ow can I help myself when I 'm at the mercy of
a brute of a giant, like you?"

"Then shut up, and come along. I 'll just keep a hand under your arm
until we get to headquarters. . . . Never mind!" as he made a move to
unbutton his overcoat. "It's cold enough to keep covered." I had
struck down the stealthy hand with considerable vigor, and he winced
with pain. The pale eyes flashed a malignant look at me, and
straightway became inscrutable again.

Not another word was said until we stood before the clerk at the
Central Office. The matter-of-fact way in which he picked up a pen and
poised it over the police docket, the callous indifference with which
he inquired the prisoner's name and the nature of the charge, made
Burke flinch for the first time.

"Wait, Johnson!" I said suddenly to the clerk, as if on second thought.
"I don't believe I 'll docket this man yet; I want to keep the pinch
quiet for a while."

The game was familiar to Johnson; he laid aside the pen as
indifferently as he had taken it up, and returned to his interrupted
perusal of the morning paper.

"You come with me," I said to Burke.

I conducted him to the little room behind the Captain's private
office--scene of many a heart-to-heart conference--and pushed him
toward one of the two chairs which constituted the room's sole
furnishing. It was a dim, silent, disheartening place, and I was
resolved to have no mercy upon the man whom at last I had succeeded in
getting into a position where I could handle him.

"Burke," I began, "I 'm not going to mince matters or stand for any
quibbling or lying. I have _you_ right where I want you, and whatever
leniency you may receive will depend entirely upon your frankness.
This is your chance--the last one."

No doubt my expression and manner were grim, I meant them to be and
there was no doubt that my obvious confidence in my position impressed
the ex-secretary; for the fingers grew more agile, and he licked his
dry lips again and again.

"What am I charged with?" he demanded, in a shaking voice.

"Nothing, as yet," I returned cheerfully. "You doubtless noticed that
I dispensed with that little formality. Do you know what that means?
Just this: no one knows you are here; there is a certain small cell
below stairs, dark as Egypt, provided expressly for recalcitrant
individuals. You could lie there for a year, and nobody be a whit the
wiser. I, for one, wouldn't care how long you stayed."

"Sw