or her. She
quickly perceived that Dick's plan, clever as it might be, would bring
about, in the dubious event of its success, only one of the several
happenings which had to come to pass if she were to clear her slate
before her disappearance.

Dick's plan was good; but it would only get rid of Barney and Old
Jimmie. It would only rid Larry of such danger as they represented; it
would only be revenge upon them for the evil they had done. And, after
all, revenge helped a man forward but very little. There would still
remain, even in the event of the success of Dick's plan, the constant
danger to Larry from the police hunt, instigated by Chief Barlow's
vindictive determination to send Larry back to prison for his refusal to
be a stool-pigeon; and the constant danger from his one-time friends who
were hunting him down with deadly hatred as a squealer.

Somehow, if she were to set things right for Larry, she had to maneuver
that night's happenings in such a way as to eliminate forever Barlow's
persecutions, and eliminate forever the danger to Larry from his
friends' and their hirelings' desire for vengeance upon a supposed
traitor.

Maggie thought rapidly, elaborating on Dick's plan. But what Maggie did
was not so much the result of sober thought as of the inspiration of a
desperate, hardly pressed young woman; but then, after all, what we call
inspiration is only thought geared to an incredibly high speed. First
of all, she got rid of that slow-witted, awesome supernumerary, Miss
Grierson, who might completely upset the delicate action of the stage
by a dignified entrance at the wrong moment and with the wrong cue. Next
she called up Chief Barlow at Police Headquarters. Fortunately for her
Barlow was still in; for an acrimonious dispute, then in progress and
taking much space in the public prints, between him and the District
Attorney's office was keeping him late at his desk despite the most
autocratic and pleasant of all demands, those of his dinner hour. To
him Maggie gave a false name, and told him that she had most important
information to communicate at once; to which he growled back that she
could give it if she came down at once.

Next she called up Barney, who had been waiting near a telephone in
expectation of news of the result of her second visit to the home of
Dick Sherwood. To Barney she said that she had the greatest possible
news--news which would require immediate action--and that he should be
at her