e about her looks, sir," parried Weil defensively, "and I'm
just trying to tell you."

"Proceed! Proceed!" bade Donohue, rumbling his consonants.

"Yes, sir. Well, in regard to this woman: She's talking so fast I can't
figure out at first what she's trying to tell me. It's Italian she's
talking--or I should say the kind of Italian they talk in parts of
Sicily. After a little I begin to see what she's driving at. It seems
she's the wife of one Antonio Terranova and her name is Maria
Terranova. And after I get her straightened out and going slow she tells
me her story."

"Is this here story got a bearin' on the charges pendin'?"

"I think it has. Yes, sir; it helps to explain what happens. As near as
I can make out she comes from some small town down round Messina
somewhere, and the way she tells it to me, her husband leaves there not
long after they're married and comes over here to New York to get work,
and when he gets enough money saved up ahead he's going to send back for
her. That's near about three years ago. So she stays behind waiting for
him, and in about four months after he leaves the baby is born--the same
baby that she brings in here to headquarters with her last Thursday. She
says neither one of them thinks it'll be long before he can save up
money for her passage, but it seems like he has the bad luck. He's sick
for a while after he lands, and then when he gets a job in a
construction gang the padrone takes the most of what he makes. And just
about the time he gets a little saved up some other Ginney--Italian--in
the construction camp steals it off of him.

"So he's up against it, and after a while he gets desperate. So he joins
in with a Black Hander gang--amateurs operating up in the Bronx--and the
very first trick he helps turn he does well by it. His share is near
about a hundred dollars, and he sends her the best part of it to bring
her and the baby over. She don't know at the time, though, how he raises
all this money--so she tells me. And I think, at that, she's telling the
truth--she ain't got sense enough to lie, I think. Anyway it sounds
truthful to me--the way she tells it to me here last Thursday night."

"Proceed!" prompted Donohue testily.

"So she takes this here money and buys herself a steerage ticket and
comes over here with the baby. That, as near as I can figure out, is
about three months ago. She's not seen this husband of hers for going on
three years--of course the baby's neve