"I don’t know. It was because this wreck is so awful." "And what else?" "Nothing else." Leighton thrust a forefinger into the informer’s face. "_What else?_" Rollins jumped back. "Well, he—he didn’t raise my pay. I’ve got a big family, and there’s a mortgage on my little house in Roseville, and a man in my position has to live well, or people’d talk." Leighton relaxed. He swung back in his chair and cocked his feet on the desk. "I’ll make it two thousand five hundred for your family’s sake. That’s my last word." Luke, who had again turned his back on the hagglers, the letters safely buttoned in an inside pocket of his coat, wondered how his chief could afford such an outlay. "Is that really the best you can do?" whined Rollins. "It is the best I _will_ do," said Leighton. Without lowering his feet, he pulled toward him the telephone, which was attached to his desk by an arm that could be lengthened or shortened at the user’s will. "Now, then, your boss has gone home long ago; but I can get him at his house; do you want to lose your job or make this money?" Rollins surrendered. "I guess I’ll have to take your price," he said. "But it’s almost a charity I’m doing." "Right!" Leighton released the telephone, quickly swung his legs from the desk and sat straight. "And you’ll promise nobody’ll ever know where you got these letters?" "Certainly." Rollins looked toward Luke’s significant back. "And Mr. Huber, too?" Luke turned. "I’ve already promised you that," he said. Leighton smiled faintly as he said to Luke: "I guess you don’t happen to have two thousand five hundred in loose change about you, do you, Huber?" "No," said Luke. He saw nothing humorous anywhere in the situation. "Well, this is no affair for checks, and my bank’s uptown," Leighton continued. "I don’t suppose," he said to Rollins, "you would care to give credit, my dear sir?" Rollins could smile, if Luke could not. He shook his head. "My bank," said Luke, anxious to end the scene, "is just around the corner. It’s closed, but the clerks will still be there. They know me. I can get them to let me in the side door, and I know they’ll do me a favor. I’ve got just about that much on deposit." He looked at Leighton. "Shall I take Rollins along?" "Rollins? Yes." Leighton’s good-humor seemed to have returned to stay. "Then hurry back here—alone. I’ll want to talk this thing over with you." §4. Luke paid and dismissed Rollins. Returning, he found Leighton walking rapidly up and down his office. "Shut the door," said the District-Attorney. His face was flushed; he spoke quickly. Luke shut the door. Leighton came forward and brought his hand down on Luke’s shoulder with a resounding smack.