ong
ride annoyed you, but you will appreciate that it was necessary for my
men to bind and gag you."

"It certainly was if they expected to get me here!" Jim Farland
declared.

He heard the masked man chuckle.

"I understand that you have been engaged by Sidney Prale to clear him of
the charge of murdering Rufus Shepley."

"I don't mind admitting that, since the whole city knows it," said
Farland.

"And also to aid Sidney Prale in outwitting certain persons who are
trying to punish him for something he did."

"I don't know anything about that. I do know that some people are trying
to make things hot for Sid Prale, and he doesn't deserve it, and----"

"Pardon me, if I interrupt!" the masked man said. "You say that he does
not deserve it. Do you believe that influential persons would persecute
him if he did not deserve it?"

"Sid Prale doesn't know what it is all about!"

"That is what he told the valet, too. But believe me when I say that he
does know what it is all about, and is deceiving you when he says
otherwise."

"What has all this to do with me?" Jim Farland demanded. "Did you have
me brought here to argue the case with me?"

"I had you brought here because I want you to cease working for Sidney
Prale. I want you to go back to him and tell him that you are done."

"As Coadley, the attorney, did?"

"Exactly!"

"Your people must be men of influence if they can buy off Coadley like
that!"

"Perhaps Coadley was shown that it would wreck his future if he
continued working for Prale."

"Well, you can't wreck my future, because I haven't any," Farland told
him.

"Do not be too sure of that, Mr. Farland. Agree to my proposition and
you may have a great future. You may find business thrown your way. You
may find yourself able to spread out, have a protective service, become
a wealthy man. If you give up the Prale case, we'll see that you are
paid cash immediately, of course, in lieu of the fee you would receive
from Prale--and considerably more than he would pay you."

"I suppose that would appeal to a lot of men," Jim Farland said, "but it
isn't the right bait to use if you are eager to catch me. I have all the
business I want. I can make a living for myself and my small family, and
we do not hanker after riches. A larger business would make me a human
machine, and I'd rather just drift along and be an ordinary good husband
and father. I'd rather be running a little, third-rate detective agency
a