uch unfailing faith in was the man
Brennan suspected him to be.

"If he is it won't be the first time I've been wrong," said Brennan,
"but it will be the biggest jolt I ever got, let me tell you that."

* * * * *

They received no word from Murphy until nearly a month after Gibson's
spectacular Spring street raid. He appeared at the office late one
afternoon with the information that he had "hot stuff" concerning "Gink"
Cummings.

He declared that Cummings had ordered that all crime stop immediately in
the city.

"Da 'Gink' has passed out da word dat da boys gotta lay off," said
Murphy. "He gives orders dat there's to be no rough stuff until he says
so."

"You mean that the 'Gink' is closing up the town?" asked Brennan.

"Dat's what I say," replied Murphy. "He says there ain't to be no
stick-ups, no gamblin', no bootleggin', no pocket pickin', no house
jobs, no bunko stuff, no nothin' and dat goes. Da first bird dat tries
workin' is gonna be run outa town, see?"

"Where do you pick up that information, Murphy?" Brennan asked.

"Well, da 'Gink' don't tell me poisonally, see? But I gets it straight,
see? Da stick-ups, da sure-thing guys, da dips, everybody gets orders to
lay off, see?"

Brennan whistled softly.

"What's the 'Gink' got up his sleeve now, I wonder?" he said.

"Soich me," said Murphy.

"Are they obeying the 'Gink's' orders?"

"I'll say they are!" asserted Murphy. "All the gamblin' places are
closed and everybody stopped doin' business, see? Even da girls is
behavin' and only enough dope to keep da boys goin' bein' peddled, see?"

"I see," said Brennan, "but it's got me. I can't figure out what his
game is."

With P. Q. approving the cashier's voucher for the money, Murphy was
paid $25 for the information he gave Brennan and John, who told him to
watch the situation in Spring street closely and report to them often.

The information furnished by Murphy that "Gink" Cummings had ordered
that crime be stopped in Los Angeles was substantiated by the
developments of the following week. The crime wave that had been
sweeping the city, as it had the nation, came to an abrupt halt. During
the week only one holdup was reported to the police and prohibition
officers were surprised to find that bootleggers had stopped their work.
There were no burglaries, gambling, picking of pockets, bunko swindling
or handbook betting. The traffic in narcotics, police and federal
of