ith two other guys. They came
out again, but you didn't. I pumped him until I got a pretty good
description of both those fellows, and I decided one of them must be
'Red' Hogan, about the toughest gun-man in Chicago."

"It was Hogan."

"I made sure of that afterwards. Then I got busy. If you was in the hands
of that guy, and his gang, the chances was dead against you. But there
wasn't a darn thing I could do, except to hunt up Hobart, wire every town
along the north shore to keep an eye out for the yacht, and pick up a
thread or two around town. I got a bit at that to wise me up. We found
Hobart hid away in a cheap hotel out on Broadway, and put a trailer on
him. The girl had disappeared; she'd been to a bank, and then to the
Coolidge lawyer and signed some papers; after that we lost all trace of
her for awhile. Your man Sexton, out at 'Fairlawn,' reported that she
hadn't returned there. Then I got desperate and decided I'd blow the
whole thing to the Coolidge lawyer, and get him to take a hand. I was
afraid they were already for the get-a-way--see? I couldn't round 'em up
alone; besides I'm a Chicago police officer, and have to keep more or
less on my own beat."

"And you told the lawyer?"

"Everything I knew, and some I guessed at. I thought the old guy would
throw a fit, but he didn't. He came through game after the first shock.
But say, that dame had sold him out all right. He never had an inkling
anything was wrong; no more did the banks. We went over, and talked to
the president of one of them--a smooth guy with white mutton chops--and
the girl had signed up the preliminary papers already, and tomorrow the
whole boodle was going to drop softly into her lap. Say, I felt better
when I learned they hadn't copped the swag yet. But just the same I
needed help."

"And you got it?"

"Sure; those two duffers coughed up money in a stream. Called in a
detective agency, and gave me three operatives to work under me. Got the
chief on the wire, and made him give me a free hand. Then I had a cinch."

CHAPTER XXXII

A BRIDGE OF LOVE

He paused, listening, but all remained quiet without, and he resumed his
story. "There is not much else to it, West. A little after one o'clock
the shadow phoned in from the Union depot that Hobart had just purchased
two tickets for Patacne. We hustled over, but were too late to catch that
train, but learned the girl had accompanied him on the trip. We caught
another rattler two