period of waiting, then Joe commanded: "Tell him
he really mustn't and say good-bye quick."

"You really mustn't! Good-bye!"

The instant her "Good-bye" was out of her mouth Joe clicked the receiver
upon its hook, and stood regarding the breathless Maggie. His pale,
stern face was not quite so severe as before. Presently he spoke: "I
know now that you really were sick of what you'd been trying to do--that
you'd really broken away from these two--that you'd really confessed to
Dick, and are now all square with him."

The word "Father!" struggled chokingly toward her lips. But she only
said:

"I'm glad--you know."

"And you were shrewd in that guess you made of what one of these two
would do." Joe crossed back to Barney and Old Jimmie. "You two must
have been almighty afraid, because of Larry Brainard, that your game was
suddenly collapsing, and each must have been trying to grab a piece for
himself before he ran away."

"What you talking about?" gruffly demanded Barney.

"Perhaps I'm talking about you. But more particularly about Jimmie
Carlisle. For just now Dick Sherwood said when he telephoned, that an
hour or two ago Jimmie Carlisle had hunted him up, had hinted that he
was going to lose a lot of money unless he was properly advised, and
offered to give him certain valuable information for five thousand
cash."

Barney turned upon his partner. "You damned thief!" he snarled, tensed
as if about to spring upon the other.

Old Jimmie, turned greenishly pale, shrank away from Barney, his every
expression proclaiming his guilt. Then Maggie again found her voice:

"And at about the same time Barney was trying to double-cross Jimmie
Carlisle, Barney proposed to me that, after we'd got Dick Sherwood's
money, we'd tell Jimmie Carlisle we'd got very little, and divide the
real money fifty-fifty between just us two."

"You damned thief!" snarled Old Jimmie back at his partner.

The next moment Barney and Old Jimmie were upon each other, striking
wildly, clawing. But the moment after Joe Ellison, his repressed rage
now unloosed, and with the super-strength of his supreme fury, had torn
the two apart.

"You don't do that to each other--that job belongs to me!" he cried.
His right arm flung Barney backward so that Barney went staggering over
himself and sprawled upon the floor. Joe gripped Old Jimmie's collar,
and his right hand painfully twisted Jimmie's arm. "And I finish you off
first, Jimmie Carlisle, for what