rn's face.

"By the way," added Leila, following quite innocently her trend of
thought, "Helen Shotwell tells me that her son is going back to the
army if he can secure a commission."

"Yes, I believe so," said Elorn serenely.

Leila went on: "I fancy there'll be a lot of them. A taste of service
seems to spoil most young men for a piping career of peace."

"He cares nothing for his business."

"What is it?"

"Real estate. He is with my father, you know."

"Of course. I remember--" She suddenly seemed to recollect something
else, also--not, perhaps, quite certain of it, but instinctively
playing safe. So she refrained from saying anything about this young
man's recent devotion to her friend, Palla Dumont, although that was
the subject which she had intended to introduce.

And, smiling to herself, she thought it a close call, because she had
meant to ask Elorn whether she knew why the Shotwell boy had so
entirely deserted her little friend Palla.

The Shotwell boy himself happened to be involved at that very moment,
in matters concerning a friend of Mrs. Vance's little friend Palla--in
fact, he had been trying, for the last half hour, to find this friend
of Palla's on the telephone. The friend in question was Alonzo D.
Pawling. And he was being vigorously paged at the Hotel Rajah.

As for Jim, he remained seated in the private office of Angelo Puma,
whither he had been summoned in professional capacity by one Skidder,
the same being Elmer, and partner of the Puma aforesaid.

The door was locked; the room in disorder. Safe, letter-files,
cupboards, desks had been torn open and their contents littered the
place.

Skidder, in an agony of perspiring fright, kept running about the room
like a distracted squirrel. Jim watched him, darkly preoccupied with
other things, including the whereabouts of Mr. Pawling.

"You say," he said to Skidder, "that Mr. Pawling will confirm what you
have told me?"

"John D. Pawling knows damn well I own this plant!"

Jim shook his head: "I'm sorry, but that isn't sufficient. I can only
repeat to you that there is no point in calling me in at present. You
have no legal right to offer this property for sale. It belongs,
apparently, to the creditors of your firm. What you require first of
all is a lawyer----"

"I don't want a lawyer and I don't want publicity before I get
something out of this dirty mess that scoundrel left behind!" cried
Skidder, snapping his eyes like mad and