arrested meanwhile, he would have to locate Ringold or Higgins, or
some of the others, and prove that he had not run away from
punishment. It would be difficult to verify the extravagant story
of his kidnapping, of course, but--there was nothing else to do.
He rose quickly and entered the hotel, where he bought all the
latest New York papers. It was not long before he found the thing
he was seeking. There it was, a story headed:

SALOON-KEEPER TO LOSE LICENSE

OWNER OF NOTORIOUS AUSTRIAN VILLAGE IN TROUBLE

There followed an account of Mr. Padden's efforts to disprove his
connection with an assault upon the person of a detective named
Williams, who had come from St. Louis; but nowhere was there a
word about the present condition of the plain-clothes man, nor the
slightest hint toward explaining the conduct of the mysterious
Jefferson Locke for whom he had been searching. Who the devil was
Locke, anyhow? The article did not even state the charge upon
which he was to be arrested. In another paper Kirk found something
that relieved his mind a bit: evidently Williams had not died
prior to the time of going to press, although he was reported in a
critical condition. Kirk was interested to read that the police
had a clew to the identity of the criminals and were confident of
soon rounding them up. What mystified him most was the lack of
detail. Evidently much had been printed previously, but he had no
means of ascertaining what it was.

He spent an hour in serious thought, perhaps the first full hour
he had ever passed so profitably. At the end of that time he had