happen," commented Steiner
as the other seemed to pause. "I don't expect it was any one in
Hambleton, sir. It might have been a tramp."

"It might have been, but it wasn't. It was Charlie Maxon, who used to
work for me and never shall again. I want you to take the necessary
steps to effect his arrest. I intend to prosecute him and hope he will
be punished to the full extent of the law. It's time Charlie Maxon and
a few of his friends were taught that I'm a bad man to play tricks on!"

"Maxon, sir?" Steiner seemed more thoughtful than surprised. "I think
he has been one of the more active men in agitating this strike of
yours. A bright enough chap with a queer streak running through him."

"Umph. Well, I'm going to put him where his queer streak can't get
loose and run amuck in my garden." He caught an expression of
hesitancy in the policeman's eyes. "Eh? What's the matter?"

"I was just thinking, sir--are we sure of proving it against him?
Mebbe we'd better go slow. If I arrest him, like you say, and the case
falls down, he'd have a cause for action--"

"Idiot!" snapped Varr. "Don't you suppose I know that?" He thrust his
hand into his breast-pocket. "Of course I have plenty of proof."

He produced a heavy wallet and opened it. From one of its compartments
he took a small, triangular bit of blue cloth and, with the habitual
impatience that marked his every speech and gesture, he threw it at
Steiner, who caught it deftly in his cap.

"The man who looted my garden was afraid to use the gate for fear he'd
be seen from the house. He came and went through the barbed-wire fence
and left that as a souvenir. It's a piece of a flannel shirt, like the
one Maxon usually wears. Get his shirt and match this to the hole
you'll find in it--see? Then take his everyday shoes and fit 'em to
the footprints he left in my tomato patch--I've had two of 'em covered
with glass bells so they won't be washed away if it rains. That will
be all the evidence you need. Understand?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Well--what is it now?"

"It's this, sir--I guess I ought to tell you that there's a lot of
feeling in the village over this strike, and most of it favors the
strikers. Maxon would get a bunch of sympathy. S'pose he comes out
and says he took those tomatoes because he was hungry? It may be wrong
to steal, but there's people who will say you're persecuting him and
they'll set him up as a martyr. I--I'm looking at it f