ght in the office, but the shades of the bay-window were
tightly drawn. Frank rang the bell, which was not immediately answered.
Finally the bodyguard came to the door. "Mr. Heney's very busy, very
busy." He seemed tremendously excited.

"Very well," said Frank; "I'll come tomorrow."

"We'll have big news for you," the man announced. He shut the door
hastily and double-locked it.

Frank decided to remain in the neighborhood. He might learn something.
The morning papers had been getting the best of it recently in the
way of news.

It proved a tiresome vigil. And the night was chilly. Frank began to
walk briskly up and down the block. A dozen times he did this without
result. Then the sudden rumble of a motor car spun him about. He saw two
men hasten down the steps of Heney's office, almost leap into the car.
Instantly it drove off. Frank, who followed to the corner, saw it
traveling at high speed toward Fillmore street. He looked about for a
motor cab in which to follow. There was none in sight. Reluctantly he
turned toward home. He had been outwitted, doubtless by a watcher. But
not completely. For he was morally certain that one of the men who left
Heney's office was Big Jim Gallagher. That visit was significant. From
his hotel Frank tried to locate the editor of his paper by telephone. He
was not successful. He went to bed, disgusted, after leaving a
daylight call.

It was still dark when he dressed the next morning, the previous
evening's events fresh in his thought.

He had scarcely reached the street before a newsboy thrust a morning
paper toward him. Frank saw that the upper half of the front page was
covered with large black headlines. He snatched it, tossing the boy a
"two-bit piece," and, without waiting or thinking of the change, became
absorbed in the startling information it conveyed.

Sixteen out of the eighteen Supervisors had confessed to taking bribes
from half a dozen corporations. Wholesale indictments would follow, it
was stated, involving the heads of public service companies--men of
unlimited means, national influence. Many names were more than
hinted at.

Ruef, according to these confessions, had been the arch-plotter. He had
received the funds that corrupted an entire city government. Gallagher
had been the go-between, receiving a part of the "graft funds" to be
divided among his fellow Supervisors.

Each of the crooked sixteen had been guaranteed immunity from
imprisonment in consider