to be nice to him. He'd have me murdered if I--"

"Rot!" Merkle exclaimed, testily.

"Rot, eh?" Jarvis answered. "He's done as much, more than once;
but he's so powerful that nobody can get him. He's the king of his
ward; he keeps a gang of gunmen on the East Side, and he's the
worst thug in the city."

Lilas substantiated this, giving further details as to Melcher's
reputation, and then broke down again, weeping with such miserable
abandon that Lorelei for the first time began to doubt her own
previous convictions. It seemed incredible that such emotion could
be counterfeit, and Lilas's plausible explanations did indeed make
it appear that Melcher was the resentful victim of an infatuation.
Lorelei cast a troubled glance at Merkle and found that he, too,
gave signs of uncertainty.

Hammon soothed his charmer in his clumsy, elephantine way, showing
that, despite Merkle's recent insinuations, he still trusted her.
"This is the only woman who ever cared for me, John," he
explained, after some hesitation, "and we're going to stick
together. We have no secrets."

"Your little Fifth Avenue establishment rather complicates
matters, doesn't it? What are you going to do about that?" Merkle
inquired.

"This thing--to-night--is likely to settle the matter for me. You
know the kind of home life I've led for twenty years, and you know