"No," answered the reporter. "I hear that detectives with a warrant for his arrest have been searching all over town for him in vain. It is understood that he has fled. That is why, Mr. Coggswell, it looks as if----” "So they can’t find Jake, eh?" the boss interrupted, his ears wiggling a fast accompaniment to his words. "It is understood that he has run away? Well, if such is, indeed, the case, it looks as if the rascal really must be guilty. Flight can generally be regarded as a confession of guilt, can’t it, boys?" "Well," said one of the newspaper men boldly, "if Hines is guilty, Mr. Coggswell, how about yourself? Everybody knows that he is your confidential man, and----” "He was my confidential man, you mean, sir," corrected Coggswell, with dignity. "I’ll admit that Jake has been very close to me. I’ll admit that I thought the world of him. But, of course, if he was in any way connected with that dastardly plot to send an innocent man to prison--if it can be proved that he had anything to do with it, Jake Hines and I must part company forever. I wouldn’t have such a scoundrel around me. Even if he were my own brother, I would cast him out. It is really a sad case--a very sad case. It only goes to show, boys, to what depths an impetuous young man will sometimes descend when he is in love." The newspaper men looked at him in amazement. "In love?" one repeated inquiringly. "Yes. Let me give you fellows a little tip. There is a young lady--Miss Dallas Worthington--a very charming young lady, I have been told. She is employed as a typist in the office of a real-estate man named Walter K. Sammis. If you go and see her, she will probably tell you that Jake Hines has been making love to her. I understand, in fact, that he is madly infatuated with her. Now, Miss Worthington happens to be engaged to Carrier Sheridan. Perhaps you can see now the motive which inspired poor Jake to----” The reporters waited to hear no more. They departed hurriedly for the real-estate office, eager to interview Dallas and get her to confirm this tip. Thus it happened that the newspapers next morning, in their accounts of Owen Sheridan’s trial and its sensational developments, exonerated Boss Coggswell, and unanimously declared that while at first it had been assumed that the conspiracy to railroad the letter carrier to jail was of a political nature, it had been discovered that rivalry in love was at the bottom of it all--that Jake Hines had been inspired solely by personal motives, and had acted without the knowledge of his master. "I feared as much," said Judge Lawrence to Owen, pointing with a wry smile to the pile of newspapers on his desk. "Coggswell has managed to get from under by making Jake Hines the goat. The grand jury will take the same view of the matter as the newspapers. We shan’t be able to convict that rascal this time."