"That's more like it," approved Brennan. "I've been in a few forlorn hope fights before and have seen the impossible happen, in fact, helped it happen." "I'm depending on you more than anyone else," said the mayor. Turning to John he added: "And you, too, Gallant." "The fault of crooks--and we're dealing with crooks--is that they can't think straight, all the time," said Brennan. "They always make a slip, some time. I've never known it to fail. No matter how smart a crook is, he always makes one mistake. He can't help it. It's because he's a crook and can't think straight. It's up to us to see that we don't overlook the mistake that Gibson and the 'Gink' will make." "Let's hope they make it soon enough," said the mayor. "The primary is only five weeks away and if Gibson is to be exposed it must be within the next four weeks at the latest." "I don't agree with you fully in that," said Brennan. "It might be a good idea, if we get what we're looking for, to hold off until a few days before the election so that Gibson won't have enough time to reach the entire city with the story he'll frame up to come back with." "We won't worry about that until we find enough to blast Gibson and Cummings once and for all," the mayor said. "I have men working night and day trying to link the two together. I have tried fairly and honestly to discover where Gibson obtained the money he has. He was broke, flat broke, about the time I was elected and suddenly he had all the money he required. Where it came from I can't find out. There is only one conclusion that I can see and that is that Cummings gave it to him; just as I have contended from the start." Brennan and John saw Murphy regularly, meeting him at least once a day, hoping each time that he would bring them the information they sought. But he had little to tell them except that Cummings was enforcing his order that there should be no crime in the city. One night he brought them a story of how a rebellious gangster becoming restless, had planned to commit a robbery despite the "Gink's" prohibitory order and had been promptly "beaten up" by Cummings' thugs. A week after their last conference with the mayor, Brennan and John received a telephone message from Gibson's secretary, who told them that the commissioner wanted them to see him at his office immediately. "Another grandstand stunt, I'll bet," Brennan speculated as they hurried to Gibson's office. "It's about time for one." Gibson greeted them as affably as ever. As they entered his office he closed and locked the door behind them. "Well, boys," he said, "how do you think my campaign is coming?" "You're going strong," replied Brennan, truthfully. "And how is my friend, the mayor?" "He isn't ready to concede defeat yet," Brennan said. "He realizes, though, that you're gaining ground on him every day, or rather increasing the lead you had at the start." Gibson laughed.