e dine together? That will help dissipate this
queer story as to you being mixed up in an attack on me. Now, I must be
off and play ghost in the club smoking-room."

Meiklejohn heard his fluttering man-servant let Tower out. He tottered
to a chair, and Ralph Voles came in noiselessly.

"Well, what about it?" chuckled the reprobate. "We seem to have struck
it lucky."

"Go away!" snarled the Senator, goaded to a sudden rage by the other
man's cynical humor. "I can stand no more to-day."

"Oh, take a pull at this!" And the decanter was pushed across the table.
"Didn't Dr. Johnson once say that claret is the liquor for boys, port
for men, but he who aspires to be a hero should drink brandy? And you
must be a hero to-night. Get onto the Bureau and use the soft pedal.
Then beat it to the club. You and Tower ought to be well soused in an
hour. He's a good sport, all right. I'll mail him that sixpence if it's
still in my pants."

"Do nothing of the sort!" snapped Meiklejohn. "You're--"

"Ah, cut it out! Tower wants plenty to talk about. His crooked sixpence
will fill many an eye, and the more he spiels the better it is for you.
Gee, but you're yellow for a two-hundred pounder! Now, listen! Make
those cops drop all charges against Rachel. Then, in a week or less,
I'll come along and fix things about the girl. She's the fly in the
amber now. Mind she doesn't get out, or the howl about Mr. Ronald
Tower's trip to Barnegat won't amount to a row of beans against the
trouble pretty Winifred can give you. _Dios!_ It's a pity. She's a real
beauty, and that's more than any one can say for you, Brother William."

"You go to--"

"That's better! You're reviving. Well, good-by, Senator! _Au revoir sans
adieux!_"

The big man swaggered out. Meiklejohn drank no spirits. He needed a
clear brain that evening. After deep self-communing he rang up police
headquarters and inquired for Mr. Clancy.

"Mr. Clancy is out," he was told by some one with a strong, resonant
voice. "Anything we can do, Senator?"

"About that poor woman, Rachel Craik--"

"Oh, she's all right! She gave us a farewell smile two hours ago."

"You mean she is at liberty?"

"Certainly, Senator."

"May I ask to whom I am speaking?"

"Steingall, Chief of the Bureau."

"This wretched affair--it's merely a family squabble between Miss Craik
and a relative--might well end now, Mr. Steingall."

"That is for Mr. Tower and Mr. Van Hofen to decide."

"Yes, I quite u