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 necessary to swear out charges against him and you in Michigan."

Lucas quivered with impulse suddenly to hurl this fellow into the icy water; indeed, he seemed to betray it; or perhaps only from instinctive caution did Barney move about so that his back was no longer to the lake. Unable to act, Lucas boggled for something adequate to say; but he could not reply forcibly without knowing exactly how much proof this fellow possessed. Loutrelle, however, appeared neither to care for response from him nor to say anything more himself. He merely waited a moment, looking at Lucas, then nodded and took himself off.

Lucas stood squinting at the back of the young fellow while, without once looking around, Loutrelle walked half the length of the pier; he vanished into a doorway, and still Lucas remained staring. He looked down and kicked his cigar into the lake, took another from his pocket and started to chew it.

"Laylor; he said Henry Laylor," Lucas repeated to himself, as though now likely to doubt the evidence of his own ears. "Where in hell did he get that?"

Lucas knew where he had "got" Galilee and the flaming torch; so Henry Laylor evidently came from the same place, which appeared to be a locality of indefinitely expanding information. Yet information obtained from such a source, though admittedly disconcerting when suddenly disclosed, was not actually dangerous,—that is, it would not do much harm on a warrant. Loutrelle knew that, unless he was crazy; so his threat was only a bluff; if the sudden mentioning of Quinlan and Galilee and Laylor all together had not upset Lucas, he would instantly have recognized it. Also Loutrelle was powerless to bring dangerous evi-