rances may be, that Miss Olden is the most talented girl on the
stage to-day; that in a very short time she will be at the top; that
just now she is not suffering for lack of money; that she's not a
high-roller, but a determined, hard-working little grind, and that if
she did feel like taking a plunge, she knows that she could get all she
wants from me even--"

"Even if you can't pay salaries when they're due, Obermuller." The
Chief grinned under his white mustache.

"Even though the Trust is pushing me to the wall; going to such lengths
that they're liable criminally as well as civilly, if I could only get
my hands on proof of their rascality. It's true I can't pay salaries
always when they're due, but I can still raise a few hundred to help a
friend. And Miss Olden is a friend of mine. If you can prove that she
took this money, you prove only that she's gone mad, but you don't--"

"All right, Obermuller. You're not the lawyer for the defense. That'll
come later--if it does come. I'll be glad to bear in mind all you've
said, and much that you haven't."

"Thank you. Good night.... I'll wait for you, Nance, outside."

"I'm going to ask you a lot of questions, Miss Olden," the old Chief
said, when we were alone. "Sit here, please. Morris tells me you've
got more nerve than any woman that's ever come before me, so I needn't
bother to reassure you. You don't look like a girl that's easily
frightened. I have heard how you danced in the lobby of the Manhattan,
how you guyed him at your flat, and were getting lunch and having a
regular picnic of a time when--"

"When he found that purse."

"Exactly. Now, why did you do all that?"

"Why? Because I felt like it. I felt gay and excited and--"

"Not dreaming that that purse was sure to be found?"

"Not dreaming that there was such a purse in existence except from the
detective's say--so, and never fancying for an instant that it would be
found in my flat."

"Hm!" He looked at me from under his heavy, wrinkled old lids. You
don't get nice eyes from looking on the nasty things in this world, Mag.

"Why," I cried, "what kind of a girl could cut up like that when she
was on the very edge of discovery?"

"A very smart girl--an actress; a good one; a clever thief who's used
to bluffing. Of course," he added softly, "you won't misunderstand me.
I'm simply suggesting the different kinds of girl that could have done
what you did. But, if you don't mind, I'll