runken man--and your
breath is very offensive."

Dodd began to tap a finger on Farr's breast.

"I want you to understand that I've got a full line on you; you have
been chumming with a Canuck rack-tender, you deserted a woman, and she
committed suicide, and you took the brat--"

Farr's big hand released the elbow and set itself around Mr. Dodd's
neck. Thumb and forefinger bored under the jaw and Mr. Dodd's epiglottis
ceased vibrating.

"I don't like to assault a man, but talk doesn't seem to fit your case
and I can't stop long enough to talk, anyway. This choking is my comment
on your lies." He pushed Mr. Dodd relentlessly down into the nearest
chair and spanked his face slowly and deliberately with the flat of
his hand. "And this will indicate to you just how much I care for your
threats. You'll remember it longer than you will recollect words."

He finished and went away, leaving his victim getting his breath in
the chair. Dodd, peering under the rack, saw him hasten and join the
Honorable Archer Converse in the hotel lobby and they went up the broad
stairs together.

The chief clerk of the state treasury sat there and smoothed his
smarting face with trembling hands and worked his jaws to dislodge the
grinding ache in his neck. But the stinging, malevolent rancor within
him burned hotter and hotter. He started to get up out of the chair and
sat back again, much disturbed.

A man who had been hidden by an adjoining rack of newspapers was now
leaning forward, jutting his head past the ambuscade. He was an elderly
man with an up-cocked gray mustache, and there was a queer little smile
in his shrewd blue eyes. Dodd knew him; he was one Mullaney, a state
detective.

"What are you doing here--practicing your sneak work?" demanded the
young man. As a state official he did not entertain a high opinion of
the free-lance organization to which Mullaney belonged.

"I'm here reading a paper--supposed it's what the room is for," returned
Detective Mullaney. "But excuse me--I'll get out. Room seems to be
reserved for prize-fighters."

"You keep your mouth shut about that--that insult."

"I never talk--it would hurt my business."

"I don't fight in a public place. I'm a gentleman. I want you to
remember what you saw, Mullaney! I'll get to that cheap bum in a way he
won't forget."

"Do you mind telling me who your friend is?" asked the detective.

Dodd shot him a sour side-glance and muttered profanity.

"I couldn'