sent up for twenty years for you. I came to help Styles
out, that's all. I had the devil's own job getting out of Sidham
without being followed. To-morrow I am going to take my money and move
West. You won't trust a fellow, and yet you expect--"

"Never mind, Pink, don't get on your ear so quick--"

"Ain't I got a right to get on my ear? You go and poison two people
and then--"

"Who said I did the poisoning?" John Watkins was plainly agitated.

"Didn't Styles tell all of us? He wasn't going to have those clews
pointing to him. He says you bungled."

"He is a calf!" roared John Watkins. "Where is the nerve he used to
have? So he told all of you that I did the job, eh? Well, I'll square
things with him for that."

"He wouldn't care if you hadn't made some sort of a botch--"

"I? A botch? Say, don't you believe what he tells you, because it
isn't true!"

"Well, he says--"

"I don't care what he says. I didn't do the job, and I am not going to
let him shift the responsibility on my shoulders. He's a fool. Don't
everybody think the girl is guilty, and if they clear her isn't there
another string to the bow?"

"You mean Tom Ostrello?"

"That's it. So he told you about that, too," came from the secret
service man bitterly. "Well, he isn't the man I thought he was. I
suppose he has gone and blabbed right and left."

"Only to the band. We knew something was on the carpet and we cornered
him and then he had to speak. Why, one of the New York detectives
found our place under the old mill, and we had to do him, to keep the
thing a secret."

"You got him out of the way?"

"Yes."

"Did Styles do that job?"

"No. We had to draw lots. I ain't saying who drew the red ball."

"Maybe you drew it yourself."

"Maybe I did and maybe I didn't. What I want to know is: What are we
to do? The crowd don't like Styles much, and I can tell you
confidentially, that for two pins we would throw him over--that is, if
you will stand by us."

"You want to elect a new leader?"

"Yes. But with the understanding that the crowd is to be let in on the
ground floor after this. No more working in the dark. Even yet we
don't know why those murders were committed, and yet it looks as if all
of us might suffer, unless you pull us through O.K."

"Didn't Styles tell you why?"

"No, although he hinted at something."

"Well, I'll tell you, Pink, and you can tell the rest. Barry Langmore
had some dealings wi