ade which had aroused Chicago with the
startling news of The Raid of Mary Randall on the Cafe Sinister,
headlined in the morning newspapers.

Harvey Spencer had taken Mrs. Welcome to the boarding-house designated by
Miss Randall where she was joined by Patience--and of Patience you shall
know presently. The remainder of the night, or most of it, he spent
trying to learn what had become of Elsie.

"I thought she might be still in that--hotel, as they call it," Harvey,
haggard with his night's search, told Miss Randall. "I went to the jail
too, but of course they would not let her inside there so late, even if
she had wanted to."

"She is sure to go there today to see Druce. Try again, Mr. Spencer, when
you go out from here," said Miss Randall.

"And keep you eye on Druce. Nobody will suspect you of being a detective.
You can telephone here if you see any activity around him," said a clever
special from headquarters.

"Good scheme," commended the journalist, another of Mary Randall's
strongest aids.

Harvey Spencer made notes of the right steps to take and, thanking Miss
Randall with a curious humility, went out again on his quest.

"Now we must learn what the vice-moneymakers will try to do next," said a
former high official in the municipality. "Our one safe bet is that they
will all get together and that John Boland, the boss of the bunch, will
map out the fight against us."

"Is it a losing fight?" asked a famous banker, known among his intimates
as the hard-headed enthusiast.

"Right against wrong can never be permanently a losing fight," quietly
said a small muscular clergyman from the northwest side.

"It has taken two thousand years for mankind to begin this fight against
buying and selling young virgins who can be coaxed or thrust into the
market-place," said Mary Randall. "We must fight on, even in one
seemingly losing field. It is not to be believed that the people of this
nation will be content to submit very much longer to the presence of a
band of prowling wolves tolerated by courts and protected by rascally
lawyers whose acknowledged trade is to destroy virtue,--the latent
motherhood of young women,--whose whole activity is directed to the
exploitation of our little lost sisters."

"Chicago has to lead the fight, as she has been one of the leaders in the
trade," said the banker. "Now, for our next step!"

CHAPTER XXIV

"THE HIGHWAY OF