saw that I should have to call a halt somewhere, and this seemed as
good a point as any.

"See here," I broke out; "you've got the wrong man, and you know it,
and I know it! You have no shadow of right to arrest me without a
warrant. Neither have you any right to try to tangle me in my
statements so that I shall fall down and give you an excuse for locking
me up!"

"Say, young fellow--you cut all that out and quiet down!" advised the
plain-clothes man who had nipped me at the railroad terminal.

"That's the one thing I shan't do!" I retorted boldly. "You have
arrested me without authority, and now you are trying to give me the
third degree. You've got me here, and you may make the most of
it--until I can find a lawyer. Lock me up if you feel like it; and are
willing to stand for the consequences."

At this the three of them put their heads together and once more
compared the thumb-prints. Suddenly the inspector whirled upon me with
his lips drawn back and his hand balled into a fist as if he were going
to strike me.

"How about that little job you pulled off with a forged check in
Chicago last week?" he rapped out.

He was evidently counting upon the effect of a shock and a surprise,
but, naturally, the ruse fell flat.

"I don't know anything about a forged check; and I was never in Chicago
in my life," I replied; and since both statements were strictly true I
could make them calmly and without hesitation.

For the third time they put their heads together. I think the
inspector was for letting me go without further ado. But the man who
had arrested me was apparently still suspicious and unsatisfied. As a
compromise they did the thing which determined my second flight. They
took me into a room at the rear of the building; a barn-like place bare
of everything save a screen and a tripoded photographer's camera; and
within the next five minutes I had been posed and "mugged."

"Now you may go," said the harsh-voiced inspector; and I left the
building knowing that the Colorado capital had been effectually crossed
off in the list of possible refuges for me. With my photograph in the
police blotter, discovery and recapture would be only a question of
time, if I should stay where I could be identified by the local
authorities. Once during my prison term I had seen an escaped man
brought back from far-away Alaska.

Since there was no immediate danger, however, there was time to plan
thoughtfully and prude