bar,
reappeared bearing a glass. This he held out to Harper.

"Here, Billy, put this down. It'll help straighten you up."

Harper took the glass in a trembling hand and swallowed its contents.

"And now, Miss," said the bartender, putting Harper's dry hat on him,
"the thing to do is to get him out in the cold air, and walk him round
a bit. I'd do it for you myself," he added gallantly, "but everybody's
down at the Square and there ain't no one here to relieve me."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Murphy."

"It's nothing at all, Miss," said he with a grandiloquent gesture of a
hairy, bediamonded hand. "Glad to do it."

She slipped her arm through the young editor's.

"And now, Mr. Harper, we must go."

Billy Harper vaguely understood the situation and there was a trace of
awakening shame in his husky voice.

"Are you sure--you want to be seen with me--like this?"

"I must, whether I want to or not," she said briefly; and she led him
through the side door out into the frosty night.

The period that succeeded will ever remain in Katherine's mind as
matchless in her life for agonized suspense. She was ever crying out
frantically to herself, why did this man she led have to be in such a
condition at this the time when he was needed most? While she rapidly
walked her drenched and shivering charge through the deserted back
streets, the enthusiasm of Court House Square reverberated maddeningly
in her ears. She realized how rapidly time was flying--and yet, aflame
with desire for action as she was, all she could do was to lead this
brilliant, stupefied creature to and fro, to and fro. She wondered if
she would be able to bring him to his senses in time to be of service.
To her impatience, which made an hour of every moment, it seemed she
never would. But her hope was all on him, and so doggedly she kept him
going.

Presently he began to lurch against her less heavily and less
frequently; and soon, his head hanging low in humiliation, he started
shiveringly to mumble out an abject apology. She cut him short.

"We've no time for apologies. There's work to be done. Is your head
clear enough to understand?"

"I think so," he said humbly, albeit somewhat thickly.

"Listen then! And listen hard!"

Briefly and clearly she outlined to him her discoveries and told him
of the documents she had just secured. She did not realize it, but
this recital of hers was, for the purpose of sobering him, better far
than a douche of ice-