I can't figure out Gibson's game in
arresting 'Big Jim.' She'll probably be able to give us the tip."

"I wonder what she wants to tell me," said John.

"Tell US, you mean," Brennan amended. "You don't think you're not going
to take me along with you, do you?"

A few minutes after 8 o'clock that evening John and Brennan returned to
the scene of their adventure of the afternoon. John rapped on the door
and the girl spoke to them without opening it.

"Who is it, please?" she asked.

"It's the reporter you spoke to this afternoon," John said, and the door
swung open. The girl stood with her hand on the knob. She glanced
inquiringly toward Brennan.

"My partner," John explained.

"Come in," she invited, with a friendly smile.

She waited until they had entered and then closed the door behind them,
locking it carefully. Without speaking she led them into a sitting room,
artistically furnished, lighted only by a rose-shaded table lamp. She
motioned them to a deep-cushioned davenport and seated herself in a
chair under the light from the lamp.

There was no doubt about it, she was pretty! Her blonde hair shone in
the light and the shadows about her eyes added to their beauty. Her face
was round and piquant, her lips a deep crimson and tiny. Her one-piece
dress on which beads sparkled, exposed a delicately rounded throat and
slender white arms. Her hands were small and white and her fingernails
were highly polished. Sheer silk stockings and neat, expensive shoes. A
hint of cheapness about her; perhaps it was the unnatural thinness of
the delicately arched eyebrows, John thought; or perhaps the shortness
of her skirt; but she was pretty!

"I suppose you understand that I am Mrs. Hatch?" she said.

They nodded.

"Now," she continued, "can you give me some assurance that you are
really reporters and not detectives."

They produced their press badges which she examined under the light.

Apparently satisfied, she looked at them for a moment and then spoke.

"I want you to help me," she said; "help me and my husband."

"If there is any legitimate way we can help you, we will," Brennan
assured her.

"I will begin at the beginning and tell you everything," she said. "When
I have finished you can tell me what you can do for me.

"In the first place, I am speaking to you because my husband is afraid
to say anything. He does not know that I am going to tell you this, but
I am doing it to save him, because"--she hesit