CHAPTER XXII. THE TRAP THAT FAILED.

Burke, despite his quality of heaviness, was blest with a keen
sense of humor, against which at times his professional labors
strove mutinously. In the present instance, he had failed
utterly to obtain any information of value from the girl whom he
had just been examining. On the contrary, he had been befooled
outrageously by a female criminal, in a manner to wound deeply
his professional pride. Nevertheless, he bore no grudge against
the adventuress. His sense of the absurd served him well, and he
took a lively enjoyment in recalling the method by which her
plausible wiles had beguiled him. He gave her a real respect for
the adroitness with which she had deceived him--and he was not
one to be readily deceived. So, now, as the scornful maiden went
out of the door under the escort of Cassidy, Burke bowed
gallantly to her lithe back, and blew a kiss from his thick
fingertips, in mocking reverence for her as an artist in her way.
Then, he seated himself, pressed the desk call-button, and, when
he had learned that Edward Gilder was arrived, ordered that the
magnate and the District Attorney be admitted, and that the son,
also, be sent up from his cell.

"It's a bad business, sir," Burke said, with hearty sympathy, to
the shaken father, after the formal greetings that followed the
entrance of the two men. "It's a very bad business."

"What does he say?" Gilder questioned. There was something
pitiful in the distress of this man, usually so strong and so
certain of his course. Now, he was hesitant in his movements,