oung woman."

"I am sorry--I became ill, and was delayed. I will not be late with
you again, sir."

The president of the Purity League retired to his sanctum, slightly
mollified. Mary had not been at her post long when a messenger came in
with a telegram.

"Mr. Trubus!" he said, shoving the envelope at her.

She signed his book, and knocked at the door. There was a little
delay, and the worthy man opened it impatiently. "I do not want to be
interrupted, I am going over my accounts."

She handed him the telegram, and he tore it open hastily.

"What's this?" he muttered in excitement. Then he went back for his
silk hat, and left, slamming the door of his private office and
carefully locking it.

"I wonder what took him out so quickly?" thought Mary. But even as she
mused Bobbie Burke came into the outer office, with the precious
machine wrapped in yellow paper.

"What took Trubus out, Bobbie?" she asked, as she helped him arrange
the machine behind the wastebasket, near the telephone switchboard.

"Just a telegram, signed 'Friend,' advising him to watch the men who
came in the front door, downstairs, for ten minutes, but not to visit
Clemm's office. That will keep him away, and he can't possibly guess
who did it."

"But, look, Bob, he has locked his door with a peculiar key. If you
force it he will be able to tell."

"I thought he might do as much, Mary. I wouldn't risk tampering with
the lock. Instead, I found an empty room on the floor above. I have a
rope, and I will take the receiver of your father's machine with the
disc, and part of the wiring which I had already cut. There is no fire
escape from the floor above for some reason. He will suspect all the
less, then, for he would not think of anyone coming through the
headquarters on the floor below. I will go down hand over hand, you
shove the wire under the door to me, and I'll attach it. Then I'll go
up the ladder, and we'll let the dictagraph do its work."

Thus it was accomplished. Mary covered the machine and its wiring in
the outer office, although several times she had to quit at inopportune
times to answer the telephone, or make a connection.

Burke, from the room above, climbed down hurriedly, adjusted the
instrument as he had been told to do by John Barton. Then he was out,
barely drawing himself and the rope away from the window view before
Trubus entered.

Mary thought that it was all discovered, but breathed a sigh of re