impressed.

"Neat little thing, ain't it?" the man asked, exultantly.

"Where did you get it?" Mary asked.

"In Boston, last week. And between you and me, Mary, it's the only
model, and it sure is a corker for crime."

The sinister association of ideas made Mary shudder, but she said no
more. She would have shuddered again, if she could have guessed the
vital part that pistol was destined to play. But she had no thought
of any actual peril to come from it. She might have thought otherwise,
could she have known of the meeting that night in the back room of
Blinkey's, where English Eddie and Garson sat with their heads close
together over a table.

"A chance like this," Griggs was saying, "a chance that will make a
fortune for all of us."

"It sounds good," Garson admitted, wistfully.

"It is good," the other declared with an oath. "Why, if this goes
through, we're set up for life. We can quit, all of us."

"Yes," Garson agreed, "we can quit, all of us." There was avarice in his
voice.

The tempter was sure that the battle was won, and smiled contentedly.

"Well," he urged, "what do you say?"

"How would we split it?" It was plain that Garson had given over the
struggle against greed. After all, Mary was only a woman, despite her
cleverness, and with all a woman's timidity. Here was sport for men.

"Three ways would be right," Griggs answered. "One to me, one to you and
one to be divided up among the others."

Garson brought his fist down on the table with a force that made the
glasses jingle.

"You're on," he said, strongly.

"Fine!" Griggs declared, and the two men shook hands. "Now, I'll
get----"

"Get nothing!" Garson interrupted. "I'll get my own men. Chicago Red is
in town. So is Dacey, with perhaps a couple of others of the right sort.
I'll get them to meet you at Blinkey's at two to-morrow afternoon, and,
if it looks right, we'll turn the trick to-morrow night."

"That's the stuff," Griggs agreed, greatly pleased.

But a sudden shadow fell on the face of Garson. He bent closer to his
companion, and spoke with a fierce intensity that brooked no denial.

"She must never know."

Griggs nodded understandingly.

"Of course," he answered. "I give you my word that I'll never tell her.
And you know you can trust me, Joe."

"Yes," the forger replied somberly, "I know I can trust you." But the
shadow did not lift from his face.

CHAPTER XIV. A WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT.

Mary dismissed Garson