aded with a moist
tribute to the sultriness of the weather. He fanned himself gently
with a stiff straw hat.

"Hello, Simon," he said presently, when returning breath permitted him
to speak. He did not expect any reply and continued without waiting
for one. "Gosh, I've just had quite a shock!"

"Did, eh? What was it?"

"The sight of our usually immaculate, if unpainted front door. I saw
that rich crimson stain, then observed Steiner coming out looking very
businesslike, and I made sure that some one had brained my noble
partner against his own building."

"The shock coming when you stepped in here and discovered your mistake.
Is that it?

"No, Simon; Nelson told me that it was only Charlie Maxon saying it
with catsup." His light voice grew more serious. "Just the same, a
man who throws tomatoes to-day may throw bricks to-morrow."

"Not Maxon," cut in Varr. "Steiner has my orders to arrest him."

"Arrest him! On charges of assault with a tomato? It's hardly a
deadly weapon unless it's green, and this one very obviously was not.
A slap on the wrist and a reprimand is about all he will get for that."

Varr's chair revolved until he was facing his partner, at whom he
directed a glance of angry impatience. "If you'd listen to me instead
of chattering so much--! I'm charging him with trespass, theft and
property damage." Curtly but clearly, he described the overnight raid
on his garden and his reasons for believing Maxon the culprit. He
noted the changing expression of Bolt's face as the story progressed,
and when it was finished he asked, as he had asked the Chief of Police:
"Well--what is it?"

"I'm thinking of the effect on public sentiment," answered the other
gravely, his thoughts turning in the same direction that Steiner's had
taken. "But of course that doesn't cut any ice with you--I know that.
You'll do as you please regardless of consequences."

"I certainly will!"

"Do you know, Simon, that about twenty of our best men have left town
in the last two weeks? I was talking to Billy Graham this afternoon
and he'd been checking up."

"And making the worst of the situation, you may be sure!" Varr's face
darkened as his heavy brows came together in one of his ready scowls.
"If Graham has been watching the men, I've been watching him. I'm not
so certain that his sympathy isn't with them, instead of with us, where
it ought to be. Yesterday, I met that lanky daughter of his coming
from the