t soon
float at half mast for a dead member. We cannot afford to be tripped up
now."

"That is true."

At this moment one of the men for the first time observed the presence
of our hero. They had no reason to suspect that the man reading the
paper understood the subject matter of their discourse and again, they
did not realize how distinctly in their engrossment they had spoken. The
presence of the club member did not give them much concern, but they
changed their theme.

Oscar still maintained his position, and strange thoughts were running
through his mind. He had obtained the information that many supposedly
reputable men were in the great steal, and here he had evidence that a
member of a very respectable social club was possibly in the great
organization. It was not a startling discovery in one sense, for the
police records will show that many a man who lived a reputable life
before the great public for many years has been in the end discovered to
be a cool, calculating rogue in alliance with criminals. Even while we
write this statement one of these disclosures has been made to a
startled public. Accident unmasked a millionaire, a man who has posed
before the public for twenty years, and this accidental discovery led to
the positive proof that this same man has been a systematic criminal for
years; and even after having acquired a million he continued his evil
criminal game until exposure came, as it is always sure to come and
overtake the guilty sooner or later.

The men left the cafe. Oscar had a good lead and he knew he must go very
slowly, as he had some very keen men to deal with. Again he went to a
private room and worked back to Mr. Woodford Dunne. He had played his
little game around the men and determined to let them play moth around
his light.

A little later he left the clubhouse. He had determined to give the men
a chance. Instead of being a shadower he learned that he was being
"shadowed." He had been there before. He could stand a shadow as well as
he could shadow others. He determined to give the men a fair show, a
better show than he usually got when playing the same game. He went to a
well-known gambling place. There was not a resort in New York City that
our hero could not locate, and in every one of these resorts, under one
guise or another, he had an _entree_. In some places he was known under
one character, and in others under a very different guise. He had laid
out all this piping for