re was a little period of silence while the man, with the resolute
face and the light gray eyes that shone so clearly underneath the thick,
waving silver hair, held his head bent downward as if in intent thought.
When, finally, he spoke, there was a certain quality in his voice that
caused Aggie to regard him curiously.

"Mary has been with him a good deal lately," he said, half
questioningly.

"That's what," was the curt agreement.

Garson brought out his next query with the brutal bluntness of his kind;
and yet there was a vague suggestion of tenderness in his tones under
the vulgar words.

"Think she's stuck on him?" He had seated himself on a settee opposite
the girl, who did not trouble on his account to assume a posture more
decorous, and he surveyed her keenly as he waited for a reply.

"Why not?" Aggie retorted. "Bet your life I'd be, if I had a chance.
He's a swell boy. And his father's got the coin, too."

At this the man moved impatiently, and his eyes wandered to the window.
Again, Aggie studied him with a swift glance of interrogation. Not being
the possessor of an over-nice sensibility as to the feelings of others,
she now spoke briskly.

"Joe, if there's anything on your mind, shoot it."

Garson hesitated for a moment, then decided to unburden himself, for he
craved precise knowledge in this matter.

"It's Mary," he explained, with some embarrassment; "her and young
Gilder."

"Well?" came the crisp question.

"Well, somehow," Garson went on, still somewhat confusedly, "I can't see
any good of it, for her."

"Why?" Aggie demanded, in surprise.

Garson's manner grew easier, now that the subject was well broached.

"Old man Gilder's got a big pull," he vouchsafed, "and if he caught on
to his boy's going with Mary, he'd be likely to send the police after
us--strong! Believe me, I ain't looking for any trip up the river."

Aggie shook her head, quite unaffected by the man's suggestion of
possible peril in the situation.

"We ain't done nothin' they can touch us for," she declared, with
assurance. "Mary says so."

Garson, however, was unconvinced, notwithstanding his deference to the
judgment of his leader.

"Whether we've done anything, or whether we haven't, don't matter," he
objected. "Once the police set out after you, they'll get you. Russia
ain't in it with some of the things I have seen pulled off in this
town."

"Oh, can that 'fraid talk!" Aggie exclaimed, roughly. "I tell you t