ndidate."

"What about the $1,000 he told us he'd give to charity the moment he
announced himself as a candidate for any public office?" asked John.

"We'll see that he turns it over to the Children's hospital if it's the
last thing we do," said Brennan, smiling.

At a moment when he was the most conspicuous man in the city, Gibson
disappeared. Brennan and John joined the reporters of other Los Angeles
newspapers in a night and day search for the missing commissioner, but,
as it had been when Gibson disappeared before he foiled "Red Mike" in
his attempted wreck of the "Lark," no trace of him could be found.

Gibson had not been missing for more than twenty-four hours before a
tidal wave of crime swept the city. In a single night there were a score
of robberies, holdups, burglaries and bandit raids. The gamblers and
handbook agents resumed their business, women were attacked on the
streets, bootleg liquor flowed like a river and pickpockets victimized a
dozen men and women. The sudden resumption of unlawfulness, far more
severe than it had ever been, caught the police unprepared and only a
few arrests were made.

Brennan and John sought out Murphy.

"Da 'Gink' has canceled his orders and told da boys to go to it strong,"
Murphy told them. "He gave da word da day after this bird Gibson ducks
out."

"Two and two make four," commented Brennan. "Gibson goes out of town
and Cummings gives orders to his gang to open up. Another slick trick.
Gibson will come back in a few days and the 'Gink' will call them off
again. Result, the people will believe that Gibson is the only man to
keep the lid down in Los Angeles, that as soon as he leaves crime begins
and as soon as he returns it stops. Oh, what a smart pair they are!"

John took time to analyze the situation and decided that the
coordination of the moves of Gibson and "Gink" Cummings was more than a
series of coincidences. He accepted, for the first time without
reservation or qualification, the theory that there was an alliance
between the commissioner and the underworld boss. The realization
shocked him and he felt a hate for Gibson, the deceiver, surge through
him. But he knew that this hate was engendered more by the fact that
Gibson was misleading Consuello than that he was a political Judas,
betraying his city for "Gink" Cummings' stolen silver.

In the midst of the excitement caused by Gibson's disappearance and the
outbreak of crime, while fears were being exp