to tell the Mayor how glad they were to have her
back. Then noon came, bringing young women from the stores and offices
and factories, all eager to add their bit of welcome; and the school
children, to shake her hand and go home and tell of this wonderful day,
which afterward became a memory for a lifetime. When four o'clock came,
Gertrude prepared to go home; to rest and sleep in her own bed, worn out
with the welcome of thousands of her people. Mary Snow had already
succumbed to the demand on her energies and had gone an hour before.

"It's worth the whole gamut of experience," Gertrude said to herself as
she closed her desk, "just to find out what it is to get at the heart of
the American people. It's a great experience, and I shall be a better
woman for it, all my days."

A step on the bare floor behind her. She looked up.

"I haven't had a chance to tell you in words how very, very glad I am,"
said Allingham, holding out his hand. "But--you know--"

"Yes," she said, taking it; "I know."

"Excuse me," said a voice, and a burly form pushed in from the outer
office; "but I couldn't go home until I came to have one word with you,
Miss Van Deusen. You don't--you can't believe I had anything to do with
getting you into that scrape?"

"No, Newton, I never believed it for a minute," said the mayor, "not
after I realized you were not there, sick and in trouble. I know you too
well."

"Thank you," said Fitzgerald. "I'm ready to go on the witness stand for
you, any time. More than that, I'll run down the rascals that played you
such a d--d trick, if it takes the last cent I've got."

Chapter XXIV

An Honest Confession

At the first possible moment, Gertrude and Mary went carefully through
the books and papers in their private desks. The first discovery they
made was that all notes and papers pertaining to Vickery and the
Boulevard Railway Company were missing, thus destroying every bit of
evidence, beyond their spoken word, in that particular case. Other
documents were missing also, and the trail of the corrupt politician was
over all. She sent for Robert Joyce, the district attorney, and Bailey
Armstrong, as city solicitor, and they held counsel together until the
lengthening shadows drove them home. But not until they had sent for
Otis H. Mann, and put the case strongly to him. That functionary was,
however, as smooth and oily as ever, disclaiming all knowledge of
everything.

"I assure you, gentlemen,