margin, I'll make a fine
little _coup_. Want to come in on it, Rockamore?'

"'Go to the devil! Here's your check--you can get it certified at the
bank. Now get out and don't bother me again or you'll find out I'm not
the weak-minded fool you take me for. Stick to the small fry,
Paddington. They're your game, but don't fish for salmon with a
trout-fly.'

"'Thanks, old man. I always knew I could call on you in an emergency.
I only hope my tip is a straight one and I don't go short on the
market. If I do--'

"'Don't come to me! I tell you, Paddington, you can't play me for a
sucker. That's the last cent you'll ever get out of me. It suits me
now to pay for your silence because, as you very well know, I don't
care to inform my colleagues or have them informed that I acted
independently of them; but I've paid all that your knowledge is worth,
and more.'

"'It might have been worth even more to others than to you or your
colleagues. For instance--'

"Then Billy came up behind me and whistled," concluded Miss Hefferman,
as she closed her note-book. "Shall I transcribe this for you, Mr.
Blaine? We have a typewriter at the club."

"No, I will take the note-book with me as it is and lock it in my safe
at the office. Please hold yourself in readiness to come down and
transcribe it whenever it may be necessary for me to send for you. You
have done splendidly, Miss Hefferman. You must not feel badly over
having been discovered and dismissed. You have rendered Miss Lawton a
valuable service for which she will be the first to thank you.
Telephone me if anyone attempts to approach you about this affair, or
if anything unusual should occur."

Scarcely an hour later, when Henry Blaine placed the receiver at his
ear in response to the insistent summons of the 'phone, her voice came
to him again over the wire.

"Mr. Blaine, I am at the club, but I thought you should know that
after all, I was--what is that you say--shadowed this morning. Just a
little way from Mead & Rathbun's my hand-bag was cut from my arm. It
was lucky, _hein_, that you took the note-book with you? As for me, I
go out no more for any positions. I go back soon as ever I can, by
Germany."

CHAPTER XI

THE CONFIDENCE OF EMILY

All during that day and the night which followed it, the search for
Ramon Hamilton continued, but without result. With the announcement of
his disappearance, in the press, the police had started a spectacular
investigation,