This new interest so promptly and exactly fitted the sudden emptiness in Clifford’s life that almost without thinking he was impelled to ask, “Has anything happened, Chief, to cause you to make me this offer just now?” Thorne regarded Clifford with a curious, thoughtful air. “I wonder if I should tell you,” he said slowly; and then: “Well, the fact is, Clifford, I have been holding a little something back from you.” “Something about what, Chief?” “About you--and a woman.” “Yes--go on!” “Six months ago a young woman called on me at my hotel, and asked me if I had offered you the position of Chief of the Detective Bureau. I said that I had, and that you had declined. She then asked me if I still wanted you. I said yes, if I could get you. That was all that passed between us. She thanked me and went away.” “She was Mary Regan,” said Clifford. “She was.” “And is that all that has happened?” “To-day I had a note from her, without date or address, advising me to offer you the position again, and to keep on offering it to you until you accepted.” Something was happening within Clifford, though he did not know what it was--something that set brain whirling and heart beating at a swifter tempo. “I just left her,” he said with mechanical calm. “She’s going to marry a man named Jack Morton.” “So I have just learned.” “How?” “Some of my men have been covering Bradley and Loveman. Loveman’s house telephone is tapped, and a few threads have been picked up. Miss Regan believes she is doing what she is doing because she wants to, and from her own motives. But Bradley and Loveman are behind it.” “In what way?” cried Clifford. “Bradley, as you know, is a sort of private watchman over young Morton. Loveman has handled a lot of delicate matters for the father. The elder Morton is a ruthless egoist, an able man of big affairs, but remarkable for neither business nor personal morality. The son you are acquainted with. You can see the opportunities here for such a combination as Bradley and Loveman.” “Yes. But where does Mary Regan come in?” “Bradley and Loveman are using her now, and expect to use her in the future.” “Does she know she is being used?” “I’m certain she does not even guess it.” “Then how did they ever get her into it this far?” “I do not know.” “But surely,” cried Clifford, “You must have some idea of what their plan is?” “Only that I surmise that it is one individual case of the general situation concerning which I just spoke to you--about how very clever persons have made a subtle business out of the manner in which the city’s Big Pleasure reacts upon human ambitions and human frailties. Any information more definite than this it will be part of your job to get.”