on't do. I want only one of your good
men--and that man is yourself."

"Me!" growled Barlow. "What kind of floor-walker d'you think I am? I'm
too busy!"

"Too busy to take personal charge, and get personal credit, for one of
the biggest cases that ever went through this office?"

Maggie had sought only to excite his vanity. But unknowingly she had
also appealed to something else in him: his very deep concern in the
hostile activities of the District Attorney's office. If this girl told
the truth, then here might be his chance to display such devotion
to duty as to turn up some such sensational case as would make this
investigation from the District Attorney's office seem to the public
an unholy persecution and make the chagrined District Attorney, who
was very sensitive to public opinion, think it wiser to drop the whole
matter.

"How do I know you're not trying to string me?--or get me out of the way
of something bigger?--or hand me the double-cross?"

"I shall be there all the time, and if you don't like the way the thing
develops you can arrest me. I suppose you've got some kind of law, with
a stiff punishment attached, about conspiracy against an officer."

"Well--give me all the dope, and tell me where I'm to come," he yielded
ungraciously.

"I've told you all I am going to tell. All the important 'dope' you'll
get first-hand by being present when the thing happens. The place to
come is the Hotel Grantham--room eleven-forty-two--at eight-thirty
sharp."

To this Barlow grudgingly agreed. He might have exulted inwardly, but
he would have shown no outer graciousness if a committee of citizens had
handed him a reward of a million dollars and an engrossed testimonial to
his unprecedented services. Barlow did not know how to thank any one.

Five minutes after she left Headquarters Maggie was in the back room of
the Duchess's pawnshop, which her rapid planning had fixed upon as the
next station at which she should stop. She did not waste a moment in
coming to the point with the Duchess.

"Red Hannigan is really the most important of Larry's old friends who
are out to get him, isn't he?" she asked.

"Yes--in a way. I mean among those who honestly think Larry has turned
stool and squealer. He trusted Larry more than any one else--and now
he hates Larry more than any one else. Rather natural, since he was two
months in the Tombs before he could get bail--because he thinks Larry
squealed on him."

"How's he st