ted, if the girl thrust herself
forward, and by the hand of Mrs. Earle was dragged back, he did not
appear to know it.

"Police headquarters?" they heard him ask. "I want to speak to the
commissioner. This is the district attorney."

In the pause that followed, as though to torment her, the pain in her
side apparently returned, for the girl screamed sharply.

"Be still!" commanded the older woman. Breathless, across the top of the
armchair, she was leaning forward. Upon the man at the telephone her
eyes were fixed in fascination.

"Commissioner," said the district attorney, "this is Wharton speaking. A
woman has made a charge of attempted murder to me against my
brother-in-law, Hamilton Cutler. On account of our relationship, I want
YOU to make the arrest. If there were any slip, and he got away, it
might be said I arranged it. You will find him at the Winona apartments
on the Southern Boulevard, in the private hospital of a Doctor Samuel
Muir. Arrest them both. The girl who makes the charge is at Kessler's
Cafe, on the Boston Post Road, just inside the city line. Arrest her
too. She tried to blackmail me. I'll appear against her."

Wharton rose and addressed himself to Mrs. Earle.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but I had to do it. You might have known I could
not hush it up. I am the only man who can't hush it up. The people of
New York elected me to enforce the laws." Wharton's voice was raised to
a loud pitch. It seemed unnecessarily loud. It was almost as though he
were addressing another and more distant audience. "And," he continued,
his voice still soaring, "even if my own family suffer, even if I
suffer, even if I lose political promotion, those laws I will enforce!"

In the more conventional tone of every-day politeness, he added:

"May I speak to you outside, Mrs. Earle?"

But, as in silence that lady descended the stairs, the district attorney
seemed to have forgotten what it was he wished to say.

It was not until he had seen his chauffeur arouse himself from
apparently deep slumber and crank the car that he addressed her.

"That girl," he said, "had better go back to bed. My men are all around
this house and, until the police come, will detain her."

He shook the jewelled fingers of Mrs. Earle warmly. "I thank you," he
said; "I know you meant well. I know you wanted to help me, but"--he
shrugged his shoulders--"my duty!"

As he walked down the driveway to his car his shoulders continued to
move.