ak attempt at retaliation, John thought. The mayor's
advisers were right. He was a fool! Why did Brennan sit there and listen
to such stuff?

"Now, get me right," continued the mayor. "I have nothing except a
hunch that Gibson is backed by the 'Gink.' I haven't the slightest bit
of real evidence to form a basis for my suspicion, but I believe I can
see a pretty deep game in this."

"Go ahead, let's see if you figure it out the way I do," said Brennan.

"All right," said the mayor. "In the first place, the 'Gink' has been
against me, trying to get me ever since I took office, you know that?"

Brennan nodded.

"He tried everything he could think of and I've beat him every time. He
knows he can't stay in Los Angeles unless I'm out of office. So what's
he to do? He gets a man like Gibson, starts this so-called clean-up
campaign to get Gibson political power, stages or directs this 'Lark'
wreck business and figures I'll quit so that Gibson can slip in here
under the guise of a reformer, but really a figurehead, a puppet, to
appease the churches and other organizations standing for a clean city
and law enforcement while the 'Gink' bosses things from behind the
scenes.

"It's been done before. It's an old trick and it works almost every
time. Haven't you noticed that Gibson began his attack as soon as I
appointed him commissioner and that he has never said a word about the
'Gink' whom he knows just as well as I do is the city's worst enemy?
This fellow Gibson is only a masquerader."

"That's the way I figured it might be," said Brennan, as the mayor
paused, "but there is one obstacle. How did the 'Gink' ever get Gibson?
How did Gibson, who seems to have plenty of money and a social position,
ever fall into the 'Gink's' hands? What was his motive?"

The mayor smiled for the first time since they entered the room.

"Ah, Brennan, my boy, that's exactly what everyone asks me," he said.
"But I haven't been asleep. When Gibson started all this business I got
busy and I know a few things that help a lot. There seems to be plenty
of reason for Gibson to be working for the 'Gink.'"

"How?" asked Brennan.

"Well," continued the mayor, "I'll only tell you what I know now. Gibson
was highly recommended to me when I appointed him; you may be sure the
'Gink' was that careful. But I wasn't the only one who was tricked.
There were others, the ones who recommended him.

"I've been digging into Gibson's past a little and I find th