the forger weird forebodings that had been
troubling him throughout the day.

"It's sure enough," he stated, "but is it safe?"

Mary looked up quickly.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

Garson walked to and fro nervously as he answered.

"S'pose the bulls get tired of you putting it over on 'em and try some
rough work?"

Mary smiled carelessly.

"Don't worry, Joe," she advised. "I know a way to stop it."

"Well, so far as that goes, so do I," the forger said, with significant
emphasis.

"Just what do you mean by that?" Mary demanded, suspiciously.

"For rough work," he said, "I have this." He took a magazine pistol from
his pocket. It was of an odd shape, with a barrel longer than is usual
and a bell-shaped contrivance attached to the muzzle.

"No, no, Joe," Mary cried, greatly discomposed. "None of that--ever!"

The forger smiled, and there was malignant triumph in his expression.

"Pooh!" he exclaimed. "Even if I used it, they would never get on to me.
See this?" He pointed at the strange contrivance on the muzzle.

Mary's curiosity made her forget for a moment her distaste.

"What is it?" she asked, interestedly. "I have never seen anything like
that before."

"Of course you haven't," Garson answered with much pride. "I'm the first
man in the business to get one, and I'll bet on it. I keep up with the
times." For once, he was revealing that fundamental egotism which is the
characteristic of all his kind. "That's one of the new Maxim silencers,"
he continued. "With smokeless powder in the cartridges, and the silencer
on, I can make a shot from my coat-pocket, and you wouldn't even know it
had been done.... And I'm some shot, believe me."

"Impossible!" Mary ejaculated.

"No, it ain't," the man asserted. "Here, wait, I'll show you."

"Good gracious, not here!" Mary exclaimed in alarm. "We would have the
whole place down on us."

Garson chuckled.

"You just watch that dinky little vase on the table across the room
there. 'Tain't very valuable, is it?"

"No," Mary answered.

In the same instant, while still her eyes were on the vase, it fell in
a cascade of shivered glass to the table and floor. She had heard no
sound, she saw no smoke. Perhaps, there had been a faintest clicking
noise. She was not sure. She stared dumfounded for a few seconds, then
turned her bewildered face toward Garson, who was grinning in high
enjoyment.

"I would'nt have believed it possible," she declared, vastly