“Well, there’s a lot of money back of the organization for one thing. And money is power wherever officials can be corrupted, and that’s pretty near everywhere. But when they get a little higher up they have subtler and even more effective methods. They deliberately encourage the use of drugs among people who can help them, and then, being the only source of supply available, they dictate about what they please to those people. For you know what a man with a drug habit will do for some more of the same.” “But what’s it all about?” I demanded. “What’s it all for? And where do they get the money and the drugs?” He shook his head. “We don’t know,” he answered. “We imagine that some one is trying to build up an immense and hidden power in this country. It may be that we are dealing with a new form of Bolshevism. And we know that they must have acquired an immense amount of money from the sale of drugs to wealthy addicts of their own making. But nobody knows where they get the drugs, what the drugs are exactly, or how they get them into the country.” “But what about these girls? What have they got to do with——” My visitor grinned. “The Chief’s got a novel hypothesis for that, Clayton. He believes that the girls are used as decoys in some way. But I don’t think much of it myself, for he can’t explain why we haven’t found any of them. You see, up to the time of his disappearance, Moore sent in regular reports each day on what you and he had accomplished. There was a lot in those reports about some wonderful parties or other. And the Chief has it doped out that the girls are forced to take a hand in giving these parties. But they couldn’t give parties like that at the same place more than once or we’d get to know about it. And if they moved the girls from place to place, they’d be seen and rescued. I think he’s off on that. I don’t believe there’s any connection between the drugs and the girls. But then the Chief is pretty often right.” “They could move the girls in closed cars at night without its being noticed,” I ventured. “What—thirty-six of them? It would be like a school treat. And I don’t suppose they’d be any quieter than a school treat if they saw a chance of freedom.” “Well,” said I, “this party business is the only thing I’ve run across that even approaches being a clew, and I’m going to follow it up until I prove or disprove it.” Pride nodded. “That’s what the Chief wants you to do, and that’s what I’m here to help you to do. For my personal opinions don’t count. But now listen, Clayton. The Chief wants you to know that he thinks you and he too have been under-estimating this thing—under-estimating the skill of the other side. He told me to warn you particularly not to trust to the ignorance of any of that bunch of Russians you got mixed up with, without being pretty sure that you have a card up your sleeve in case you get caught.”