" he said, "and you, madam, that only the most
perfunctory of routine work has been done in this office while I was
acting-mayor. It was our one object to let things slide along as easily
as possible until the real mayor should return. We desired no radical
changes, and on the other hand, as few breaks in the regular routine of
city affairs as possible. I desired, above all, to be a faithful servant
to the people--to--in short, ah--"

"How about those contracts you negotiated with Watts?" broke in Joyce.

"And McAlister's new job--under the name of Peter Grayson?" added
Bailey.

Mann's face was a shade more purple for an instant, but he went on,
unctuously.

"The man who suddenly becomes the head of a city has a great
responsibility--especially if he has been, in a sense, shut out from the
confidence of its mayor up to the time of his incumbency. He cannot
expect to please everyone. He will be called 'demagogue' by the opposite
party; his motives will be misconstrued; his honesty brought in
question, his principles--"

"O, spare us," interrupted Bailey. "While you were the head of this
office, some important testimony has disappeared; private papers
belonging to the mayor and her secretary were taken away, and several
other questionable things were done. We called you here now, to explain
these things; and if you cannot produce them, to say why. The least
thing a man in your position can do is to institute a hearty search for
the missing papers, and to act in accord with us in leaving no stone
unturned to find them."

"Gentlemen," said the chairman of the board of aldermen, rising and
laying his hand impressively across his heart, "I will swear to you that
the mayor's desk and her secretary's were turned over to her exactly as
I found them. If anything has been taken from them, the robbery occurred
either before I came or after I went out."

"And you are willing to pledge yourself to aid in discovering the thief,
whoever and wherever he may be?" said Bailey, regarding Mann narrowly.

"On my word of honor," replied the chairman; and he could not help it if
his words and tone sounded rather bombastic. "But, I am sorry, my dear
lady--but I have a very important engagement at this hour--a personal
matter, very dear to my heart, which compels me to ask you to excuse me
now. I shall be glad to call upon you tomorrow morning, at any hour you
may name."

"Can you make it nine o'clock," asked Gertrude--"or even earlie