ter," he
said--"read your letter."

Obediently Garrison perused the missive in hand, typed on the steel-plate
stationery of the New York Immutable Life Insurance Company:

"DEAR SIR:

"At the recommendation of our counsel, Mr. Sperry Lochlan, who is still
abroad, we desire to secure your services in a professional capacity.
Our Mr. Wicks will call upon you this afternoon to explain the nature of
the employment and conclude the essential arrangements.

"Respectfully yours,
"JOHN STEFFAS,
"Dep't of Special Service."

A wave of gratitude toward Lochlan, the lawyer who had first employed
him, and advised this New York office, surged with another, of almost
boyish joy, through Garrison's being. It seemed almost absurd that two
actual clients should thus have appeared within the hour. He looked up
at the little man with a new, keen interest.

"I am glad to meet you, Mr. Wicks," he said. "Will you please sit down?
I am at your service."

Mr. Wicks snatched a chair and sat down. It was quite a violent
maneuver, especially as that sinister grin never for a moment left his
features. He took off his hat and made a vicious dive at a wisp of long,
red hair that adorned the otherwise barren top of his head. The wisp lay
down toward his left ear when thus adjusted. He looked up at Garrison
almost fiercely.

"Obscure, ain't you?" he demanded.

"Obscure?" inquired Garrison. "Perhaps I am--just at present--here in
New York."

"You are!" stated Mr. Wicks aggressively.

Garrison was not enamored of his manner.

"All right," he said--"all right."

Mr. Wicks suddenly leaned forward and fetched his index finger almost up
against the young man's nose.

"Good at murder?" he demanded.

Garrison began to suspect that the building might harbor lunatics,
several of whom had escaped.

"Am I good at murder?" he repeated. "Doing murder or----"

"Ferreting murder! Ferreting murder! Ferreting murder!" cried the
visitor irritably.

"Oh," said Garrison, "if you wish to employ me on a murder case, I'll do
the best I can."

"You worked out the Biddle robbery?" queried Mr. Wicks.

Garrison replied that he had. The Biddle robbery was the Lochlan
case--his first adventure in criminology.

"Take the case!" commanded Mr. Wicks in his truculent manner. "Two
hundred and fifty a month as long as you work. One thousand dollars
bonus if you find the murderer. Accept the terms?"

"Yes, I'll take the case," he sa