“When are you apt to send for him—­I don’t think I’ll keep him any longer than I can help.”

“I’ll send out from the dog store, with a letter signed by me.  Feed him a little croton oil to cure his disposition.  Good-bye, for now, Jim.  I’ll write you, this day.”

Shirley hung up, and smiled with satisfaction at the news.  The man would be glad to get bread and water, before long, he felt assured.  However, he despatched a note to Cleary, of the Holland Agency, enclosing a written order to Merrivale to deliver over the prisoner, for safer keeping in the city.

This disposed of the started out from the club house for his afternoon of dissipation.  As he left the doorway, he noticed the two men with the black caps standing not far away.  They were engrossed in the rolling of cigarettes, but the swift glance which they shot at him did not escape Monty.

“Like the poor and the bill collectors, they are always with us,” was his thought, as he calmly strolled over to the Hotel California.  He determined to place them in a quiet, sheltered retreat at the earliest opportunity.  He found Helene more attractive than ever.

“Shall I put on this wretched rouge again to-day,” was the plaintive question, after the first greeting.  “I hate it so —­and yet, will do whatever you order.”

“Your role calls for it, my dear girl.  Perhaps we may close the dramatic engagement sooner than we expect.  To-night should be an eventful one, for I will accept every lead which Reginald Warren offers.  I would like to have a record of his voice, and that of some of his friends.  There is a difference between the telephone voice and that heard face to face,—­you would be a good witness if I could persuade him to sing or speak for me into a record.  You can straighten out the difficulties of this case, if you will, in a thoroughly feminine manner.”

“And what, sir, is that, I pray you?”

“Give him the opportunity—­to fall in love with you.”

Helene’s cheeks flushed a stronger carmine than the rouge which she was administering, as she looked up in quick embarrassment.

“I don’t want him to love me.  I want no man to love me,” was the petulant answer.

“Doubtless you have reason to be satisfied as things are,” replied Shirley, puffing a cigarette, “but the softness of cerebral conditions increases in direct ratio with the mushiness of the affections.  If it is important to us—­and you are my partner in this fascinating business venture—­will you not sacrifice your emotions to that extent:  merely to let him lead himself on, as most men do?” He paused for a critical observation of her, and then added:  “You are even more beautiful to-day than you were yesterday.  He cannot help loving you if he is given the chance!”

Helene’s white fingers crushed the orchid which she was pinning to the bosom of her gown.  Her intent gaze met the mask of Shirley’s ingenuous smile, reading in his telltale eyes a message which needed no court interpreter!  Quickly she turned to her mirror to put the finishing touches to her coiffure, the golden curls so alluringly wilful.