f
pleased and sprightly anticipation.

A faint flush showed beneath Stratton's neatly-trimmed mutton-chops.
Such jaunty bearing was exasperating to offended virtue. "Ah--who is
this other person, Mr. Hobart?"

"Pardon my rudeness!" Jeff sprang up and bowed brisk apology. "Mr.
Stratton, allow me to present Mr. Ballinger, a worthy representative of
the Yellow Press. Mr. Stratton--Mr. Ballinger!"

"I have a communication to make to you," said the displeased Mr.
Stratton, in icy tones, "which, in your own interest, should be
extremely private." The Marshal whispered to him; Stratton gave Leo a
fiercely intimidating glare.

"Communicate away," said Jeff airily. "Excommunicate, if you want to.
Mr. Ballinger, as a citizen, is part owner of this office. If you want
to bar him you'll have to change the venue to your private residence.
And then I won't come."

"Very well, sir!" Mr. Stratton rose, inflated his chest and threw back
his head. His voice took on a steady roll. "Mr. Bransford, you stand
under grave displeasure of the law! You are grievously suspected of
being cognizant of, if not actually accessory to, the robbery of the
United States Mail by John Taylor, Junior, at Escondido, on the
eighteenth day of last October. You may not be aware of it, but you have
an excellent chance of serving a term in the penitentiary!"

Jeff pressed his hands between his knees and leaned forward. "I'm sure
I'd never be satisfied there," he said, with conviction. His white teeth
flashed in an ingratiatory smile. "But why suspect young John?--why
not old John?" He paused, looking at the Register attentively.
"H'm!--you're from Indiana, I believe, Mr. Stratton?" he said.

"The elder Taylor, on the day in question, is fully accounted for," said
Hobart. "Young Taylor claims to have passed the night at Willow Springs,
alone. But no one saw him from breakfast time the seventeenth till noon
on the nineteenth."

"He rarely ever has any one with him when he's alone. That may account
for them not seeing him at Willow," suggested Jeff. He did not look at
Hobart, but regarded Stratton with an air of deep meditation.

The Register paced the floor slowly, ponderously, with an impressive
pause at each turn, tapping his left hand with his eyeglass to score his
points. "He had ample time to go to Escondido and return. The envelope
in which Mr. Lake's copy of this office's decision in the Lake-Taylor
contest was enclosed has been examined. It bears