o be ordered out of the hotel, but he was not, the
management stipulating only that he should not use the public dining
room. He went up to the suite, to find Murk there, sitting in front of a
window and glaring down at the street.

A cot was moved in for the use of the detective. Coadley held another
conference with Prale, and then left to get busy on the case. Murk
regarded the detective with scorn, until Prale explained the situation
to him. After that, there was a sort of armed neutrality between them.
Murk had no special liking for detectives, and he was the sort of man
detectives do not like.

Presently Jim Farland arrived.

"Well, Sid, Coadley got you out of jail and home before I could get
here, did he?" Farland said. "I suppose I'll not need that note of yours
now. Is this Mr. Murk?"

"It is," Prale said. "Murk, meet Jim Farland. He's a detective friend of
mine."

"Gosh, Mr. Prale, ain't there anybody but cops in this town?" Murk
asked.

"Jim is a private cop, and he has a job now to get me out of this
scrape," said Prale. "He's a friend of mine, I said."

"I guess that makes it different," was Murk's only comment.

"Oh, we'll get along all right," Farland put in. "I'm going to need you
in my business, Murk. I've told the folks at police headquarters that
I'd be responsible for you, so we can work together without being
pestered. Understand?"

Murk grinned at him. "You just show me how to help get Mr. Prale out of
this mess, and I'll sure help," he said.

Farland turned toward the police detective. "Go out into the hall and
take a walk," he suggested. "Mr. Prale will give you a couple of
cigars."

The detective took the cigars and went out into the hall, smiling. He
had no fear of Sidney Prale slipping down a fire escape, or anything
like that. Jim Farland was responsible, and Jim Farland was known to the
force as a man who felt his responsibilities.

"Now we'll get busy and dig to the bottom of this mess," Farland said.
"Been thinking it over, Sid? Know any reason why anybody should be out
after you?"

"I can't think of a thing," Prale replied. "I suppose I made a few
business enemies down in Honduras, but none powerful enough to cause me
all this trouble. I can't understand it, Jim. It must be something big
to cause all those men to lie as they did."

"Maybe it is, and maybe it is very simple when we get right down to it,"
Farland said. "I've started right in to work it out. Let me see thos