THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER


"Well, Mr. Shirley, your coming here was a Godsend! I don't know
what to do now. The newspapers will get this surely. I depended
on Cronin: he must have been drinking."

Shirley shook his head, as he explained, "I know Cronin's
reputation, for I was a police reporter. He is a sterling man.
There's foul work here which extends beyond your father's case.
But we are wasting time. Why don't you introduce me to your
physician? Just tell him about Cronin, and that you have
confided in me completely."

Van Cleft went upstairs without a word. Unused to any worry,
always able to pay others for the execution of necessary details,
this young man was a victim of the system which had engulfed his
unfortunate sire in the maelstrom of reckless pleasure.

By his ingenuous adroitness, it may be seen, Shirley was
inveigling himself into the heart of the affair, in his favorite
disguise as that of the "innocent bystander." His innate
dramatic ability assisted him in maintaining his friendly and
almost impersonal role, with a success which had in the past kept
the secret of his system from even the evildoers themselves.

"A little investigation of the telephone exchanges during the
next day or two will not be wasted time," he mused. "I'll get
Sam Grindle, their assistant advertising manager to show me the
way the wheels go 'round. No man can ride a Magic Carpet of