pon Barney's tremendous vanity and upon his
jealous admiration of her. She had to make him believe more in her as a
pal than ever before; she had to make him want her more as a woman than
ever before. And at this moment she felt herself thrillingly equal to
this vampire role her over-stimulated sense of justice had commanded her
to undertake.

"Things have gone great," she began, speaking concisely, yet trying not
in this eager brevity to lose the convincing effect that she would
be the complete mistress of any enterprise to which she yielded her
interest. "Dick Sherwood proposed to me again, and this time I said
`yes.' I saw that he was ready for anything, so I took some things into
my hands. I had to, for I saw we had to act quick even at the risk of
losing a bit of the maximum figure we had counted on. You see I realized
the danger to us in Larry Brainard suddenly showing up, and his knowing,
as he told us he did, who the sucker is that we've been stringing along.
Anything might happen, any minute, from Larry Brainard that would upset
everything. So I reasoned that we had to collect quick or run the risk
of never getting a nickel."

"Some bean you've got, Maggie," he said admiringly. "Keep your foot on
the gas pedal."

"What I did was only, the carrying-out of the plan you had decided
on--of course carrying it out quicker, and with a few little changes
that the urgent situation demanded. After he proposed I broke down, as
per schedule, and confessed that I had deceived him to the extent that I
was already married. Married to a man I didn't love, and who didn't love
me, but who was a tight-wad and who wouldn't let me go unless he saw a
lot of money in it for him. And I gave Dick all the rest of the story,
just as we had doped it out."

"Great work, Maggie! How did he take it?"

"Exactly as we figured he would. He was sorry for me; it didn't make any
difference at all in his feelings for me. He'd buy my husband off--give
him any price he wanted--and just so I wouldn't have to feel myself
bound to such a man a minute longer than necessary he'd make a bargain
with him at once and pay him part of the money right down. To-night, if
he could get in touch with my husband. And so, Barney, since we had to
act quick and there was no time to bring in another man that I could
pass off as my husband, I confessed to him that I was married to you."

"To me!" exclaimed Barney.

"And he's coming here in less than an hour, with