We did not have to wait long for the secret of the robbery of
Carton to come out. It was not in any "extras," or in the morning
papers the next day, but it came through a secret source of
information to the Reform League.

"A clerk in the employ of the organization who is really a
detective employed by the Reform League," groaned Carton, as he
told us the story himself the next morning at his office, "has
just given us the information that they have prepared a long and
circumstantial story about me--about my intimacy with Mrs. Ogleby
and Murtha and some others. The story of the robbery of my study
is in the papers this morning. To-morrow they plan to publish some
photographs--alleged to have been stolen."

"Photographs--Mrs. Ogleby," repeated Kennedy. "Real ones?"

"No," exclaimed Carton quickly, "of course not--fakes. Don't you
see the scheme? First they lay a foundation in the robbery,
knowing that the public is satisfied with sensations, and that
they will be sure to believe that the robbery was put up by some
muckrakers to obtain material for an expose. I wasn't worried last
night. I knew I had nothing to conceal."

"Then what of it?" I asked naively.

"A good deal of it," returned Carton excitedly, "The story is to
be, as I understand it, that the fake pictures were among those
stolen from me and that in a roundabout way they came into the