ch an ash-tray, and:

"I really don't think I have anything to say, Miss Halley," she
declared. "I have certainly met Mrs. Sin, but I know nothing whatever
about her, except that I believe she is a Jewess."

Margaret sighed, looking up wistfully into Mollie's face. "Are you
quite sure?" she pleaded. "Oh, Miss Gretna, if you know
anything--anything--don't hide it now. It may mean so much."

"Oh, I quite understand that," cried Mollie. "My heart simply aches and
aches when I think of poor, sweet little Rita. But--really I don't think
I can be of the least tiny bit of use."

Their glances met, and Margaret read hostility in the shallow eyes.
Mollie, who had been wavering, now for some reason had become confirmed
in her original determination to remain silent. Margaret stood up.

"It is no good, then," she said. "We must hope that Rita will be traced
by the police. Good-bye, Miss Gretna. I am so sorry you cannot help."

"And so am I!" declared Mollie. "It is perfectly sweet of you to take
such an interest, and I feel a positive worm. But what can I do?"

As Margaret was stepping into her little runabout car, which awaited her
at the door, a theory presented itself to account for Mollie's sudden
hostility. It had developed, apparently, as a result of Margaret's
reference to the Home office inquiry. Of course! Mollie would naturally
be antagonistic to a commission appointed to suppress the drug traffic.

Convinced that this was the correct explanation, Margaret drove away,
reflecting bitterly that she had been guilty of a strategical error
which it was now too late to rectify.

In common with others, Kerry among them, who had come in contact with
that perverted intelligence, she misjudged Mollie's motives. In the
first place, the latter had no wish to avoid publicity, and in the
second place--although she sometimes wondered vaguely what she should
do when her stock of drugs became exhausted--Mollie was prompted by
no particular animosity toward the Home office inquiry. She had merely
perceived a suitable opportunity to make the acquaintance of the fierce
red Chief Inspector, and at the same time to secure notoriety for
herself.

Ere Margaret's car had progressed a hundred yards from the door, Mollie
was at the telephone.

"City 400, please," she said.

An interval elapsed, then:

"Is that the Commissioner's office, New Scotland Yard?" she asked.

A voice replied that it was.

"Could you put me through to Chi