phone switchboard, while you and I were Max's prisoners
above. Something went wrong. Hayden heard that the courts would issue an
injunction making Ordinance Number 45 worthless. So, although the
council obeyed Cargan's instructions and passed the bill, Hayden refused
to give the mayor the combination."

The old man paused and shook his head wonderingly.

"Then melodrama began in dead earnest," he continued. "I have always
been a man of peace, and the wild scuffle that claimed me for one of its
leading actors from that moment will remain in my memory as long as I
live. Cargan dynamited the safe. Kendrick held him up; you held up
Kendrick. I peeked through your window and saw you place the package of
money under a brick in your fireplace--"

"You--the curtains were down," interrupted Magee.

"I found a half-inch of open space," explained the old man. "Yes, I
actually lay on my stomach in the snow and watched you. In the morning,
for the first time in my life, I committed robbery. My punishment was
swift and sure. Bland swooped down upon me. Again this afternoon, I came
upon the precious package, after a long search, in the hands of the
Hermit of Baldpate. I thought we were safe at last when I handed the
package to Kendrick in my room to-night--but I had not counted on the
wild things a youth like you will do for love of a designing maid."

Twelve o'clock! The civic center of Upper Asquewan Falls proclaimed it.
Mr. Magee had never been in Reuton. He was sorry he hadn't. He had to
construct from imagination alone the great Reuton station through which
the girl and the money must now be hurrying--where? The question would
not down. Was she--as the professor believed--designing?

"No," said Mr. Magee, answering aloud his own question. "You are wrong,
sir. I do not know just what the motives of Miss Norton were in desiring
this money, but I will stake my reputation as an honest hold-up man that
they were perfectly all right."

"Perhaps," replied the other, quite unconvinced. "But--what honest
motive could she have? I am able to assign her no role in this little
drama. I have tried. I am able to see no connection between her and the
other characters. What--"

"Pardon me," broke in Magee. "But would you mind telling me why Miss
Thornhill came up to Baldpate to join in the chase for the package?"

"Her motive," replied the professor, "does her great credit. For several
years her father, Henry Thornhill, has been forced t