"Try me and see," said Larkin with great firmness.
"All right, I'll try you." They were now walking through one of the side streets, which was but dimly lighted. "Here are my lodgings. Come in and we'll talk it over."
He opened the outer door with a pass-key, and Fred followed him up two flights of narrow stairs.
"Here we are," said Burley, opening a door. "Step right in, and I'll light up."
Larkin entered, but he was hardly over the threshold when he was pushed headlong to the floor, and heard the door closed and locked behind him.
A low laugh sounded from the entry. "'Help me out,' will you, you puppy?" whispered Burley through the keyhole. "You'll never help anybody out, in this world. Within ten minutes this house will be a heap of rubbish, and you will be in kingdom come. Good-bye! I'll report you at home!"
His steps echoed down the stairway, and then the house was still.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] Readers of Cleared for Action will remember the previous career of the renegade Stevens. He was a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and subsequently turned against his country. In an attempt to betray the Spaniards he was detected, arrested, and thrown into prison at Santiago just before the fall of that city.