y, perhaps partly once more sheer
momentum, perhaps her instinctive feeling that her place was with the
man she believed to be her father.

"Yes, I'll stay with you," she said to Old Jimmie.

"That's the signal for you to be on your way, Larry Brainard!" Barney
snapped at him triumphantly.

Larry realized, all of a sudden, that his coming here was no more than
a splendid gesture to which his anger had excited him. Indeed there was
nothing for him but to be on his way.

"I've told you the truth, Maggie; and you'll be sorry that you have not
left--if not sorry soon, then sorry a little later."

He turned to Barney with a last shot; he could not leave the gloating
Barney Palmer his unalloyed triumph. "I told you I had the straight dope
on you, Barney. Here's some more of it. I know exactly what your game
is, and I know exactly who your sucker is. We'll see if you put it
over--you squealer! Good-night, all."

With that Larry walked out. Old Jimmie regarded his partner with
suspicion.

"How about that, Barney--you being a stool and a squealer?" he demanded.

"I tell you it's all a lie--a damned lie!" cried Barney with feverish
emphasis.

"I hope it is!" breathed Old Jimmie.

This was a subject Barney wanted to get away from. "Maggie," he
demanded, "is what Larry Brainard said about how he came here the
truth?--his seeing you on the street and then following you here?"

"How do I know where he first saw me?"

"But is to-night the first time you've seen him?"

"It is."

"Sure you haven't been seeing him?" demanded Barney's quick jealousy.

"I have not."

"Did he tell you where he came from?--where he hangs out?"

"No."

Old Jimmie interrupted this cross-examination.

"You're wasting good time asking these questions. Barney, do you realize
the cold fact that it's not a good thing for you, nor for us, for Larry
Brainard to be back in New York, floating around as he pleases?"

"I should say not!" Barney saw he was facing a sudden crisis, and in the
need for quick action he spoke without thought of Maggie. "We've got to
look after him at once!"

"Tell the bunch he's back, and let them take care of him?" suggested Old
Jimmie.

Barney considered rapidly. If Larry knew of his arrangement with the
police, then perhaps his secret was beginning to leak through to others.
He decided that for the present it would be wiser to keep from these old
friends and allies.

"Not the bunch--the police!" he said inspir