was distinctly cool toward Burke, but, under a stern look from
Mary, gave the outward semblance of good grace. The fact that he had
been present in her home at the time of her disastrous escapade, even
though she believed him ignorant of it, made the girl sensitive and
aloof.

She left Mary alone with him at the earliest pretext, and Bobbie had
interesting things to say to her: things which were nobody's business
but theirs.

Barton's lawyer came before Burke left to report for evening duty, and
he spent considerable effort to learn the story of the uncle and the
curious will.

Now a digression in narrative is ofttimes a dangerous parting of ways.
But on this particular day Bobbie Burke had come to a parting of the
ways unwittingly. He had left the plodding life of routine excitement
of the ordinary policeman to embark upon a journey fraught with
multifold dangers. In addition to his enemies of the underworld, he
had made a new one in an entirely different sphere.

To follow the line of digression, had the reader gone into the same
building on Fifth Avenue which Burke had entered that afternoon,
perhaps an hour later, and had he stopped on the third floor, entered a
door marked "Mercantile Agency," he would have discovered a very busy
little market-place. The first room of the suite of offices thus
indicated was quite small. A weazened man, with thin shiny fingers, an
unnaturally pallid face, and stooped shoulders, sat at a small flat-top
desk, inside an iron grating of the kind frequently seen in cashiers'
offices.

He watched the hall door with beady eyes, and whenever it opened to
admit a newcomer he subjected that person to keen scrutiny; then he
pushed a small button which automatically clicked a spring in the lock
of the grated door.

This done, it was possible for the approved visitor to push past into a
larger room shut off from the first office by a heavy door which
invariably slammed, because it was pulled shut by a strong wire spring
and was intended to slam.

The larger room opened out on a rear court, and, upon passing one of
the large dirty windows, a fire escape could be descried. Around this
room were a number of benches. Close scrutiny would have disclosed the
fact that they were old-fashioned church pews, dismantled from some
disused sanctuary. Two large tables were ranged in the center of the
room.

The floor was extremely dirty. The few chairs were very badly worn,
and the only