ept the little matter of his
mental lapses at the house of Professor Kell and later on the train. The
incident of the drugged cigars seemed to interest the Old Man hugely,
and Perry did not forget to play up Handlon's exploits in getting the
picture of the Professor. All through the recital he was in a sweat for
fear that he might have a recurrence of one of his brain spells and that
Bland would become cognizant of it. When would the Chief finish and let
him escape from the office? Desperately he fought to prevent the numbing
sensation from overcoming him. All that kept him from finally fleeing
the place in panic was the entrance of Jimmie O'Hara.

Slight, wiry and efficient looking, this individual was a specimen of
the perfect Journal reporter. This is saying a good deal, for the news
crew and editorial force of the paper were a carefully selected body of
men indeed. Bland never hired a man unless experience had endowed him
with some unusual qualification. Most of them could write up a story
with realistic exactitude, being able in most cases to supply details
gleaned from actual experience in one walk of life or another.

* * * * *

Of this redoubtable crew probably the queerest was Jimmie O'Hara. Jimmie
had just finished a sentence in the "pen" for safe-cracking at the time
he landed the job with the Journal. Theoretically all men should have
shunned him on account of his jailbird taint. Not so Bland. The Chief
was independent in his ideas on the eternal fitness of things and
allowed none of the ordinary conventions of humanity to influence his
decisions. So Jimmie became one of the staff and worked hard to justify
Bland in hiring him. His former profession gave him valuable sidelights
upon crime stories of all kinds, and he was almost invariably picked as
the man to write these up for the columns.

"Jimmie," said the Chief, "we have need of an experienced strong-arm man
and all around second story worker. You are the only man on the force
who fills the bill for this job. Perry here has just returned from
Keegan, where I sent him to interview Professor Kell. Skip Handlon went
with him, but failed to return. We want to know what happened to Skip.
That is your job. _Get Handlon!_ If he is dead let me know by long
distance phone and I'll have a couple of headquarters men down there in
a hurry. Get a good fast car and don't waste any time. That's all."

O'Hara stopped long enough to ge