Brentwick touched Kirkwood's arm and drew him into the home.

XVIII

ADVENTURERS' LUCK

As the door closed, Kirkwood swung impulsively to Brentwick, with thebrief, uneven chuckle of fine-drawn nerves.

"Good God, sir!" he cried. "You don't know--"

"I can surmise," interrupted the elder man shrewdly.

"You turned up in the nick of time, for all the world like--"

"Harlequin popping through a stage trap?"

"No!--an incarnation of the Providence that watches over kidren andfools."

Brentwick dropped a calming arm upon his shoulder. "Your simile seemssingularly happy, Philip. Permit me to suggest that you join the small child inmy study." He laughed quietly, with a slight nod toward an open door at theend of the hallway. "For myself, I'll be with you in one moment."

A faint, indulgent smile lurking in the shadow of his black mustache, hewatched the young man wheel and dart through the doorway. "Young hearts!"he commented inaudibly--and a trace sorrowfully. "Youth!..."

Beyond the threshold of the study, Kirkwood paused, eager eyes searchingits somber shadows for a sign of Dorothy.