icked his lips, and a sudden gleam came into his eyes.

"I--he seems to look familiar, but I can't say."

"You'd better say!" Farland exclaimed. "I want the truth out of you, or
something will drop. And when it drops, it is liable to hit you on the
toes. Get me?"

"I--I don't know what to do," wailed the merchant.

"Tell the truth!"

"But--there is something peculiar about----"

"Out with it! Know this man?"

"I've seen him before," the merchant replied.

"When?"

"La-last night, sir."

"Now we are getting at it!" Jim Farland exclaimed. "When did you see him
last night, and where, and what happened?"

"He was in the store, Mr. Farland, about half past ten or a quarter of
eleven o'clock. He--he bought those clothes he's got on."

"Pay for them?"

"Yes, sir."

"Who paid for them?" Farland demanded.

"A gentleman who was with him," said the merchant.

"Ah! Know the gentleman?"

"I saw him to-day--at police headquarters."

"And you said that you never had seen him before--that he was not here
last night with this man. Why did you lie?"

Jim Farland roared the question and smashed a fist down upon the
counter. The little merchant flinched.

"Out with it!" Farland cried. "Tell the truth, you little crook! I want
to know why you lied, who told you to lie. I want to know all about it,
and mighty quick!"

"I--I don't understand this," the merchant whimpered. "I was afraid of
making a mistake."

"You'll make a mistake right now if you don't tell the truth!" Jim
Farland told him.

"I--I got a letter, sir, by messenger. I got it early this morning,
sir."

"Well, what about it?"

"The letter was typewritten, sir, and was not signed. There was a
thousand dollars in bills in the letter, sir, and it said that a Mr.
Prale had just been arrested for murder, and that he probably would try
to make an alibi by saying that he was here last night and bought some
clothes for another man. The letter said that I was to take the money
and ask no questions, and that, if I was called to police headquarters,
I was to say the man had not been here and that I never had seen him in
my life before."

"And you fell for it? You wanted that thousand, I suppose."

"I'll show you the letter, Mr. Farland. There was no signature at all,
and the paper was just common paper. I--I thought it was politics, sir."

"You did, eh?"

"Thought it had something to do with politics, sir. I thought the letter
and money might have co