me to me that the idea behind any plan would be for the
police to really capture Barney and Jimmie Carlisle--get them out of
Larry's way."

"That's it!" Dick Sherwood had a mind which, given an interesting
stimulus, could work swiftly; and it worked swiftly now. "They were
planning to trim me. Let's use that plan you outlined to me--use it
to-night. You can tell them some story which will make immediate action
seem necessary and we'll all get together this evening. I'll play my
part all right--don't you worry about me! I'll come with a roll of
money that I'll dig up somewhere, and it'll be marked money. When it's
passed--bingo!--a couple of detectives that we'll have planted to watch
the proceedings will step right up and nab the two!"

She was taken aback by the very idea of him, the victim, after
her confession, throwing his lot in with her. "Why, Dick"--she
stammered--"to think of you offering to do such a thing!"

"I owe that much to Larry Brainard," he declared. "And--and I owe that
much to your desire to help set him straight. Well, what about my plan?"

Since he seemed eager to lend himself to it, it seemed to her altogether
wonderful, and she told him so. They discussed details for several
minutes, for there was much to be done and it had all to be done most
adroitly. It was agreed that he should come at ten o'clock, when the
stage would all be set.

As he was leaving to attend to his part of the play, a precautionary
idea flashed upon Maggie.

"Better telephone me just before you come. Something may have happened
to change our plans."

"All right--I'll telephone. Just keep your nerve."

With that he hurried out. At about the time he left, Larry was leaving
Cedar Crest in handcuffs beside the burly and triumphant Gavegan, and
believing that the power he had sought to exercise was now effectually
at an end. He was out of it. In his despondency it was not granted him
to see that the greatest thing which he could do was already done; that
he had set in motion all the machinery of what had taken place and
what was about to take place; that all the figures in the action of the
further drama of that night were to act as they were to do primarily
because of promptings which came from him.

CHAPTER XXXIII

Dick's departure left Maggie to think alone upon an intricate and
possibly dangerous interplay of characters in which she had cast herself
for the chief role, which might prove a sacrificial role f