man comes here who calls himself Jose Quintana, turn him over to the
police until Mr. Sard returns. No matter what he tells you, turn him
over to the police. Do you understand?"

"Who are you?" demanded the worried clerk. "Are you one of Quintana's
people?"

"Young man," said Darragh, "I'm close enough to Quintana to give _you_
orders. And give Sard orders. ... And Quintana, too!"

A great light dawned on the scared clerk: "_You_ are Jose Quintana!" he
said hoarsely.

Darragh bored him through with his dark stare: "Mind your business," he
said.

* * * * *

That night in Albany Darragh picked up Sard's trail. It led to a dealer
in automobiles. Sard had bought a Comet Six, paying cash, and had
started north.

Through Schenectady, Fonda, and Mayfield, the following day, Darragh
traced a brand new Comet Six containing one short, dark Levantine with a
parrot nose. In Northville Darragh hired a Ford.

At Lake Pleasant Sard's car went wrong. Darragh missed him by ten
minutes; but he learned that Sard had inquired the way to Ghost Lake
Inn.

That was sufficient. Darragh bought an axe, drove as far as Harrod's
Corners, dismissed the Ford, and walked into a forest entirely familiar
to him.

He emerged in half an hour on a wood road two miles farther on. Here he
felled a tree across the road and sat down in the bushes to await
events.

Toward sunset, hearing a car coming, he tied his handkerchief over his
face below the eyes, and took an automatic from his pocket.

Sard's car stopped and Sard got out to inspect the obstruction. Darragh
sauntered out of the bushes, poked his pistol against Mr. Sard's fat
abdomen, and leisurely and thoroughly robbed him.

In an agreeable spot near a brook Darragh lighted his pipe and sat him
down to examine the booty in detail. Two pistols, a stiletto, and a
blackjack composed the arsenal of Mr. Sard. A large wallet disclosed
more than four thousand dollars in Treasury notes -- something to
reimburse Ricca when she arrived, he thought.

Among Sard's papers he discovered a cipher letter from Rotterdam --
probably from Quintana. Cipher was rather in Darragh's line. All
ciphers are solved by similar methods, unless the key is contained in a
code book known only to sender and receiver.

But Quintana's cipher proved to be only an easy acrostic -- the very
simplest of secret messages. Within an hour Darragh had it pencilled
out:

Cipher

"Take notice: "Star Pond,