t!" he demanded harshly. "It's your last chance to save your
miserable skin. You're not going to get any mercy from the
Commissioner. You know what he'll do to you!"

The prisoner twisted loose from Drew's clutch. His eyes wavered as he
stared at Loris for a long second, then dropped to the floor. They
closed in painful thought. Suddenly he blanched with passion.

"I've no use for you coppers!" he screamed shrillingly. "I hate the
sight of you and your kind. Let me go! Let me go!"

"Fine chance," whispered Delaney, tightening his grip on the prisoner's
collar. "You got a fine chance, you murderin', thievin', second-story
man! I'd paste you if the lady wasn't here! Sure I would, right between
the eyes!"

"Easy," said Drew. "Leave him to me. He's thinking the thing over. I
don't mind telling him that the magpie beat him. That and the
carelessness of Morphy in calling up when he must have known that Frick
was in the front office of the prison. It's always the way, Bert. He
travels the fastest, up or down, who travels alone. It's the lone star
that gives us the trouble. There's nobody to peach on him!"

The prisoner bit his upper lip. A slight sign of blood showed. He
tasted this with the tip of his tongue. His eyes narrowed in
calculation. He turned and faced Drew with slit-lidded intentness.

"I haven't done a thing," he whispered. "You ain't got a thing on me."

"Oh, no!" blurted Drew with heat. "I ain't got a thing. I've been
asleep since the time you murdered this girl's father. I've had ten men
on your trail since the beginning. I don't hold the first murder so
much against you as I do the projected one--which missed fire by a
scant margin. You slayed a man with your devilish ingenuity, but you're
not going to put it over on his daughter. I've seen to that! I notice
nobody has called up and said this was the Master talking. There's a
good reason."

The prisoner fluttered his pale lashes and glanced at the telephone. He
closed his eyes with a smile shadowing his lips.

"There's a good reason," repeated Drew. "You are not in some booth at
Forty-first Street to make the connection. Morphy is in the strongest
cooler. He's booked for twenty years. After that he'll get more. He
can't help you!"

"Oh, you coppers," said the trouble-man. "Just give me five minutes and
I'd show you. I don't hold anything against the girl. I never saw her
before."

"You lie!"

"Why don't you take these cuffs off-a-me? I can't hit