the administration and make the "Gink" the boss of
the city.

Had he been free to tell the mayor and Brennan that Gibson was striving
to accomplish his crusade with the principal motive of winning the girl
he loved, John felt that the suspicion against the police commissioner
would be undermined. He could not bring himself to believe that Brennan
would deliberately lend himself to the mayor's plan to attack Gibson
unless he actually believed that there was some reason to suspect the
commissioner.

There were but few developments in the feud between Gibson and the mayor
during the week after Consuello's visit to the Gallant home. Sentiment
throughout the city was obviously in favor of Gibson, whose sensational
capture of "Red Mike," averting, as it did, the wreck of the "Lark,"
gave him a strong hold upon the public. The mayor's refusal to remove
Chief Sweeney, putting him on record as opposing the commissioner, was
generally considered the last defiant move of a man cornered and doomed
to defeat.

Later in the week John was upset by the first dissension that had ever
arisen between him and his mother. They were on the porch of their home
in the evening when John recalled that he had overlooked asking Mrs.
Gallant her opinion of Consuello. As this recollection came into his
mind, it also occurred to him that his mother had never volunteered to
say anything of Consuello after her visit to their home the previous
Sunday.

"Mother, dear," he said, "tell me, did you like Miss Carrillo?"

He felt that the question was almost unnecessary and asked it casually.
He was surprised when she hesitated before answering. Looking up to her,
he saw a hint of worry in her expression.

"She seemed a pleasant girl," she said slowly.

"Seemed?" he repeated, incredulously. "Why, mother, you speak as if you
did not like her."

"I'm sure I would like her if I understood," she said, her eyes upon her
needle and crochet work.

"Understood?" he gasped. "Understood what?"

"My dear boy, please do not become irritated by what I say," she said,
lifting her head to look at him. "You know I would not hurt you for
anything in the world."

"I know, mother, but I cannot imagine----"

"I know you can't," she said interrupting him. "If you had you would
have explained it all to me days ago. Come, don't let us quarrel. I may
be foolish to have thought what I have, but you must remember, my boy,
that I am a mother and--a woman."

"What und