Hines grinned broadly. “Because it’s the truth. I’m only callin’ him what everybody else will be callin’ him after the next edition of the evening papers comes out. That reminds me that I came here to tell you a piece of news which ought to interest you. I guess that you ain’t heard yet that your letter-carrier friend Owen Sheridan was arrested two hours ago at post office X Y.” The girl turned pale. “Arrested!” she gasped. “For what?” “Robbing the mails,” Hines replied cheerfully. “He swiped a gold watch from a registered package yesterday, and pawned it for forty dollars. They found the pawn ticket in his trunk up at the boarding house.” Dallas stared at him incredulously. “You don’t have to take my word for it, little one,” he said. “The evening papers will be on the streets soon, and you can read for yourself.” “Or, if you can’t wait that long,” he added, with a malicious smile, “why don’t you put on that pretty picture hat of yours and take a run around to Branch X Y? The boys there will tell you all about Sheridan’s arrest. The inspectors nabbed him right in the post office when he returned from the noon delivery.” Dallas leaned weakly against the tall back of her typewriter chair. She looked as if she were about to faint. “But, anyway, he isn’t--guilty,” she faltered. “He can’t be guilty!” Hines smiled sardonically. “Oh, can’t he, eh? You won’t say that, my dear girl, when you’ve read all the particulars. The post-office inspectors say they’ve got a mighty strong case against him. They’re tickled to death to have nabbed him. There’s been lots of mail stolen from Branch X Y of late, and they think they’ll be able to put it all up to Sheridan.” His glance fell again upon the diamond ring which glistened upon the third finger of her left hand. “Say, if I was you I’d take that off,” he said. “A nice girl like you don’t want to wear jewelry that was bought with the proceeds of a larceny. It ain’t decent. Take it off, and I’ll get you a better one. I’ll give you a diamond twice as big--if you’ll promise to wear it on the same finger.” The girl’s eyes flashed scornfully. “Thank you, but I much prefer to keep this one,” she said. “It wasn’t bought with stolen money. That’s a falsehood. Owen bought it with money he’d been saving for a year. He told me so himself.” “Oh, indeed!” sneered Hines. “And you mean to say you’re willin’ to believe a fairy story like that? If I’m a judge of diamonds--and I rather guess I am--that there ring must be worth a hundred dollars if it’s worth a penny. Do you suppose for a minute that a first-grade carrier could save that much out of a six-hundred-a-year salary? “And, besides,” he continued, “I’ll tell you somethin’ that ought to convince you. There’s several men employed at Station X Y who can testify that yesterday morning Sheridan was going among ’em tryin’ to borrow thirty dollars. Would he have done that if he had a hundred dollars saved up?”