t
present one of the leading geniuses in that hallowed body of faithful
public servitors.

"Come in, come in," said this gentleman urbanely as Von Barwig stood
waiting as patiently as he could for the news he was so anxious to hear.

"Well, I think we've got something," he added.

Von Barwig said nothing; he waited to hear more.

"First of all, business before pleasure," said Mr. Hatch, and suited
the action to the word by handing Von Barwig a bill for $556.84, for
"services rendered."

"Yes, yes; but tell me the news!" faltered Von Barwig, without looking
at the bill. "Have you found her? Tell me!" The pleading look in Von
Barwig's face would have melted the heart of any ordinary scoundrel;
but Mr. Hatch was no ordinary scoundrel.

"It's customary, Mr. Barwig," he said drily, "to settle one account
before opening another."

Von Barwig looked at the bill that had been handed to him, saw the
amount, shook his head pathetically, and smiled. "There must be some
mistake," he said.

"My partner went to California on this clue and followed it clean to
British Columbia; railroad fares alone amount to two fifty; there's
hotel bills, carfare; there's salaries, office expenses, stamps; and
then--there's me." If Mr. Hatch had put himself first there would have
been little need to refer to the other items.

"There's the vouchers," he went on, pushing a lot of papers toward Von
Barwig. "Everything O.K.'d; everything on the level, open and above
board." He leaned back in his chair as if determined not to say
another word until the matter was settled.

"Then you refuse to tell me any more until this is paid?"

"Not at all, not at all! I'd just as leave tell you right now; but it
wouldn't be business, it wouldn't be business." He repeated this as if
to impress his listener with the importance of the business aspect of
the situation being well preserved.

"You are right; it is not business! It is life and death; it's my
heart, my soul, my very existence! My little girl, my little Helene is
not business."

"I suppose not," assented the fat man, "not to you; but our end of it
rests on a commercial basis. We've laid out the money and we're
entitled to be paid for it."

"But I have paid you already so much! I cannot afford more. For years
I have hunted high and low for my wife and child through city after
city for thousands upon thousands of miles. At last I came to you, and
there have been months and month