To the police, the detective assured them, Ida Earle had been known for years. When she was young, she had been under the protection of a man high in the ranks of Tammany, and, in consequence, with her different ven-tures the Police had never interfered. She now was pro-prietress of the roadhouse in the note described as Kessler's Cafe. It was a place for joy-riders. There was a cabaret, a hall for public dancing, and rooms for very private suppers.

Mrs. Farrell continued the debate. She talked in a busi-nesslike manner and pronounced the arrangement one by which both sides would benefit. There were thou-sands of other Farrells, she pointed out, any one of whom they might have adopted. But they had selected me because in so choosing, they thought they were taking the least risk. They had decided she was pleased to say, that I would not disgrace them, and that as a "literary author " I brought with me a certain social asset.

"The first thing," I pointed out, "is to get away from this awful city. The second thing is to get away cheaply. Let us write down the names of the summer resorts to which we can travel by rail or by boat for two dollars and put them in a hat. The name of the place we draw will be the one for which we start Saturday afternoon. The idea," I urged, "is in itself full of adventure.".

Carter walked away with a flurried, heated suffocation around his heart and a joyous lightness in his feet. Of the first man he met he demanded, "Who was the beautiful girl in the rain-coat?" And when the man told him, Carter left him without speaking. For she was quite the richest girl in America. But the next day that fault seemed to distress her so little that Carter, also, refused to allow it to rest on his conscience, and they were very happy. And each saw that they were happy because they were togethe

Oh, that part's easy! I assured him. The fitting-out part you can safely leave to me. I assumed a confidence that I hoped he might believe was real. There's always a tramp steamer in the Erie Basin, I said, that one can charter for any kind of adventure, and ı have the Addresses of enough soldiers of fortune, filibusters and professional revolutionists to man a barrle-ship all fine fellows in a tight corner. And I'll promise you they'll follow us to hell and back.

The audience-chamber was hung with great mirrors in frames of tarnished gilt. In these Billy saw himself repro-duced in a wavering line of Billies that, like the ghost of Banquo, stretched to the disappearing point. Of such images there was an army, but of the real Billy, as he was acutely conscious, there was but one. Among the black faces scowling from the doorways he felt the odds were against him. Without making a reply he passed out between the racks of rusty muskets in the anteroom, between the two Ga

"War," exclaimed Lathrop morosely, "is always cruel to the innocent." He sped toward Carver Centre. In his motor car, he had travelled the road many times, and as always his goal had been the home of Miss Beatrice Farrar, he had covered it at a speed unrecognized by law. But now he advanced with stealth and caution. In every clump of bushes he saw an ambush. Behind each rock he beheld the enemy.

Her owner was young Herbert Livingstone, of Washing-ton. He once had been in the diplomatic service, and, as minister to The Hague, wished to return to it. In order to bring this about he had subscribed liberally to the party campaign fund.

Had you called Austin Ford an amateur detective, he would have been greatly annoyed. He argued that his position was similar to that of the dramatic critic. The dramatic critic warned the public against bad plays; Ford warned it against bad men. Having done that, he left it to the public to determine whether the bad man should thrive or perish..

The reason for it all was the three-cornered fight which then was being waged by the Government, the Nitrate Trust, and the Walker- Keefe crowd for the possession of the nitrate beds. Valencia is so near to the equator and so far from New York, that there are few who studied the intricate story of that disgraceful struggle, which, I hasten to add, with the fear of libel before my eyes, I do not intend to tell now.