, Lord, in the name of Thy son; Amen."

The mayor rose to his feet and they walked from the room.

"I hope you'll tell the people of Los Angeles what Murphy saved them
from," said the mayor as they separated outside the hospital door.
"Whether I'm re-elected or not I'll not rest until the brutes who beat
him are brought to justice. You can tell them that, too."

Dusk was deepening into night as John entered the detective bureau at
central station, around the corner in First street from the hospital. He
found the two detectives who made the first investigation of the case
writing out their reports.

"Three men did it," one of them told him. "They were seen entering and
leaving the house. Two big fellows and a small, thin-faced man. No one
heard the noise or suspected that anything was wrong."

"No identification of the men?" he asked.

"Not yet," the detective replied. "We understand the chief and a bunch
of the boys are on the case and may make an arrest before morning. By
the way, if you're a friend of Murphy's you'd better go down to his room
and take charge of his things. There's no lock on the door now, you
know, and things are liable to disappear."

"Thanks for the tip," said John. "I'll attend to it."

He went direct to Murphy's room from police headquarters. The room was
dark and, scratching a match, he lighted the gas at a jet in the wall.
He thought of how rapidly gas illumination in homes had disappeared. He
remembered Consuello's father telling him that as late as 1870 there was
only one street lamp--a gas one--in Spring street, although there was
agitation among the citizens to have the city council add another light
to put "as far south as First street."

As he inspected the room in the pale light from the gas flame he tried
to picture in his mind how Murphy had tried to save himself from the
three bruisers. He discovered the stain caused by the spilled whisky,
the empty bottle under the bed. Then, suddenly, it flashed into his
mind that Murphy might have been beaten to force him to reveal the names
of those who were with him. He stopped his work of collecting Murphy's
few belongings as this possibility came into his brain.

Had Murphy told? Beaten and kicked and facing death had he sought mercy
by revealing who had the evidence against Cummings and Gibson? Or, had
he passed into insensibility keeping it a secret?

He heard footsteps approaching the room. Perhaps it was Sweeney and his
detective