aum has come clean. Oh, I
guess it's curtains for you all right, all right."

"You don't exactly hate yourself, do you?" gibed Marr. "Sort of pleased
with yourself?"

"Not so much pleased with myself as disappointed in you, Chappy,"
countered the exultant Brock. "I figured you were different from the
rest of your crowd, maybe; but it turns out you're like all the
others--you will do your thinking in a groove." He shook his head in
mock sorrow. "Chappy, tell me--not that it makes any difference
particularly, but just to satisfy my curiosity--curiosity being my
business, as you might say--what number was it you called up from here
about thirty minutes back? Come on. The young lady over yonder will tell
me if you don't. Was it Worth 10,000?"

"Yes," said Marr, "it was."

"I thought so," said Brock. "I guessed as much. But say Chappy, that's
the trunk number of the Herald. Before this you never were the one to
try to break into the newspapers on your own hook. What did you want
with that number?"

"That's my business," said Marr.

"Have it your way," assented Brock with ironic mildness. "Now, Chappy,
follow me a minute and you'll see how you dished your own beans: You
call up Worth 10,000--that's a private matter, as you say. But Central
gets the call twisted and gives you another number--that's a mistake.
And the number she happens to give you is the number of my new branch
office down in the financial district--that's an accident. And the
fellow who answers the call at my shop happens to be Costigan, my chief
assistant, who's been working on the Propbridge case for five weeks
now--and that's a coincidence. He doesn't recognize your voice over the
wire--that would be luck. But when, like a saphead, you pull your new
moniker, but with the same old initials hitched to it, and when on top
of that you ask for George Spillane, which is Cheesy by his most popular
alias--when you do these things, why Chappy, it's your own fault.

"Because Costigan is on then, bigger than a house. You've tipped him
your hand, see? And with our connections it's easy--and quick--for
Costigan to trace the call to this hotel. And inside of two minutes
after that he has me on the wire at my uptown office over here in West
Fortieth. And here I am; as a matter of fact, I've been here all of
fifteen minutes.

"It all proves one thing to me, Chappy. You're wiser than the run of
'em, but you've got your weak spot, and now I know what it is: You th