The d. a. d. a. sniffed with some excitement. "Where did you get it?" he demanded. Surreptitiously he nodded to a uniformed attendant, who as surreptitiously shut the door and locked it. "Picked it up the day young Pallister was killed," went on the spokesman, "picked it up where the man that used it left it lying--when he ran away." The assistant glanced at him sharply. "Why didn't you pass it over right away?" he demanded. The ten men shrugged their shoulders, but it was their spokesman who explained: "In that crowd," he returned slowly, "there was too much excitement already. These here saw me pick it up, and we talked about it--talked about it slow and cold. We didn't want to be mobbed ourselves, even by the cops; we didn't want to be taken for the murderer--you understand? So we closed in around this gun, y'see, and we kept it close, till now." He grinned sheepishly. "Besides," he added, "our savings has been lost in the Tri-State Trust, and we was kind o' waitin' for somethin' of this kind," he pointed to the advertised reward, "thinking maybe we could even up somehow, y'see." "I see," returned the assistant, grimly. "I see that you had no right to wait an instant when you got this thing in your fist." He waved his hand. "Never mind that now, but tell me who did the killing. Did you know the man?" The ten men shook their heads. "We seen no man," one blurted out, "a hand--that's all I see." "That's all we see," assented the spokesman, looking to his fellows for affirmance, "a hand and a shot. It was all so quick. We asked everybody; nobody seen anything--just a hand and a shot, that's all." The assistant frowned. "Do you suspect who did it?" he interrogated. Blankly they shook their heads. The d. a. d. a. shot out a forefinger. "Tell me about that mass meeting of the savings depositors held the night before the murder?" he demanded, at a venture. They returned his query with a stare. "There wasn't any mass meeting that we know of," they said. He rapped upon the table and nodded to the uniformed attendant. "You know what to do," he said. Evidently the attendant did; for after a short space of time he unlocked the door, and six plain-clothesmen pounced upon the spokesman. "But I didn't do it!" yelled the big man who had handed over the ferocious-looking gun. "He didn't do it!" cried the other men behind. "Aw, come on!" said the officer of the law, "we'll lock the whole kit an' boodle of you up as witnesses. What--you won't? Come on--Come on!" "But don't you forget that we furnished information," called back the spokesman, "that may lead to the conviction of somebody, and when that happens, we want that ten, y'see?" It was not long before the news of the discovery of the pistol became known. So that when Leslie arrived on a visit to her father, and asked an officer if there had been any developments in regard to her advertisement in the paper, she was answered in the affirmative.