nt on, "I once thought I was a detective, but I
woke up." Then he started for the door. "Thank you," he said. As he
reached for the knob he reeled and clutched at the wall for support. Miss
Masters started toward him.

"Come," she said, "sit down. Aren't you feeling ill? Let me get you a
glass of water."

She drew a glass full from a cooler and carried it to the young man.

"It's warm," she said, "you're exhausted."

Harvey gulped the contents of the glass, and looked at Miss Masters
mournfully.

"Thanks," he said. "Yes--mighty warm."

"Looking for a job?" inquired Miss Masters.

"I ought to be," was the reply.

"Why aren't you?"

"Because," Harvey's despondency deepened, "I'm looking for a girl."

"A girl from down state?"

"How did you know that?"

"Why," replied Miss Masters, "you don't belong to Chicago. Your clothes
tell me that. And the girl--she was from your own town?"

"Yes."

"Tell me about it?" Miss Masters' manner was friendly. She drew a chair
and sat down opposite the young man. Harvey was so moved by this unlocked
for sympathy that tears filled his eyes.

"Her name," he said huskily, "was Elsie Welcome. She ran away. Her father
had beaten her. On the night she left the father died. We were to have
been married. I learned that she had come to Chicago with this
man--Martin Druce. I followed her. For days I have tramped the streets.
Today I caught a glimpse of Druce as he entered an elevator in this
building. I had just reached here when I lost sight of him."

The door behind him opened slowly. Miss Masters looked up to see a gray
haired woman enter. She wore a waist and skirt of dead black with a
little old fashioned black bonnet. Her face was sweet with motherliness,
but drawn with sorrow and exhaustion.

"Harvey," she said.

Harvey turned and hurried to her side.

"I saw you come in here, Harvey," the woman went on, "so I followed. I
hope we're not intruding Miss--"

"Masters is my name," responded the stenographer quickly.

"This is the girl's mother," said Harvey. "This is Mrs. Martha Welcome."

Miss Masters hastened to bring another chair.

"And your daughter," she asked quickly, "have you--"

"I--I don't think there was anything wrong in Elsie's going away,"
interrupted Mrs. Welcome. "She wasn't happy and her father--"

"Her father beat her," said Harvey wrathfully.

"Harvey," chided Mrs. Welcome, "Tom's dead. He wasn't a bad man, Miss
Masters. He lost his courage whe