He appeared side by side with Copperhead Kate, and it wasn't until I swept them with a second glance that I discovered they were handcuffed together.

That enforced union, I could see, was as distasteful to Pinky McClone as it was to Copperhead Kate herself. But I no longer gave them much thought, for the next moment I saw that they were being herded into the room by Big Ben Locke himself.

"Sit down there!" was his curt command, as he pushed his two prisoners toward a Louis-Seize sofa of brocaded silk. And they sat down on that fragile-legged sofa, eying each other with open hostility.

Then the Chief seemed to see me for the first time.

"Hello, Baddie!" he said as easily as though he were accosting me over his office desk.

"Hello!" I guardedly replied, for at that particular moment there were quite a number of things worrying me. In the first place, I was wondering what had become of Wendy Washburn. And I was perplexed as to Bud and what could have happened to him. And I was further troubled by the thought that the black club-bag was still nowhere in sight.

"That's a great piece of work you've been doing for the office, Baddie," acknowledged the airily approving Big Ben, with a frown over his shoulder