ir of injured dignity,
but his fat face all at once seemed sagged and wrinkled, like a
pricked balloon.

"I did not come here to be insulted!" he announced in his most
impressive manner. "I came, as I told you, as a public-spirited
citizen, because the officials of another city called upon me to urge
you to aid them. I have failed in my mission, and I will go. I am
surprised, Blaine, at your attitude; I thought you were too big a man
to permit your personal antagonism to me to interfere with your
duty--"

For the first time during their interview Blaine smiled slightly.

"Have you ever known me, Mr. Carlis, to permit my personal antagonism
to you or any other man to interfere with what I conceive to be my
duty?"

Before he replied, the politician produced a voluminous silk
handkerchief, and mopped his brow. For some reason he did not feel
called upon to make a direct answer.

"Well, what reason am I to give to the Mayor of Grafton and its
political leaders, for your refusal? That talk about me trying to get
you out of Illington, Blaine, is all bosh, and you know it. _I'm_
running Illington just as I've run it for the last ten years, in spite
of your interference or any other man's, and I'm going to stay right
on the job! If you won't give any other reason for declining the call
to Grafton, than your preference for the air of Illington, then the
bets go as they lay!"

He jammed his hat upon his head, and strode from the room with all
the ferocity his rotund figure could express. The first decisive move
in the game had failed.

The door was scarcely closed behind him, when Blaine turned to the
telephone and called up Anita Lawton on the private wire.

"Can you arrange to meet me at once, at your Working Girls' Club?" he
asked. "I wish to suggest a plan to be put into immediate operation."

"Very well. I can be there in fifteen minutes."

When the detective arrived at the club, he was ushered immediately to
the small ante-room on the second floor, where he found Anita
anxiously awaiting him.

"Miss Lawton," he began, without further greeting than a quick
handclasp, "you told me, the other day, that your girls here were all
staunch and faithful to you. Your secretary downstairs had previously
informed me that they were trained to hold positions of trust, and
that you obtained such positions for them. I want you to obtain four
positions for four of the girls in whom you place the most implicit
confidence."