rs. Warmdollar her situation."

Inspector Val was aware that in Washington the hinted loss of one's
position as the penalty of loquacity has ever been the way of ways to
lock fast the garrulous tongue. Mr. Warmdollar became a prodigal of
promises; neither sign nor sound should escape him of the tragedy. Mrs.
Warmdollar, as head scrubwoman, must not be put in jeopardy!

Inspector Val visited the Secret Service Chief, and the two were as
brothers of one mind. To lapse into the rustic figures of the farms, on
that subject of secrecy they fell together like a shock of oats. Why
should the world know of the splendid gopher work of London Bill? The
gold had been saved; to publish the dangers it had grazed might inspire
other bandits. No, secrecy was the word; that question Inspector Val and
the Secret Service Chief answered as one man. And so no word crept
forth. When the vault must be restored, it was said that those tons upon
tons of gold it sheltered had broken down the steel floor. As bricks by
the wagon load went into the drain through the manhole nearest the scene
of London Bill's exploits, a pavement idler asked their purpose. They
were to repair the drain where the water had eaten into and undermined
the walls. Yes, it was a secret stubbornly protected; the tunnel was
stopped up, the vault restored to what had been a former strength or
weakness, and never a dozen souls to hear the tale.

With the Russians, Inspector Val met views which ran counter to his own.
An attache of the Bear accompanied Inspector Val to the San Reve's rooms
in Grant Place. The Attache was for sending Storri's body to St.
Petersburg. Inspector Val objected.

"Why should you care?" said the Attache to Inspector Val. "I do not
understand your interest."

"She cares," returned Inspector Val, pointing to the dead San Reve. "I
have made her interest mine. She died to keep this Storri by her side; I
will not see her cheated."

The Attache looked curiously at Inspector Val; a sentimental lunatic was
not a common sight. The Attache, however, was no one to yield. Storri's
remains must go to Russia.

"Will you send home then the body of a thief overtaken in the crime?"
asked Inspector Val. "This Storri schemed to rob the Treasury. I do not
think the representatives of the Czar should oppose me in my whim."

"Who are you?" asked the Attache. Inspector Val's disclosures were
alarming; trained in caution, he did not care to defy them until he was
su