“Now,” said Craig, as we washed off the stains of work and stowed the overalls back in the suit-case, “that is done to my satisfaction.  I can tell Gennaro to go ahead safely now and meet the Black-Handers.”

From Vincenzo’s we walked over toward Centre Street, where Kennedy and I left Luigi to return to his restaurant, with instructions to be at Vincenzo’s at half-past eleven that night.

We turned into the new police headquarters and went down the long corridor to the Italian Bureau.  Kennedy sent in his card to Lieutenant Giuseppe in charge, and we were quickly admitted.  The lieutenant was a short, full-faced, fleshy Italian, with lightish hair and eyes that were apparently dull, until you suddenly discovered that that was merely a cover to their really restless way of taking in everything and fixing the impressions on his mind, as if on a sensitive plate.

“I want to talk about the Gennaro case,” began Craig.  “I may add that I have been rather closely associated with Inspector O’Connor of the Central Office on a number of cases, so that I think we can trust each other.  Would you mind telling me what you know about it if I promise you that I, too, have something to reveal?”

The lieutenant leaned back and watched Kennedy closely without seeming to do so.  “When I was in Italy last year,” he replied at length, “I did a good deal of work in tracing up some Camorra suspects, I had a tip about some of them to look up their records—­I needn’t say where it came from, but it was a good one.  Much of the evidence against some of those fellows who are being tried at Viterbo was gathered by the Carabinieri as a result of hints that I was able to give them—­clues that were furnished to me here in America from the source I speak of.  I suppose there is really no need to conceal it, though.  The original tip came from a certain banker here in New York.”

“I can guess who it was,” nodded Craig.

“Then, as you know, this banker is a fighter.  He is the man who organized the White Hand—­an organization which is trying to rid the Italian population of the Black Hand.  His society had a lot of evidence regarding former members of both the Camorra in Naples and the Mafia in Sicily, as well as the Black Hand gangs in New York, Chicago, and other cities.  Well, Cesare, as you know, is Gennaro’s father-in-law.

“While I was in Naples looking up the record of a certain criminal I heard of a peculiar murder committed some years ago.  There was an honest old music master who apparently lived the quietest and most harmless of lives.  But it became known that he was supported by Cesare and had received handsome presents of money from him.  The old man was, as you may have guessed, the first music teacher of Gennaro, the man who discovered him.  One might have been at a loss to see how he could have an enemy, but there was one who coveted his small fortune.  One day he was stabbed and robbed.  His murderer