him again.

"Then it _is_ a plant!" she proclaimed.

"You misunderstand me, Miss Verriner. Blake will not come back as an
official. There will be changes in the Department, I imagine; changes
for the better which even he and his Tammany Hall friends can't stop,
by the time he gets back with Binhart."

The woman gave a little hand gesture of impatience.

"But don't you see," she protested, "supposing he gives up Binhart?
Supposing he suspects something and hurries back to hold down his
place?"

"They call him Never-Fail Blake," commented the unmoved and dry-lipped
official. He met her wide stare with his gently satiric smile.

"I see," she finally said, "you 're not going to shoot him up. You 're
merely going to wipe him out."

"You are quite wrong there," began the man across the table from her.
"Administration changes may happen, and in--"

"In other words, you 're getting Jim Blake out of the way, off on this
Binhart trail, while you work him out of the Department."

"No competent officer is ever worked out of this Department," parried
the First Deputy.