think of them at all, that here is the canny
president of some fair-sized bank who will not let a client borrow a
dollar beyond his established credit, or that here is the shrewd but
unobtrusive power behind some great industry of the Middle West.

"I'm Hannigan," he announced briefly. "I know you're Old Jimmie
Carlisle's girl. The Duchess told me you wanted me on something big.
What's the idea?"

"You want to get Larry Brainard, don't you?--or whoever it was that
squealed on you?"

There was a momentary gleam in the hard, gray eyes. "I do."

"That's why you're here. In a little over an hour, if you stay quiet in
the background, you'll have what you want."

"You've got a swell-looking lay-out here. What's going to be pulled
off?"

"It's not what I might tell you that's going to help you. It's what you
hear and see."

"All right," said the thin-lipped man. "I'll pass the questions, since
the Duchess told me to do as you said. She's square, even if she does
have a grandson who's a stool. I suppose I'm to be out of sight during
whatever happens?"

"Yes."

In the room there were two spacious closets, as is not infrequent in the
better class of modern hotels; and it had been these two closets which
had been the practical starting-point of Maggie's development of Dick
Sherwood's proposition. To one of these she led Hannigan.

"You'll be out of sight here, and you'll get every word."

He stepped inside, and she closed the door. Also she took the precaution
of locking it. She wished Hannigan to hear, but she wished no such
contretemps as Hannigan bursting forth and spoiling her play when it had
reached only the middle of its necessary action.

Barlow came promptly at half-past eight. He brought news which for a few
moments almost completely upset Maggie's delicately balanced structure.

"I know who you are now," he said brusquely. "And part of your game's
cold before you start."

"Why?--What part?"

"Just after you left Headquarters Officer Gavegan showed up. He had this
Larry Brainard in tow--had pinched him out on Long Island."

This announcement staggered Maggie; for the moment made all her
strenuous planning seem to have lost its purpose. In her normal
condition she might either have given up or betrayed her real intent.
But just now, in her super-excited state, in which she felt she was
fighting desperately for others, she was acting far above her ordinary
capacity; and she was making decisions so swi