hey had
been in ink or grease or something. Maybe they hadn't, though."

The inspector beamed upon him.

"You have a very observing son, Mr. Burton, very! He's a fine lad. You
should be proud of him."

"Has he helped you at all?"

"At all? He has given me precisely the information I was after."

"And you think you could identify the men?"

"I know them already."

"Know who they are?" gasped Christopher.

"Yes."

It was obvious the expert was enjoying the lad's mystification.

"You don't mean you know their names," persisted Christopher.

"Indeed I do--all their many names, for they have almost as long a list
of them as you have yourself."

The inspector evidently considered this a good joke, for he laughed
heartily at it without noticing how the great Mr. Burton glared at him.

"And not only do I know their names, but I have their pictures as well,"
he continued, when he had done laughing. "What do you think of that?"

"Met them before, have you?" interrogated Mr. Burton, his disapproval
mollified to some degree by his pride in his son.

"Oh, I know all about that pair," replied the inspector; "if they prove
to be the couple I think them. No wonder your clerk failed to suspect
them. They are very polished gentleman."

"They were indeed, sir," Hollings put in. "They had a million-dollar air
about them."

"I know they had. They are crackajacks at this sort of thing. They are
wanted this minute in Chicago for a job not unlike this one."

"Really!"

Christopher's face glowed with excitement. To think he had actually
beheld two such desperate characters and given evidence against them! If
he had only spoken sooner and helped to capture them!

Something of this regret probably shadowed his brow, for the inspector
added:

"They would have managed their get-away even had you given the alarm,
son. Both were doubtless well armed and prepared to make their escape.
Taken by surprise, as you clerks all were, no one could have stopped
them. They would have shot any person who obstructed their dash for
liberty."

"Do you think so?" Poor Hollings drew a breath of relief.

"I know it. They've done it before. They had their pistols and a waiting
motor car, and had no mind to be caught."

"Then if I'd yelled from the balcony--"

"It would have done no good and would, perhaps, have done much harm
instead. You would merely have furnished an alarm on which they would
instantly have acted. As it is, we know th