-I think you ought to
know--Victor Mahr is dead!"

"Dead! How? When?" Gard feigned surprise.

"Murdered last night," came the reply. "Found this morning. Our man
watching the house learned it as soon as anyone did. A case of robbery,
they say--but the coroner's verdict hasn't been given yet. He was hit in
the head with a pistol--but--I think, sir, they'll want you; you saw him
last night, they say--after you left me. Have you any instructions to
give me, sir?"

Gard reflected. "I don't know," he wavered. "Hold all the good men in
your service you can for me--and remember what I told you." He turned to
the two men. "Mahr's dead--murdered!" he blurted out, as if startled by
the news.

They nodded. "Yes, we knew. But," Denning added, "we didn't want to
upset you any further. It came out on the ticker at eleven. How are you
feeling?" he asked with friendly solicitude. "I wish you'd eat
something--you've not touched anything but coffee for nearly twenty-four
hours."

"I can't," said Gard grimly. "Let's go to the Capitol and get it over
with. Have you 'phoned Senator Ryan? I'm all right," he assured them, as
he caught sight of Langley's dubious expression. "I want to get through
here as quickly as possible and get back. I suppose you realize that
I'll be wanted in the city in more ways than one. I was the last person,
except the murderer, to see Mahr. Come on."

As they came from the Capitol at the close of their conference, Langley
and Denning fell behind for a moment.

"What a wonder the man is!" exclaimed Denning with enthusiasm. "Sick as
he is, and with all these other troubles on him, he's bucked up and
buffaloed this whole thing into shape. He forgets nothing!"

Gard entered the motor first, and, as he leaned forward, dropped from
the opposite window a fragment of twisted gold. An hour later, in the
waiting room they had traversed, a woman picked up a pigeon blood ruby,
but the grinding wheels of trains and engines had left no trace of the
trifles they had destroyed. In the yard near the private siding, a
coupling hand came upon a twisted gold watch case, so crushed that the
diamond monogram it once had boasted was unrecognizable.

"At every stop, Jim," said Gard, as he threw himself wearily into a
lounging chair in the saloon end of the car, "I want you to go out and
get me all the latest editions of the New York papers."

The negro bowed, disappeared into the cook's galley and returned with
glasses and a