n could not be overheard, yet near enough to the
electric light for him to see Donaldson's face clearly.

"I want you to tell me something about young Arsdale," he began. "Is
he in the house there now?"

"Yes. And happy as a clam at high water."

"Has he talked any since he came back?"

"Talked? He's clear-headed enough, if that is what you mean?"

"Has he appeared at all worried--as though he had something on his
mind?"

"Not in the slightest He's taken such a new grip on himself that the
last few days are almost blotted out. You 'd never know him for the
same boy, Saul. He's quit the dope for good."

"So? Remorse!"

"Not the kind of remorse you mean, Beefy. This is the real thing."

Saul thought a moment. Then he asked,

"You told me, did n't you, that he had no money with him that night?"

"Not more than a dollar or so."

"He spent a lot at Tung's."

"The heathen probably robbed him of it!"

"Yes, but where did Arsdale get it?"

Donaldson started. There was something ominous in the question. But
he could n't recount to Saul that disgraceful attack the boy had made
upon his sister when returning for funds. It wouldn't be fair to the
present Arsdale.

"I don't know," he answered. "What have you up your sleeve, Beefy?"

"Something bad," replied Saul bluntly. He lowered his voice: "It is
beginning to look as though your young friend might know something
about the robberies that have been taking place around here."

"What!"

If an earthquake had suddenly shattered the stone house behind the
hedge, it would have left him no more dazed.

"I won't say that we 've got him nailed," Saul hastened to explain,
"but it begins to look bad for him."

"But, man dear," gasped Donaldson, "he is n't a thug! He isn't--"

"If he 's like the others he 's anything when he wants his smoke. I
've seen more of them than you."

"Saul," he said, "you 're dead wrong about this! You 've made a
horrible mistake!"

"Perhaps. But he 'll have to explain some things."

Donaldson took a grip on himself.

"What's the nature of your evidence?"

"There 's the question of where he got his funds, first; then the fact
that all the attacks took place within a small radius of this house;
then the motive, and finally the fact, that in a general way he answers
to the description given by four witnesses. He 'll have to take the
third degree on that, anyway."

The third degree would undoubtedly kill the boy, o