ought from Boston. Though Meiklejohn dreaded the man,
conditions might arise which would call for a bold and ruthless
rascality not quite practicable for a Senator.

The lapse of time, too, had lulled the politician's suspicions of the
police. They seemed to have ceased prying. He ascertained, almost by
chance, that Clancy was hot on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters.
"The yacht mystery" had apparently become a mere memory in the Bureau.

So Voles came, with him Mick the Wolf, carrying a left arm in splints,
and the Senator thought he was taking no risk in calling at the up-town
hotel where the pair occupied rooms the day after Carshaw blurted out
Winifred's name to Helen Tower. He meant paying another visit that day,
so was attired _de rigueur_, a fact at which Voles, pipe in mouth and
lounging in pajamas, promptly scoffed.

"Gee!" he cried. "Here's the Senator mooching round again, dressed up to
the nines--dust coat, morning suit, boots shining, all the frills--but
visiting low companions all the same. Why doesn't the man turn over a
new leaf and become good?"

"Oh, hold your tongue!" said William. "We've got the girl, Ralph!"

"Got the girl, have we? Not the first girl you've said that about--is
it, my wily William?"

"Listen, and drop that tone when you're speaking to me, or I'll cut you
out for good and all!" said Meiklejohn in deadly earnest. "If ever you
had need to be serious, it is now. I said we've got her, but that only
means that we are about to get her address; and the trouble will be to
get herself afterward."

"Tosh! As to that, only tell me where she is, an' I'll go and grab her
by the neck."

"Don't be such a fool. This is New York and not Mexico, though you
insist on confounding the two. Even if the girl were without friends,
you can't go and seize people in that fashion over here, and she has at
least one powerful friend, for the man who beat you hollow that night,
and carried her off under your very nose, is Rex Carshaw, a determined
youngster, and rich, though not so rich as he thinks he is. And there
must be no failure a second time, Ralph. Remember that! Just listen to
me carefully. This girl is thinking of going on the stage! Do you
realize what that means, if she ever gets there? You have yourself said
she is the living image of her mother. You know that her mother was well
known in society. Think, then, of her appearing before the public, and
of the certainty of her being recognize