with a porter carrying a couple of
heavy suit cases.

When the two girls were at last alone in their rooms they began preparing
for their week's stay by making a thorough examination of the locks on
the doors. They found them secure. Then, closing the keyholes, they
proceeded to unpack the suit cases. Out of them they took, besides
various articles of apparel, a complete dictagraph apparatus. The
transmitter was hidden under a mat on a table in the reception room that
formed part of the suite. The wires were carried down the leg of the
table and under the carpets to a small closet; there Anna installed a
small table, a pocket electric light and her stenographer's notebook. A
small camera was hidden in one of the window curtains. It was focused so
as to take in the space surrounding the table in the reception room. When
one of the curtains was raised the plate was automatically exposed and
the raising of the curtain at the same time let enough light into the
room to take an excellent picture.

With these arrangements completed, Mary began a tour of the cafe
building. She found Druce eager to serve her. By him she was guided to
every part of the place, meeting the people she wanted to know and
learning all of the details of the infamous business in which Druce,
Anson and Boland were jointly embarked. For three days she went about
these tours of inspection undisturbed. In the evenings she had the women
habitues of the place in her rooms, talking to them as if she were one of
their own kind and learning from them the squalid stories of their
downfall and the part Druce and Anson had played in it. Anna was not in
sight during any of these interviews. She was seated at the little table
with the dictagraph at her ear, her fountain pen in her hand and her
stenographer's notebook before her. Nothing that was said escaped her.

Meanwhile Druce was having an unpleasant time with Anson. He had tried at
first to keep from him the fact of Miss Masters' residence in their
"hotel." "The mastiff," however, was not long deceived. When he
confronted Druce with what he had learned, Druce with an assumption of
frankness told him of his interview with Miss Masters and attempted to
reassure him.

Anson, however, was by nature suspicious. "I don't like it," he snarled.
"You've let a spy into the house."

Druce tried at first to argue with him. Then he grew angry. Finally he
turned on his partner.

"You mind your own business," he advise