to catch that train."

Mary regarded the stockily built officer with a half-amused contempt,
which she was at no pains to conceal.

"Working for the New York Central now?" she asked blandly.

The gibe made the Inspector furious.

"I'm working for the good of New York City," he answered venomously.

Mary let a ripple of cadenced laughter escape her.

"Since when?" she questioned.

A little smile twisted the lips of the District Attorney, but he caught
himself quickly, and spoke with stern gravity.

"Miss Turner, I think you will find that a different tone will serve you
better."

"Oh, let her talk," Burke interjected angrily. "She's only got a few
minutes anyway."

Mary remained unperturbed.

"Very well, then," she said genially, "let us be comfortable during that
little period." She made a gesture of invitation toward chairs, which
Burke disdained to accept; but Demarest seated himself.

"You'd better be packing your trunk," the Inspector rumbled.

"But why?" Mary inquired, with a tantalizing assumption of innocence.
"I'm not going away."

"On the Twentieth Century Limited, this afternoon," the Inspector
declared, in a voice of growing wrath.

"Oh, dear, no!" Mary's assertion was made very quietly, but with an
underlying firmness that irritated the official beyond endurance.

"I say yes!" The answer was a bellow.

Mary appeared distressed, not frightened. Her words were an ironic
protest against the man's obstreperous noisiness, no more.

"I thought you wanted quiet words with me."

Burke went toward her, in a rage.

"Now, look here, Mollie----" he began harshly.

On the instant, Mary was on her feet, facing him, and there was a gleam
in her eyes as they met his that bade him pause.

"Miss Turner, if you don't mind." She laughed slightly. "For the
present, anyway." She reseated herself tranquilly.

Burke was checked, but he retained his severity of bearing.

"I'm giving you your orders. You will either go to Chicago, or you'll go
up the river."

Mary answered in a voice charged with cynicism.

"If you can convict me. Pray, notice that little word 'if'."

The District Attorney interposed very suavely.

"I did once, remember."

"But you can't do it again," Mary declared, with an assurance that
excited the astonishment of the police official.

"How do you know he can't?" he blustered.

Mary laughed in a cadence of genial merriment.

"Because," she replied gaily, "if he could, he wou