rcel. Dexter handed it to the captain who
opened it gingerly. Inside the officer found at least twenty-five
small packets, all wrapped in white paper. He opened two of these.
They contained a flaky, white powder.

The man looked down as Sawyer gave him a shrewd glance.

"We have a very interesting visitor, Burke. Thanks for bringing him
in. So you're a cocaine peddler?"

The man did not reply.

"Take him out into one of the cells, Dexter. Get all the rest of his
junk and wrap it up. Look through the lining of his clothes and strip
him. This is a good catch, Burke."

The prisoner sullenly ambled along between two policemen, who locked
him up in one of the "pens" in the rear of the front office. Burke
leaned over the desk.

"He was walking with that Jimmie the Monk when I got him. Jimmie acted
ugly, and when I told him to move on he began to curse me."

"What did you do?"

"I handed him an upper-cut. Then this fellow tried to get his gun.
Jimmie will remember me, and I'll get him later, on something. I
didn't want to call out the reserves, so I brought this man right on
over here, and let Jimmie attend to himself. I suppose we'll hear from
him before long."

"Yes, I see the message coming now," exclaimed Captain Sawyer in a low
tone. "Don't you open your mouth. I'll do the talking now."

As he spoke, Burke followed his eyes and turned around. A large man,
decorated with a shiny silk hat, shinier patent leather shoes of
extreme breadth of beam, a flamboyant waistcoat, and a gold chain from
which dangled a large diamond charm, swaggered into the room, mopping
his red face with a silk handkerchief.

"Well, well, captain!" he ejaculated, "what's this I hear about an
officer from this precinct assaulting two peaceful civilians?"

The Captain looked steadily into the puffy face of the speaker. His
steely gray eyes fairly snapped with anger, although his voice was
unruffled as he replied, "You'd better tell me all you heard, and who
you heard it from."

The big man looked at Burke and scowled ominously. It was evident that
Officer 4434 was well known to him, although Bobbie had never seen the
other in his life.

"Here's the fellow. Clubbing one of my district workers--straight
politics, that's what it is, or I should say crooked politics. I'm
going to take this up with the Mayor this very day. You know his
orders about policemen using their clubs."

"Yes, Alderman, I know that and several