ondering, then became watchful, then anxious. At length
the Inspector himself fell silent, as if perceiving the uselessness of
further pretense.

"What is it, Allan?" said Mandy quietly, when silence had fallen upon
them all. "You might as well let me know."

"Tell her, for God's sake," said her husband to the Inspector.

"What is it?" inquired Mandy.

The Inspector handed her a letter.

"From Superintendent Strong to my Chief," he said.

She took it and as she read her face went now white with fear, now red
with indignation. At length she flung the letter down.

"What a man he is to be sure!" she cried scornfully. "And what nonsense
is this he writes. With all his men and officers he must come for my
husband! What is HE doing? And all the others? It's just his own stupid
stubbornness. He always did object to our marriage."

The Inspector was silent. Cameron was silent too. His boyish face, for
he was but a lad, seemed to have grown old in those few minutes. The
Inspector wore an ashamed look, as if detected in a crime.

"And because he is not clever enough to catch this man they must come
for my husband to do it for them. He is not a Policeman. He has nothing
to do with the Force."

And still the Inspector sat silent, as if convicted of both crime and
folly.

At length Cameron spoke.

"It is quite impossible, Inspector. I can't do it. You quite see how
impossible it is."

"Most certainly you can't," eagerly agreed the Inspector. "I knew from
the first it was a piece of--sheer absurdity--in fact brutal inhumanity.
I told the Commissioner so."

"It isn't as if I was really needed, you know. The Superintendent's idea
is, as you say, quite absurd."

The Inspector gravely nodded.

"You don't think for a moment," continued Cameron, "there is any
need--any real need I mean--for me to--" Cameron's voice died away.

The Inspector hesitated and cleared his throat. "Well--of course, we
are desperately short-handed, you know. Every man is overworked. Every
reserve has to be closely patroled. Every trail ought to be watched.
Runners are coming in every day. We ought to have a thousand men instead
of five hundred, this very minute. Of course one can never tell. The
chances are this will all blow over."

"Certainly," said Cameron. "We've heard these rumors for the past year."

"Of course," agreed the Inspector cheerfully.

"But if it does not," asked Mandy, suddenly facing the Inspector, "what
then?"

"If