ossible of the name of the man I
select to fill your legal shoes in this matter. That is satisfactory?
Very well. Murk!"

Murk hurried in from the adjoining room when he heard Sidney Prale's
call.

"Show Mr. Coadley to the hall door, Murk!" Sidney Prale said. "And while
you are about it, please close that ventilator in the corner of the
room. It creates a draft, I am sure, and Mr. Coadley already has cold
feet!"

The attorney glared at Prale, and then got up and walked quickly across
to the door, which the grinning Murk held open to let him pass out.

CHAPTER XX

UP THE RIVER

Coadley had not gone for more than an hour when Detective Jim Farland
arrived at the hotel and made his way immediately to Sidney Prale's
suite.

He found Prale pacing the floor angrily, and Murk sitting in a corner
and watching him. The police detective, after doing duty for a few days,
had been withdrawn, as it seemed evident that Prale had no intention of
jumping his bail or eluding trial in any other way.

"What's the trouble now?" Farland asked.

"Coadley has just been here," Prale replied. "He has quit us. Our
friends the enemy have reached him."

"You couldn't get any sort of an explanation out of him?" Farland asked.

"Nothing at all. He simply informed me that he was done, and that I had
to get another lawyer."

"I'll try to find an honest one for you," Farland declared. "I happen to
know a clever young chap who probably will take the case, especially if
I explain the thing to him, for he loves a fight. There is no special
hurry, but I'll try to attend to it some time to-day."

"Anything new?" Prale asked.

"That is what I am waiting to hear. What did you do last night, Murk?"

Murk related his adventure at length, while Jim Farland listened
gravely, nodding his head now and then, and looking puzzled at times.

"I'd like to know the identity of that masked man," the detective said,
when Murk had finished. "The main trouble in this case is that we do not
know the people we are fighting. We know that Kate Gilbert is one of
them, and have reason to suspect that George Lerton is another. But
there is somebody bigger behind, and that's a fact."

"What are you going to do next?" Prale asked.

"I'm going to pay a little attention to the Rufus Shepley murder case.
I'm going to find out, if I can, who killed Shepley, and why. I am of
the opinion that the murder is distinct from this other trouble, Sid.
Perhaps a cle