"Oh, you're wise, eh?" Druce laughed. He felt that he was on familiar ground with this girl. There was that in her manner that indicated the wisdom of the demi-monde. He thought he had placed her. "You're wise, eh?" he repeated. The girl had maneuvered to place a table between them. He leaned against the table and placed a hand on hers. "Why does a fine looker like you spend her life pounding a typewriter?" "Would you advise a change?" "You could make a hundred a week in the cabarets," declared Druce admiringly. "Perhaps," replied Miss Masters. She picked up her notebook and started for the inner office. "But I know where that road leads." Druce was daunted with this reply. It wasn't at all what he had expected. "Oh," he jeered, "you're one of the goody-goody kind, are you? Fare you well. I'll see you in church Sunday." The girl was now at the inner office door. She turned and eyed Druce narrowly. "Thank you," she replied without anger. "Perhaps, some day, I'll see you wearing stripes and looking through iron bars!" The door shut swiftly behind her, leaving Druce staring at the panels. "What do you know about that," he spoke aloud, though there was no one in the outer office to hear him. "Never mind, kid--you're no boob, anyway." He turned on his heel and walked out. CHAPTER XIV IN WHICH THE WOLF IS BITTEN BY THE LAMB John Boland was a very capable business man. He possessed the combination of shrewdness, ability to grasp and marshal details, and that utter selfishness which the world from time immemorial has rewarded with huge accumulations of money. He had one of those minds which find their recreation in intrigue. Unembarrassed by a conscience and unhampered by scruples he drove directly to his goal--success. As head of the Electric Trust Boland was compelled to be at once a financier and a politician. The faculties for success in both fields are closely allied; in both Boland was eminently triumphant. Sitting in his office day after day, unmoved by events that might have disturbed other men and unstirred by emotions that might have turned other men from their paths, he looked out over the city and "played his game" with all the cold impassiveness of a gambler operating an infallible system in roulette. No detail was too small to escape his notice, no agent too ignoble to serve his purpose. These facts are mentioned to explain the relationship that existed between John Boland and Martin Druce. In these two men, the social extremes of the city met--Boland, the financial power and leading citizen; Druce, the dive keeper and social outcast. They met because Boland wished it. Druce was one of the creatures that he could and often did use in his business.