he
handed him the letter found on John, the gypsy--a letter from Holmes,
giving him the orders that led to the kidnapping of Dolly.

Charlie shouted excitedly when he read it.

"By Jove!" he said. "This puts them in our power. You were quite
right--we don't want to produce this yet. But I think I can use it to
scare our friend Niles. If I'm right, and he's only a fool, and not a
knave, I'll be able to do the trick. Here he is now! Watch me give
him the shock of his young life!"

Niles approached, with a sweeping bow for Eleanor, and a cold nod for
Jamieson. But the city lawyer approached him at once.

"How about this habeas corpus hearing, Mr. District Attorney?" he
asked. "Are you going to let them get those gypsies out of jail?"

"The case against them appears to be hopelessly defective, sir,"
returned Niles, stiffly. "I am informed by counsel for the defense
that there are a number of witnesses to prove an alibi for the man
John, and I feel that it is useless to try to have them held for trial."

"Suppose I tell you that I have absolute evidence--evidence connecting
them with the plot, and bringing in another conspirator who has not yet
been named? Hold on, Mr. Niles, you have been tricked in this case. I
don't hold it against you, but I warn you that if you don't make a
fight in this case, papers charging you with incompetence will go to
the governor at once, with a petition for your removal!"

"I--I don't know why I should allow one of the prisoners in this case
to address me in such a fashion!" stuttered Niles.

"I don't care what you know! I'm telling you the truth, and, for your
own sake, you'd better listen to me," said Jamieson, grimly. "I mean
just what I say. And unless you want to be lined up with your friend
Curtin in disbarment proceedings, you'd better cut loose from him. I
suppose Holmes has told you he'll back your ambitions to go to
Congress, hasn't he?"

Niles seemed to be staggered.

"How--how did you know that?" he gasped.

As a matter of fact, Charlie had not known it; he had only made a
shrewd guess. But the shot had gone home.

"There's more to this than you can guess, Mr. Niles," he said, more
kindly. "It's a plot that is bigger than even I can understand and
they have simply tried to use you as a tool. I knew that once you had
a hint of the truth, your native shrewdness would make you work to
defeat it. You understand, don't you?"

Coming on top of the bullyi