you as fast as I can get there. Don't let him reach
the hotel if I'm late--you understand?"

"What do you think of that?" he asked, turning to Baldwin. "Of all the
gall--where do you think that fellow McCarthy was?"

"I don't know."

"No wonder Jack had such a hard time locating him. He was at your
house."

"I have a taxi waiting downstairs," said Edwards quickly. "Come on,
I'll drop you at the police station. We'll bring in the prisoner
before you've been there very long."

"How are you going to get him?" inquired Baldwin, as the taxi dodged in
and out among traffic.

"I've got Big Jack, the fighter, trailing McCarthy," said the gambler,
laughing mirthlessly. "He's sore on ball players since that scrap with
Swanson and Kennedy the other night, and he'll welcome a chance to get
his hands on one."

"He won't hurt him, will he?" asked Baldwin nervously.

"No, he won't hurt him," replied the gambler with scornful sarcasm.
"Not a bit. He'll probably take him in his lap and sing him to sleep."

"This is dangerous business," objected Baldwin nervously. "We might
all get into trouble."

"We're all in trouble now," snapped Edwards. "You leave the trouble
end of it to me."

The taxi slackened its pace as it approached the police station and
Baldwin climbed out under the lights that marked it as the home of the
paid guardians of the people's rights and liberties.

"Don't fall down this time," warned the gambler. "If this don't go
through, the newspapers will have some fine information to print in the
next few days."

"I'll fix it, Ed, I'll frame it all right," replied Baldwin nervously.

The mention of his name and the imposing manner he had assumed won for
him immediate entrance to the captain's private room, and after ten
minutes of earnest conversation, Baldwin emerged, the gray-haired
official with the gilt stars and chevrons escorting him and shaking
hands with him at the street door.

"Don't forget, Raferty," said Baldwin importantly. "I want him kept
close until I can get the proof we need. Don't let any lawyers or
reporters get near him and keep your cops from gossiping. You won't
lose anything by it, Raferty. Drop down and see me sometime. I'd like
to talk the political situation over with you. You understand?"

Meantime the taxicab, with Edwards inside, had raced across the upper
portion of the city to the place where Big Jack was pacing the shadowy
part of the sidewalk half a block