The prisoner
simply pleaded guilty."

"Thanks!" Britz returned the photograph to his pocket and started for
the door. In the corridor Greig laid a detaining hand on Britz's elbow.

"Why--lieutenant--" he gasped,--"that was a photograph of Herbert
Whitmore."

"Precisely," said Britz. "And we're going to hop on board the next train
for Atlanta."

CHAPTER X

Three days later Britz and Greig returned from Atlanta. It had been a
tiresome journey, fifty-five hours of the seventy-two having been spent
in a Pullman coach. But the information which they had obtained kept
their energies awake. So that when their train drew into the new
Pennsylvania station at ten o'clock, they hastened through the
illuminated corridors and out into the refreshing night air, with
elastic steps and excitement in their eyes.

A telegram sent en route had kept Manning at his desk, awaiting his
subordinates. He greeted Britz with unconcealed satisfaction,
acknowledging at the same time that he had grown heartily tired of
directing the Whitmore investigation.

"It is one awful mess," said he with a comprehensive shrug of his broad
shoulders. "And it appears to be getting worse all the time!"

"Let me tell my story first," interrupted Britz. "Mine's an eye-opener!"

The three men disposed themselves in comfortable attitudes about the
chief's desk, bit the ends off fresh cigars, and prepared for a long
interchange of information.

"Well, I discovered where Whitmore spent the six weeks of his absence
from business," began Britz.

"Where?" The chief's face lit with an expression of eagerness.

"In jail," said Britz, and for the life of him he was unable to smother
the smile that struggled to his lips. "Right here in the city," he
added. "In the Tombs."

"Well, I'll be hung!" In his astonishment, the chief could think of no
adequate exclamation beyond the commonplace one which issued from his
widely parted lips.

"Yes," pursued Britz, "Greig and I have been treated to a series of
surprises--even now I haven't recovered entirely from my bewilderment."

"Well, go ahead and spring them," urged Manning. "They can't be much
more astounding than the one I've bumped into."

"In the first place," said Britz, arranging in chronological order in
his mind, the incidents which he was about to narrate, "the man that was
captured trying to break into the post office at Delmore Park, was
Herbert Whitmore. Judging from the statements of Julia