At length Coggswell halted. “You’re right, Jake,” he said, very quietly; “Sheridan is dangerous. He must be got out of the way.” Jake nodded his head vigorously. “I agree with you, boss,” he said fervently. “He must be got out of the way.” CHAPTER VII. THE FRAME-UP. Jake Hines couldn’t forget what he had seen down at Coney Island the previous evening; the look of affection which had been in the eyes of Dallas Worthington as she gazed up into the face of Owen Sheridan; the trusting, intimate manner in which she hung on her escort’s arm. Consequently Coggswell’s declaration that the young carrier must be got rid of appealed to him tremendously. He wondered just what the boss meant by those words. He was in hopes that the latter was about to propose some dark scheme for kidnaping Sheridan. To have the young man shanghaied and cast away on some desert island was a plan which, in his present jealous frame of mind, would have suited Jake to a T. He made no suggestion, however. He waited for Coggswell to speak. He knew from the way those telltale ears were wiggling that the boss’ fertile brain was busy hatching a plan to bring about the desired result. After a prolonged silence, Coggswell said suddenly: “There must be no foul play, Jake--understand that.” “Eh?” exclaimed Hines, in incredulous astonishment. “No foul play?” “No rough work, I mean,” the boss explained. “No violence. You know very well that I don’t like that sort of thing, Jake.” A look of disappointment flitted across Jake’s beefy countenance. “What, then, boss?” he inquired. “Sheridan must be silenced by legitimate means,” declared the district leader. “We don’t want to go against the law, Jake. We don’t want to forget that we are decent, law-abiding citizens. I could not think of countenancing foul play in dealing with this man.” Hines scratched his head in perplexity, and stared blankly at Coggswell. He was relieved to see that, although there was a virtuous expression upon the latter’s face, those ears were still wiggling at a furious rate. “What do you mean by legitimate means, boss?” he asked. “Let me explain, Jake.” Coggswell sat down in his desk chair and motioned his disciple to a chair at his right hand. His agitation had now completely disappeared. Once more he was the calm, dignified, benevolent-appearing original of the portrait in oils which hung in the reception hall downstairs. “Now, as you have correctly pointed out, Jake,” he went on, “the only danger of my becoming implicated in this regrettable post-office affair is through the testimony of this carrier, Owen Sheridan. Greene and Hovey have been caught red-handed, it is true; but I agree with you that they are not the kind of fellows who can be made to squeal. They will deny emphatically that they were obeying my orders when they tampered with Judge Lawrence’s mail. Hovey will insist that he had reasons of his own for wanting to see the contents of those letters.”