he inquired, while Bill and Helen watched his face.

Fyles shrugged.

"You stopped talking when you saw I was coming your way." He laughed.
"However, I guess it's only to be expected. The boys bluffed us all
right last night. It was a smartish trick. Still," he added
thoughtfully, "it's given us an elegant lever--when the time comes."

Kate made no answer. She was studying the man's face, and there was a
certain regret and even pity in the depths of her regard. Bill and
Helen had no such feelings for him. They were frankly rejoiced at his
failure.

Helen replied. "That's so, Mr. Fyles," she said, almost tartly, "but I
guess that lever needs to help them into your traps to do any real
good."

The officer's smile was quite good-humored, in spite of the sharpness
of the girl's reminder. What he really felt he was not likely to
display here.

"Sure," he said. "The spider weaves his web and it's not worth a cent
if the flies aren't foolish enough to make mistakes. The spider is a
student of winged insect nature, and he lays his plans accordingly.
The flies always come to him--in the end."

Bill laughed good-humoredly.

"That's dandy," he cried. "There's always fool flies around. But
sometimes that spider's web gets all mussed up and broken. I've broke
'em myself--rather than see the fool things caught."

Kate's eyes were turned on the great bulk of Charlie's brother. Even
Helen looked up with bright admiration for her lover.

Fyles's gaze was leveled directly into the innocent looking blue eyes
laughing into his.

"Yes, I dare say you and other folks have broken those things up,
often--but the spiders thrive and multiply. You see, when one net is
busted they--make another. They don't seem to starve ever, do they?
Ever seen a spider dead of starvation?"

"Can't say I have." Bill shook his great head. "But maybe they'd get a
bad time if they set their traps for any special flies--or fly."

Fyles raised his powerful shoulders coldly.

"Guess the spider business doesn't go far enough," he said, talking
directly at Big Brother Bill. "When I spoke of that lever just now,
maybe you didn't get my meaning quite clearly. That gang, who ran the
liquor in last night, put themselves further up against the law than
maybe they think. It was an armed attack on the police, which is
quite a different thing to just simple whisky-running. Get me? The
police are always glad when crooks do that. It pays them better--when
the ti