re was
something almost--quite provocative in the flash of gratitude that shone
forth from the blue eyes of the girl in that moment of her superlative
relief. It moved Burke to a desire for rehabilitation in her estimation.

"Now, you see," he went on in his heavy voice, yet very kindly, and with
a sort of massive playfulness in his manner, "no one has hurt you--not
even a little bit, after all. Now, you run right home to your mother."

The girl did not need to be told twice. On the instant, she sprang up
joyously, and started toward the door, with a final ravishing smile for
the pleased official at the desk.

"I'll go just as fast as ever I can," the musical voice made assurance
blithely.

"Give my compliments to your father," Burke requested courteously. "And
tell him I'm sorry I frightened you."

The girl turned at the door.... After all, too great haste might be
indiscreet.

"I will, Commissioner," she promised, with an arch smile. "And I know
papa will be so grateful to you for all your kindness to me!"

It was at this critical moment that Cassidy entered from the opposite
side of the office. As his eyes fell on the girl at the door across from
him, his stolid face lighted in a grin. And, in that same instant of
recognition between the two, the color went out of the girl's face. The
little red lips snapped together in a line of supreme disgust against
this vicissitude of fate after all her manoeuverings in the face of the
enemy. She stood motionless in wordless dismay, impotent before this
disaster forced on her by untoward chance.

"Hello, Aggie!" the detective remarked, with a smirk, while the
Inspector stared from one to the other with rounded eyes of wonder, and
his jaw dropped from the stark surprise of this new development.

The girl returned deliberately to the chair she had occupied through
the interview with the Inspector, and dropped into it weakly. Her form
rested there limply now, and the blue eyes stared disconsolately at the
blank wall before her. She realized that fate had decreed defeat for her
in the game. It was after a minute of silence in which the two men sat
staring that at last she spoke with a savage wrath against the pit into
which she had fallen after her arduous efforts.

"Ain't that the damnedest luck!"

For a little interval still, Burke turned his glances from the girl to
Cassidy, and then back again to the girl, who sat immobile with her blue
eyes steadfastly fixed on the