するing to the 厚かましさ／高級将校連 rails on its 味方するs, （機の）カム hurtling out of a 味方する street and roared downtown with its サイレン／魅惑的な 叫び声をあげるing. Two motorcycle 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs joined it, （疑いを）晴らすing the way, 追加するing their horns to the din.
私的な cars drew aside. 歩行者s scuttled to safety. 視察官 Burks, his 直面する 荒涼とした, drove madly, 持つ／拘留するing his own horn 負かす／撃墜する.
The tip-off, whoever had given it, had been 完全にする. And he had made his own 指示／教授／教育s 完全にする also. No one was to 行為／法令／行動する until he arrived on the scene to direct the （警察の）手入れ，急襲.
He 設立する grim-直面するd men waiting in the dark streets around the old 倉庫／問屋. There was the glint of 薄暗い light on 暴動 guns and on the 黒人／ボイコット, wicked snouts of (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃s held in 安定した 手渡すs.
Sergeant Mathers, roused from sleep, his 注目する，もくろむs bloodshot, （機の）カム up for 指示／教授／教育s.
"Throw a 非常線，警戒線 around the whole building," said Burks. "Circle the 封鎖する. Don't let anyone get out."
Stealthy-footed men approached the building from all 味方するs. "Those houses in the 後部," said Burks. "Watch them, too."
A sleek, 公式の／役人 car with a 制服を着た chauffeur slid to a 停止（させる）, then crept through the lines of 探偵，刑事s. The Commissioner himself had arrived, his mouth under its mustache a hard, straight line. Someone had put him in a bad 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. Someone had made him appear ridiculous.
"Let's get going," he snapped.
The （警察の）手入れ，急襲 began then. Men with axes, sledge 大打撃を与えるs, and crowbars started 乱打するing in the doors. Powerful サーチライトs 機動力のある on the トラックで運ぶs of the 緊急 squad flashed on, 広範囲にわたる the 味方するs of the big building, making the dark evil streets as 有望な as day. Patrolmen and plain-着せる／賦与するs 探偵，刑事s 注ぐd in, 乱打するing 負かす／撃墜する doors and racing along 回廊（地帯）s.
It was 視察官 Burks himself who first saw a spectral 黒人／ボイコット-式服d form ahead of him. The man flashed into sight for a moment around a corner, and Burks saw the evil glitter of 注目する，もくろむs behind the slitted hood.
"停止（させる）!" he said. "Stand where you are or I'll shoot."
The hooded man ignored the 警告. He tried to spring up a flight of stairs.
There was the 厳しい 割れ目 of an (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. Burks had been a dead 発射 in his day. The man on the stairway 叫び声をあげるd and spun around. He tottered, clutched at the 塀で囲む. Then his 団体／死体 低迷d and rolled backwards. He 崩壊（する）d on the 床に打ち倒す of the passage and lay still.
Burks ran 今後 and snatched the hood loose. Then he gave a swift gasp of surprise.
"God! Albert Bartholdy—one of the D.A.'s snooty assistants. No wonder the 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs didn't have a chance."
There was a blue 穴を開ける in the 味方する of Albert Bartholdy's 長，率いる. One member of the "拷問 信用" would never 陰謀（を企てる） evil again.
But a 巡査 with a 暴動 gun 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯） 悪口を言う／悪態d in 苦痛. Two 悪意のある gray-覆う？ 人物／姿／数字s had appeared ahead of him as if by 魔法. One of them had flung a glittering tube of liquid. It was only by a 奇蹟 of good luck that the 警官，（賞などを）獲得する stepped aside in time.
The tube 粉砕するd against the 塀で囲む の近くに to his 長，率いる. Reeking 化学製品 ガス／煙s filled his nostrils. 減少（する）s of searing 酸性の struck his cheek.
He 悪口を言う／悪態d again, crouched low, and his finger 圧力（をかける）d the 誘発する／引き起こす of the 暴動 gun. The (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 機械装置 jumped and clattered. 炎上 spurted from the 黒人／ボイコット muzzle.
The two evil, gray forms wilted before it, 急落（する），激減（する）d to the 床に打ち倒す, and lay still.
The raiders 侵入するd to the cellar then. Somewhere ahead a light showed. The 視察官 ran 今後, then stopped. Another 黒人／ボイコット-式服d 人物／姿／数字 lay at his feet, He held his gun 安定した, but the 人物／姿／数字 did not move. He stooped, pulled the hood aside, and his 直面する muscles sagged in amazement. For seconds he 星／主役にするd in utter bewilderment.
The man at his feet was not dead but only unconscious. He was breathing 厳しく, 定期的に, in the manner of a man under the 影響（力） of 麻薬s. But his presence in that place and the 黒人／ボイコット hood he wore showed that he, too, was a member of the "拷問 信用." Burks 認めるd the features.
"Morvay!" he gasped.
Two 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs （機の）カム 今後 持つ／拘留するing another 黒人／ボイコット-hooded form. He was struggling, clawing, trying to break away. They drew the hood from his 長，率いる and 視察官 Burks looked into the patrician, cruel features of the murderous doctor, Eric 先頭 Houten. The 表現 of bafflement, 激怒（する）, and 恐れる in the man's 注目する，もくろむs was 証拠 of 犯罪.
THE INSPECTOR TURNED and ran on toward the lighted room ahead. His gun was in his 手渡す, but he holstered it and breathed a sigh of 深い 救済. They had not been too late.
A man in an English-削減（する） tweed 控訴 sat in a metal 議長，司会を務める in the 中心 of the room. His 武器 and 脚s were manacled, 持つ／拘留するing him a 囚人, but he was 損なわれない. His loud 発言する／表明する showed that.
"いじめ（る） for you!" he said. "I told those devils the police would come. There were three of them—殺害者s, torturers. I told them there was 法律 and order in this bally country."
"Dunsmark," said 視察官 Burks.
He 認めるd the famous 銀行業者 from the many photos he had seen in rotogravure sections of the papers. There was 広大な 救済 in his 発言する／表明する. He and his men had saved the city and the country from 不名誉. And the "拷問 信用" had been 粉砕するd, its three hypocritical members caught 現行犯で and exposed: Morvay, Bartholdy, and 先頭 Houten.
Then Burks saw a small 重要な on a shelf 近づく by. It looked like the 重要な to the manacles on Dunsmark's 武器 and 脚s. He tried it, 設立する that it worked, and 解放する／自由なd the Englishman.
Sir Dunsmark stood up, stretched his 四肢s, and grinned.
"This isn't such a bad country after all," he said. "I had a 脅す for a time. Things happened rather suddenly, you know."
"What about that man who （機の）カム for you on the boat? They say he looked like our Police Commissioner."
Sir Anthony was apologetic, courteous, but 会社／堅い.
"I'll tell you all about it later—tomorrow—if you don't mind. I'm a bit tired by all that's happened. Excitement isn't good for me, you know, and I'm a bit late for a rather important 任命. You gather what I mean?"
"Sure thing! Of course."
Burks knew when to be courteous and when to be hard-boiled. A man like Dunsmark wasn't to be trifled with and told what to do. There might be trouble 伴う／関わるd. He 本人自身で 護衛するd Dunsmark through the building and turned him over to the Commissioner. 警官，（賞などを）獲得するs and plain-着せる／賦与するs men were still 粉砕するing doors, and 一連の会議、交渉／完成するing up the last of the gray-覆う？ men.
The Commissioner was solicitous.
"You must take my car," he said. "I'll see that you have a police 護衛する."
"Really," said Dunsmark, waving his 手渡す in the 空気／公表する. "No fuss or publicity, if you don't mind. As I told the 視察官, my 神経s are a bit jangled. I'll just borrow your car and slip out. Thanks awfully."
He got into the car and gave the chauffeur the 指名する of a hotel. The car rolled away on velvety springs.
A few 封鎖するs from the 倉庫／問屋 and Sir Anthony Dunsmark seemed suddenly to change his mind.
"I'll get out here," he said. "A bit of walk will do me good."
The surprised chauffeur started to 反対する, then の近くにd his mouth. It wasn't for him to quibble with a distinguished 乗客. He stopped the car, hopped out, and opened the door with a 繁栄する.
"Give this to 視察官 Burks at once," said Dunsmark.
He slipped a small envelope into the chauffeur's 手渡す.
The chauffeur touched his cap, took the 公式文書，認める, and got 支援する into the car. He watched Sir Anthony Dunsmark's tall 人物／姿／数字 disappear 負かす／撃墜する the street.
"That guy's nuts," he muttered.
Then a faint, melodious whistle reached his ears. It was a whistle that stirred echoes high up in the rooftops and whispered eerily along the 直面するs of the buildings. With a prickle on his scalp that he could not やめる explain to himself, the chauffeur turned the car and drove 速く 支援する to the 倉庫／問屋. He made his way inside the building, 設立する 視察官 Burks talking to the Commissioner and gave him the 公式文書，認める.
"Sir Anthony Dunsmark 手渡すd it to me," he said.
視察官 Burks opened the 公式文書，認める wonderingly, then 星／主役にするd in amazement, his 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするing. The 宣告，判決s of the 公式文書，認める were 簡潔な／要約する and to the point.
Dear 視察官: Look in the closet at the extreme end of the 地階 回廊（地帯）. You will find a little surprise. Kindly 申し込む／申し出 my sincere 陳謝s to Sir Anthony Dunsmark. I 悔いる the inconvenience I 原因（となる）d him; but he is a good sport. I'm sure he will understand when you explain the 事柄 to him.
The 公式文書，認める was unsigned. The 視察官 could make nothing of it. But he ran downstairs again, with the Commissioner に引き続いて him.
There was a door at the end of the lower 回廊（地帯）—a door into a small closet, so 紅潮／摘発する to the 塀で囲む that they had overlooked it. They yanked it open now and stood speechless with amazement.
A man 覆う？ only in his underclothes sat on the 床に打ち倒す of the closet bound with an old piece of rope and gagged with a piece of his own undershirt. When they pulled him to his feet and drew the gag off, he spoke in a cultured British accent.
"広大な／多数の／重要な Scott! What's the meaning of this?" he said.
"Anthony Dunsmark!" gasped the 視察官.
"Yes—and who are you—policemen, or more 凶漢s and 殺害者s?"
"Policemen," said Burks. "This is the Commissioner himself!"
"The Commissioner," said Dunsmark 激しく. "That's what he told me before. If this is your idea of a bally joke, gentlemen—"
But Burks wasn't listening at the moment. He was 星／主役にするing at the 公式文書，認める that the Commissioner's chauffeur had 手渡すd him. It had been unsigned when he first read it. But now at the 底（に届く） of the white page, the 輪郭（を描く）s of a letter were slowly appearing, turning 黒人／ボイコット as the light fell on it. The letter was an X—and it seemed to Burks suddenly that the X was like an 注目する，もくろむ 星／主役にするing up at him and winking in sly, sardonic amusement.
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