He finished his cigar, listened to the striking chimes, and lighted another smoke. A pedestrian stopped beside him. "Old Sid Prale, or I'm a liar!" he cried. Prale looked up, and then sprang to his feet. "Jim Farland, the sleuth!" he cried in answer. "Old Jim, the holy terror to evildoers. Now I am glad that I'm home!" "When did you get in?" "Yesterday. Sit down. Have a cigar. You're the first old friend I've met!" Detective Jim Farland sat down and lighted the cigar. "You've been gone some time," he said. "Ten years, Jim." "Went away rather sudden, didn't you?" "I did. I made my decision one night and sailed the night following," said Prale. "I always wondered why you went, and what became of you. Had a good job with old Griffin, didn't you?" "The job was all right, Jim. But there was a girl----" "Ah, ha!" "And she threw me over for a fellow who had some money. That made me huffy, of course. I swore I'd shake the dust of New York from my shoes, go to some foreign country, take with me the ten thousand dollars I had saved, and turn it into a million." "And came back broke!" Farland said. "Nothing of the sort, Jim. I came back with a million." "Great Scott! I suppose I'd better be on my way then. I ain't in the habit of having millionaires let me associate with 'em." "You sit where you are, or I'll use violence!" Prale told him. "I suppose you are still on the force? Still fussing around down in the financial district watching for swindlers?" "I left the force three years ago," Jim Farland replied. "Couldn't seem to get ahead. Too honest, maybe--or too ignorant. I'm in a sort of private detective business now--got an office up the street. Doing fairly well, too--lots of old friends give me work. If you have anything in my line----" "If I have, you'll get a job," said Prale. "Let me slip you a card," said Farland. "You never know when you may need a detective. So you came back with a million, eh?" "And ran into a mess," Prale added. "I can't imagine a man with a million running into much of a mess," Farland said. "That's all you know about it. I may need your services sooner than you think. There is a sort of jinx working on me, it appears." "Spill it!" Jim Farland said. Sidney Prale did. He related what had happened at the bank, at the hotel, in Griffin's office, and told of the scene with Rufus Shepley. "Funny!" Farland said, when he had finished. "I know old Rufus Shepley, and as a general thing he ain't a maniac. Something behind all this, Sid." "Yes; but what on earth could it be?" "That's the question. If anything else happens, and you need help, just let me know." "I'll do that, surely," said Prale. "And I'm glad that I've got one friend left in town." "Always have one as long as I'm here," Jim Farland assured him. "And it ain't because of your million, either. It's true about the million?" "Absolutely!"