certain recent coup. In the face of this charge Sheiner indignantly
claimed that he had only been playing the ponies and having a run of
greenhorn's luck.

"Abe, I 've come down to gather you in," announced the calmly
mendacious detective. He continued to sip his _bruilleau_ with
fraternal unconcern.

"You got nothing _on_ me, Jim," protested the other, losing his taste
for the delicacies arrayed about him.

"Well, we got 'o go down to Headquarters and talk that over," calmly
persisted Blake.

"What's the use of pounding me, when I 'm on the square again?"
persisted the ex-drum snuffer.

"That's the line o' talk they all hand out. That's what Connie Binhart
said when we had it out up in St. Louis."

"Did you bump into Binhart in St. Louis?"

"We had a talk, three days ago."

"Then why 'd he blow through this town as though he had a regiment o'
bulls and singed cats behind him!"

Blake's heart went down like an elevator with a broken cable. But he
gave no outward sign of this inward commotion.