whistle and we'll be with you."

"You mean I ought to go?" said Wharton.

Rumson exclaimed incredulously: "You got to go!"

"It looks to me," objected Bissell, "like a plot to get you there
alone and rap you on the head." "Not with that note inviting him
there," protested Hewitt, "and signed by Earle herself."

"You don't know she signed it?" objected the senator.

"I know her," returned the detective. "I know she's no fool. It's
her place, and she wouldn't let them pull off any rough stuff
there--not against the D. A. anyway"

The D. A. was rereading the note. "Might this be it?" he asked.
"Suppose it's a trick to mix me up in a scandal? You say the place
is disreputable. Suppose they're planning to compromise me just
before election. They've tried it already several times."

"You've still got the note, If persisted Hewitt. "It proves why you
went there. And the senator, too. He can testify. And we won't be
hundred yards away. And," he added grudgingly, "you have Nolan."

Nolan was the spoiled child of 'the office.' He was the district
attorney's pet. Although still young, he had scored as a detective
and as a driver of racing-cars. As Wharton's chauffeur he now
doubled the parts.