ance.

"You might care to favor me with some explanation which I can lay before
the Chief Commissioner?"

Kerry snapped his white teeth together viciously.

"May I take it, sir, that you accept my resignation?"

"Certainly not. I will place it before the responsible authority. I can
do no more."

"Without disrespect, sir, I want to speak to you as man to man. As a
private citizen I could do it. As your subordinate I can't."

The Assistant Commissioner sighed, stroking his neatly brushed hair with
one large hand.

"Equally without disrespect, Chief Inspector," he murmured, "it is news
for me to learn that you have ever refrained from speaking your mind
either in my presence or in the presence of any man."

Kerry smiled, unable wholly to conceal a sense of gratified vanity.

"Well, sir," he said, "you have my resignation before you, and I'm
prepared to abide by the consequences. What I want to say is this: I'm a
man that has worked hard all his life to earn the respect and the
trust of his employers. I am supposed to be Chief Inspector of this
department, and as Chief Inspector I'll kow-tow to nothing on two legs
once I've been put in charge of a case. I work right in the sunshine.
There's no grafting about me. I draw my salary every week, and any man
that says I earn sixpence in the dark is at liberty to walk right in
here and deposit his funeral expenses. If I'm supposed to be under a
cloud--there's my reply. But I demand a public inquiry."

At ever increasing speed, succinctly, viciously he rapped out the words.
His red face grew more red, and his steel-blue eyes more fierce. The
Assistant Commissioner exhibited bewilderment. As the high tones ceased:

"Really, Chief Inspector," he said, "you pain and surprise me. I do not
profess to be ignorant of the cause of your--annoyance. But perhaps if I
acquaint you with the facts of my own position in the matter you will be
open to reconsider your decision."

Kerry cleared his throat loudly.

"I won't work in the dark, sir," he declared truculently. "I'd rather be
a pavement artist and my own master than Chief Inspector with an unknown
spy following me about."

"Quite so--quite so." The Assistant Commissioner was wonderfully
patient. "Very well, Chief Inspector. It cannot enhance my personal
dignity to admit the fact, but I'm nearly as much in the dark as
yourself."

"What's that, sir?" Kerry sat bolt upright, staring at the speaker.

"At a late hour last n