en. Run along now. I just
wanted to see which coat ye'd got. Here, take it along with ye. The
tailor can wait."

With a puzzled glance at the two men, Jean took the coat, and with a
toss of the head left the office.

McNabb turned to Hedin. "What have ye got to say now? Did the girl
tell the truth?"

"Absolutely."

"Then that was the coat she wore from the store?"

"No--but she thinks it was. She doesn't know the difference."

For a long time John McNabb spoke no word but sat staring at his desk,
pecking at the blotter with his pencil. He prided himself upon his
ability to pick men. He knew men, and in no small measure was this
knowledge responsible for his success in dealing with men. He had been
certain that Jean and Hedin would eventually marry, and secretly he
longed for the day. He had watched Hedin for years and now, despite
the improbability of the story, he believed it implicitly. And it was
with a heavy heart that he had watched the studied coldness of each
toward the other. McNabb was a man of snap decisions. He would teach
these young fools a lesson, and at the same time find out which way the
wind blew. With a clenching of his fists, he whirled abruptly upon
Hedin.

"What did ye do with the coat?" he roared. "It'll go easier with ye if
ye tell me!"

"What do you mean?" cried Hedin, white to the lips, meeting McNabb's
gaze with a look of mingled surprise, pain, and anger.

"I mean just what I say. Ye've got the coat--where is it?"

Hedin felt suddenly weak and sick. He had expected McNabb's anger at
his foolish whim, and knew that he deserved it--but that McNabb should
accuse him of theft! Sick at heart, he faltered his answer, and in his
own ears his voice sounded strange, and dull, and unconvincing. "You
think I--I stole it?"

"What else am I to think? What will the police think? What will the
jury think when they hear your flimsy yarn--an' the straightforward
evidence of my daughter? They'll think that the coat she wore to the
show, an' that she still has, is the coat she wore from the store, an'
that you've got the other. An' when Kranz tells of your midnight visit
to the store, what'll they think then?" McNabb finished and, reaching
for the telephone, called the police headquarters. A few minutes later
the chief himself appeared, accompanied by the night watchman, Kranz,
whose story of the nervous and agitated appearance of Hedin on his
midnight visit to the store