for that spy about the Harley house.

Richard sent a message to Mr. Bayard, reciting his determination and
asking advice. He desired to do nothing that might work an interference
in Mr. Bayard's arrangements concerning Northern Consolidated.

Mr. Bayard replied that he thought a better knowledge of Storri could do
no harm; news of the enemy was ever a good thing. Mr. Bayard went a step
beyond, and said that he would send a man to Richard whom he could trust
for the work.

The morning following the receipt of Mr. Bayard's message, a foppish,
slender young gentleman accosted Richard.

"Mr. Storms, I believe?" remarked the foppish stranger, lifting his hat.

"Yes, sir; Mr. Storms," said Richard.

"Mr. Bayard asked me to say that I am Inspector Val of the Central
Office, New York, with two months' leave of absence at your service."

CHAPTER XVI

HOW RICHARD RECEIVED A LETTER

Inspector Val did not resemble the detective officer of literature. His
foppishness arose from an over-elegance of costume rather than any
violence of color. The famous thief-taker might have stood for what was
latest in fashionable dress, with every detail of hat and glove and
cravat and boot worked out. There befell no touch of vulgarity; the
effect was as retiringly genteel as though the taste providing it
belonged to a Howard or a Vere de Vere and based itself upon ten
unstained centuries of patricianism. When he lifted his hat, one might
see that the dark hair, speciously waved, was as accurately parted in
the middle as though the line had been run by an engineer. The voice of
Inspector Val, low and lazy, fell on the ear as plausibly soft as the
ripple of a brook. His eyes wore a sleepy, intolerant expression, as if
tired with much seeing and inclined to resent the infliction of further
spectacles. The nose was thin and high, and jaw and cheek bones were
thin and high to be in sympathy.

There were two impressions furnished the student of faces by Inspector
Val. Glanced at carelessly, one would have called him not more than
twenty-five; a second and a sharper survey showed him fifteen years
older. Also, there came now and then a look, quiet at once and quick,
which was calculated to arrest the trained attention. What one thought
following that second sharp canvass was in exact opposition to what one
thought after the glance earlier and more upon the casual.

Inspector Val baffled Richard's conception of the man concerning whom