"Hello, Aggie!" the detective remarked, with a smirk, while the
Inspector stared from one to the other with rounded eyes of
wonder, and his jaw dropped from the stark surprise of this new
development.

The girl returned deliberately to the chair she had occupied
through the interview with the Inspector, and dropped into it
weakly. Her form rested there limply now, and the blue eyes
stared disconsolately at the blank wall before her. She realized
that fate had decreed defeat for her in the game. It was after a
minute of silence in which the two men sat staring that at last
she spoke with a savage wrath against the pit into which she had
fallen after her arduous efforts.

"Ain't that the damnedest luck!"

For a little interval still, Burke turned his glances from the
girl to Cassidy, and then back again to the girl, who sat
immobile with her blue eyes steadfastly fixed on the wall. The
police official was, in truth, totally bewildered. Here was
inexplicable mystery. Finally, he addressed the detective curtly.

"Cassidy, do you know this woman?"

"Sure, I do!" came the placid answer. He went on to explain with
the direct brevity of his kind. "She's little Aggie Lynch--con'
woman, from Buffalo--two years for blackmail--did her time at
Burnsing."

With this succinct narrative concerning the girl who sat mute and