the thing, for my own peace of mind, I'll be
glad."

Chief Mern sympathized with that sentiment!

Then he took a little time for reflection. Perhaps a meeting between
Latisan and Crowley might strike a few sparks to illuminate a situation
that was very much in the dark.

"If Crowley is around the office I'm going to ask him to step in here.
The talk will be all friendly, I take it?"

"I have nothing against Crowley, as matters stand."

Latisan did not greet Crowley when the operative replied to the summons
and walked into the private office; on the other hand, Latisan showed no
animosity. He merely surveyed Crowley with an expression of mingled pity
and wonderment, as if he were sorry for an able-bodied man who earned a
living by the means which the operative employed.

Crowley, at first, was not as serene as the man whom he had injured.

"Latisan tells me that he holds no grudge," stated Mern, encouragingly.

"I'm glad of that, Latisan. We have to play the game in this business.
And I'm not laying it up against you, how you made a monkey of me in
that dining room and nigh twisted my head off. Both of us know now who
it was that rubbed our ears and sicked us at each other."

The victim of the operations nodded, no especial emotion visible in his
countenance.

"Right here between us three I'll come out all frank and free,"
continued Crowley. "I'm making a claim to the chief in this thing,
Latisan, and I believe you'll back me up. She jumped in on me and
Elsham--one day later from the agency than we were--and she wouldn't
talk to me, and I'll admit I didn't have her play sized from the start.
But she wasn't the one that turned the trick." Mr. Crowley was venturing
rather far with the victim, but he was encouraged by Latisan's continued
mildness and by a firm determination to set himself right with Mern, who
had been doubting his efficiency.

"As I have been looking at it, she was the one who did it," insisted the
young man.

"Now see here! Wake up!" Crowley was blustering as he grew bolder. "You
were letting the girl wind you around her finger. What woke you up? What
made you sore on the whole proposition up there? It was my tip to you!
You can't deny it."

"Yes, it might have been your tip," admitted Latisan, knotting his
brows, staring at the floor, confused in his memories and puzzling over
the mystery. "I had promised to bring down the logs because she asked me
to keep on and do it."

"There you have