So he put aside his stacks of examination papers and took his hat and went for the third time to interview poor Nannette. But Nannette saw him coming and fled to the attic, locking herself in, and keeping quiet as a mouse till he grew discouraged knocking and went back to his papers once more. But he did not give up. He searched out Eugene’s city address and got him on the telephone, grilling him for fifteen expensive minutes as to the cause of Joyce’s leaving, and why he couldn’t reach her by telephone or wire if he tried every place that she had expected to visit. Eugene was reduced almost to a state of distraction and came home that night in a worse temper than ever. * * * * * That night four men sought out an old haunt where they had been accustomed to meet and sat in dark conclave. They were big, husky fellows and three were dark-browed with heavy jaws and hands that could break an iron bar or crush a lily, but one had bright red hair and unclean eyes, with a voice that had continually to be hushed by his companions. “Well, _I_ say there’s a _skirt_ somewhere in all this,” he bellowed forth as he raised a glass of ill-smelling liquor to his lips. “You spilled a mouthful!” hissed out one they called Bill. “He never cleared out alone. D’you know who the dame is, Tyke?” “I got my ideas,” boasted the red-haired one mysteriously. “Whaddaya know, Tyke? Spit it out. This ain’t no Deef Mute Club. You’ll get in the same class with him if you go around keepin’ things ter yerself, an’ you know what that means, Tyke! We ain’t to be trifled with. Can’t swing that game with us the second time. It’s mates or hang, and you understand. Now, let her fly. Whaddaya know?” A heavy hand came down on his shoulder and Tyke shivered in his long length like a serpent taken unawares. “Take yer hand off’n my shoulder you, Taney, ur ya don’t get a word outen me.” He shook the rough grip off and shuffled into another position. “You fellers go off like powder. Ef you don’t quit yer suspicions I’m outta this fer good, and then where’ll ya be? I got brains, an’ I know a thing er two, an’ when I say I got ideas I ain’t sayin’ I know it all, but I got a line on it. I think I can foller it up.” “Meanin’?” The heavy hand came down once more upon his shoulder. “Meanin’--well--boys, I seen a girl in the graveyard that night. Splashed my flashlight full in her face oncet. I think he seen her too--” A low mutter from Bill as he took another drink in big gulps. “Know who she was?” asked Cottar, the man who had not spoken yet. “Nope. I don’t live around these diggin’s you know, but I’d know her again ef I seen her, I swear I would. She had eyes you don’t forget.” The man drank in silence and watched him. “Get it all off’n yer chest Tyke--” said Bill at last. “There’s more comin’.” Tyke edged in his chair uneasily. He dropped his voice to a whisper: