returned, just as Mary was glancing over the release, with which General
Hastings was to be compensated, along with the return of his letters,
for his payment of ten thousand dollars to Miss Agnes Lynch.

"Hello, Joe," Mary said graciously as the forger entered. Then she spoke
crisply to Agnes. "And now you must get ready. You are to be at Harris's
office with this document at four o'clock, and remember that you are to
let the lawyer manage everything."

Aggie twisted her doll-like face into a grimace.

"It gets my angora that I'll have to miss Pa Gilder's being led like
a lamb to the slaughter-house." And that was the nearest the little
adventuress ever came to making a Biblical quotation.

"Anyhow," she protested, "I don't see the use of all this monkey
business here. All I want is the coin." But she hurried obediently,
nevertheless, to get ready for the start.

Garson regarded Mary quizzically.

"It's lucky for her that she met you," he said. "She's got no more
brains than a gnat."

"And brains are mighty useful things, even in our business," Mary
replied seriously; "particularly in our business."

"I should say they were," Garson agreed. "You have proved that."

Aggie came back, putting on her gloves, and cocking her small head very
primly under the enormous hat that was garnished with costliest plumes.
It was thus that she consoled herself in a measure for the business of
the occasion--in lieu of cracked ice from Tiffany's at one hundred and
fifty a carat. Mary gave over the release, and Aggie, still grumbling,
deposited it in her handbag.

"It seems to me we're going through a lot of red tape," she said
spitefully.

Mary, from her chair at the desk, regarded the malcontent with a smile,
but her tone was crisp as she answered.

"Listen, Agnes. The last time you tried to make a man give up part of
his money it resulted in your going to prison for two years."

Aggie sniffed, as if such an outcome were the merest bagatelle.

"But that way was so exciting," she urged, not at all convinced.

"And this way is so safe," Mary rejoined, sharply. "Besides, my dear,
you would not get the money. My way will. Your way was blackmail; mine
is not. Understand?"

"Oh, sure," Aggie replied, grimly, on her way to the door. "It's clear
as Pittsburgh." With that sarcasm directed against legal subtleties, she
tripped daintily out, an entirely ravishing vision, if somewhat garish
as to raiment, and soon in the glances