life to
come face to face with him. It would be an interesting encounter.
Hunted him for weeks, and to-day laid eyes on him for the first time.
Had my clumsy paws on him this very afternoon. He seemed so willing to
be locked up that I grew careless. Biff! and he and his accomplice, an
erstwhile valet, had me trussed like a chicken and bundled into the
clothes-press. Took my star, credentials, playing-card, and
invitation. It was near eleven o'clock when I roused the housekeeper.
I telegraphed two hours ago."

"Telegraphed!" exclaimed the chief, rousing himself out of a melancholy
dream. (There would be no mention of him in the morrow's papers.)

"Yes, telegraphed. The despatch lay unopened on your office-desk.
You're a good watch-dog--for a hen-coop!" growled Haggerty. "Ten
thousand in gems to-night, and by this time he is safe in New York.
You are all a pack of blockheads.

"Used the telephone, did he? Told you to hold these innocent persons
till he went somewhere to land the accomplice, eh? The whistle of the
train meant nothing to you. Well, that whistle ought to have told you
that there might be a mistake. A good officer never quits his
prisoners. If there is an accomplice in toils elsewhere, he makes them
bring him in, he does not go _out_ for him. And now I've got to start
all over again, and he in New York, a bigger catacomb than Rome ever
boasted of. He's not a common thief; nobody knows who he is or what
his haunts are. But I have seen his face; I'll never forget him."

The chief tore his hair, while his subordinates shuffled their feet
uneasily. Then they all started in to explain their theories. But the
detective silenced them with a wave of his huge hand.

"I don't want to hear any explanations. Let these persons go," he
commanded, with a jerk of his head in our direction. "You can all
return to town but one officer. I may need a single man," Haggerty
added thoughtfully.

"What are you going to do?" asked the chief.

"Never you mind. I have an idea; it may be a good one. If it is, I'll
telephone you all about it when the time comes."

He stepped over to the telephone and called up central. He spoke so
low that none of us overheard what he said; but he hung up the
receiver, a satisfied smile on his face.

The girl and I were free to go whither we listed, and we listed to
return at once to New York. Hamilton, however, begged us to remain, to
dance and eat, as a compensation