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"Maybe he won't come. Maybe he'll get a sniff of danger," said the secretary.

"He'll come, never fear," McMurdo answered. "He is as eager to come as you can be to see him. Hark to that!"

They all sat like wax figures, some with their glasses arrested halfway to their lips. Three loud knocks had sounded at the door.

"Hush!" McMurdo raised his hand in caution. An exulting glance went round the circle, and hands were laid upon their weapons.

"Not a sound, for your lives!" McMurdo whispered, as he went from the room, closing the door carefully behind him.

With strained ears the murderers waited.

They counted the steps of their comrade down the passage.

Then they heard him open the outer door.

There were a few words as of greeting.

Then they were aware of a strange step inside and of an unfamiliar voice.

An instant later came the slam of the door and the turning of the key in the lock.

Their prey was safe within the trap.

Tiger Cormac laughed horribly, and Boss McGinty clapped his great hand across his mouth.

"Be quiet, you fool!" he whispered. "You'll be the undoing of us yet!"

There was a mutter of conversation from the next room. It seemed interminable. Then the door opened, and McMurdo appeared, his finger upon his lip.

He came to the end of the table and looked round at them.

A subtle change had come over him.

His manner was as of one who has great work to do.

His face had set into granite firmness.

His eyes shone with a fierce excitement behind his spectacles.

He had become a visible leader of men.

They stared at him with eager interest; but he said nothing.

Still with the same singular gaze he looked from man to man.

"Well!" cried Boss McGinty at last. "Is he here? Is Birdy Edwards here?"

"Yes," McMurdo answered slowly. "Birdy Edwards is here. I am Birdy Edwards!"