where I was happy."

"Wait and we'll go with you," suggested Cooper on a nudge from the
detective.

"All right," assented Collins. "You're the only friend I've got left."

They hurried through the rest of the meal, then descended to the lobby
of the club. While Cooper and Collins waited for their hats and coats,
Fanwell darted into the telephone booth and called up Police
Headquarters.

"I've got him roped," he said. "If Britz calls up tell him he's on the
way to Julia Strong's apartment."

The bracing night air did not dispel Collins's melancholy. He walked
with head bent, a woe-begone expression engraved on his face. At the
door of the apartment house in which Julia Strong had killed herself, he
hesitated an instant. But, observing that his companions had already
entered the vestibule, he overcame his hesitancy and followed them
within.

The elevator boy eyed the three men curiously as he took them to the
floor on which the apartment was situated. And he lingered inquisitively
while Collins inserted the key in the lock and opened the door.

They entered with a vague feeling of gloom, as if about to step into a
death chamber. Nor did they regain their spirits on perceiving the
disordered condition of the place, with the many mementos of her who had
killed herself in fear that she had betrayed Collins, scattered about.

"I wish she was here now," said Collins, tenderly picking up a white
glove that had been thrown to the floor. "I might have married her at
that!"

The others disposed themselves in chairs while Collins wandered
aimlessly about the apartment. Grief-stricken though he was, he showed
no appreciation of the significance of the tragedy for which he was in
large measure responsible. For an hour he tired his companions with
stories of Julia Strong's beauty, of her faithfulness and of her remorse
when she realized the full import of her surrender to him.

"But I'm glad they made me stay at home," he declared. "I'd have broken
down over her body."

The thought of her cold, lifeless form, recalled to his rum-soaked brain
the funeral arrangements that had been made for her.

"That man Luckstone is a great lawyer," he said. "He looked after it
all. Had the body shipped home to her parents! They thought she was
earning a living here--never knew I was supporting her. Wonderful
man--Luckstone! Did it all so quietly, too!"

"Saved you a lot of trouble, didn't he?" Cooper encouraged him to
proceed.

T