s emotion, but kept silence while Mr. Ganns
helped himself to a pinch of snuff.

"Now the little I've done in the world," he continued, "is thanks
not so much to the deductive mind we hear such a lot about, but to
the synthetic mind. The linking up of facts has been my strong suit.
That's the backbone of success; and where facts can't be linked up,
then failure is usually the result. I never waste one moment on a
theory until I've got a tough skeleton of facts back of it. It was
up to you to hunt facts, Mark; and you didn't hunt facts."

"I had an encyclopedia of facts."

"Granted. But your encyclopedia began at the letter 'B,' instead of
the letter 'A.' We'll turn to that in a minute."

"My facts, such as they were, cannot be denied," argued Brendon, a
little aggrieved. "They are cast-iron. My eyes and observation are
trained to be exact and jealous of facts. No amount of synthesis can
prevent two and one from being three, Ganns."

"On the contrary, two and one may be twenty-one, or twelve, or a
half. Why jump to any conclusion? You had facts; but you did not
have all the available facts--or anything like all. You tried to put
on the roof before the walls were up; and, what's more, a great many
of your 'cast-iron facts' were no facts at all."

"What were they then?"

"Elaborate and deliberate fictions, Mark."

At this challenge Brendon felt a hot wave of colour mount his cheek;
but the other was far too generous and genial a spirit ever to seek
any triumph over a younger man. Neither did Brendon feel angry with
Mr. Ganns even though his remarks were provocative enough. He was
angry with himself. Peter, however, knew his power. He read the
detective's mind like a book and well understood that, both by his
position and rank, Mark must be far too good a man to chafe at the
criticism of a better than himself. He explained.

"Where I've got the pull on you, for the minute, is merely because
I've been in the world a few years longer. A time's coming when
you'll talk to your juniors as I can talk to you; and they'll
listen, with all proper respect and attention, as you are listening.
When you are my age, you'll command that perfect confidence which I
command. Folks can't trust youth all the way; but you'll win to it;
and believe me, in our business, there's no greater asset than the
power to command absolute trust. You can't pretend to that power if
you haven't got it. Human nature damn soon sees through you, if
y