Burton\'s policeman picked up two other men on the way, and, thus re?nforced, they made their way to Rowan street. It was away past midnight and as they went through the silent streets, Burton had a queer feeling that he was taking a part in some strange melodrama in an alien world. Never before had he come into direct personal contact with the world where policemen were important people, and where the primitive affairs he had supposed represented the dregs of human nature were matters of every-day occurrence. Why hadn\'t Henry Underwood had sense enough to be satisfied with his narrow escape of the night before?

There was a light burning in the surgery as they approached the house,--a fact to which Higgins, the first policeman, called attention.

"That light sometimes burns all night," he said, pursing up his lips.

"Any city ordinance against it?" asked Burton.

Higgins looked up with a slow question in his eyes.

"You will stay with me, Mr. Burton," he said quietly. "O\'Meara and Hanna, you go to the rear of the house and see that he doesn\'t make a get-away."

He rang the bell at the front door, and stepped instantly back, so that he could keep an eye on the whole front of the house. In a minute the door was opened wide and Dr. Underwood, in a dressing-gown, stood there peering out into the dark.

"Who wants me?" he asked.

Higgins stepped quickly inside, and as soon as Burton, who followed in his wake, had entered, he closed the front door, turned the key and slipped it into his pocket.

"Excuse me," he said, in a brisk undertone. "No one wants you, Doctor. I want Mr. Henry Underwood."

"You want him, Higgins? What for?"

"Assault."

"Assault? Henry? You\'re crazy. Henry hasn\'t spirit enough to assault any one. I\'d bail him out with the greatest joy in the world, if he did. Whom did he assault, in the name of Goshen?"

"Mr. Hadley."

"Hadley! Well, there may be something to the boy, after all. When did this happen?"

"Just now, tonight. I don\'t want any trouble, but I don\'t want any foolishness, either. I\'ve got to arrest him, you know, Doctor. It ain\'t what I may choose to do about it. So will you take me up to his room at once, before he hears me or takes an alarm?"

"You always were an unfortunate man, Higgins, but it is mighty hard luck that you should have to show the whole community what an idiot you are. It is kind of hard to be made a fool of in such a public way. Henry is abed and asleep and has been for hours."

"Then I\'ll have to wake him and if you\'ll excuse me, Doctor, I can\'t let you give him any more time by this palaver. Will you take me to his room, or shall I hunt for it myself?"

Underwood glanced at Burton and wrinkled his face into an unbetraying mask, but as he led the way upstairs he walked more slowly and draggingly than he had done in the afternoon, and Burton\'s heart ached for him.

"That\'s his room," he said, pointing to a closed door. The gleam of light along the lower edge showed plainly that the occupant was still up.

Higgins went to the door with a catlike silence and swiftness and laid his hand on the knob. It turned without resistance and he burst in upon Henry Underwood, half undressed. The bed had not been disturbed. The scattered clothing on the chairs showed that he had just come in from outdoors.

"What does this mean?" Henry demanded, with a look of amazement.

"You are under arrest," said Higgins. "Don\'t try any tricks. My men are about the house."

"What am I arrested for?"

"For assault on Mr. Hadley. And I warn you that anything you may say will be used against you."

"This is all foolishness, you know," Henry said, but his voice was spiritless and unconvincing, and Dr. Underwood groaned involuntarily.

"I haven\'t anything to do with that. All I have to do is to carry out orders. And I\'ll have to ask you to change your shoes. No, you don\'t!" He sprang forward and caught Henry roughly as the latter, at the word, rubbed his muddy shoe upon the rug on which he was standing. "We want your shoes, fresh mud and all. Just take them off, will you?"

"Take them off yourself," growled Henry, with a black look.

Higgins whistled and the two other men answered, one by melodramatically dropping in through the open window, and the other by appearing at the door. "Take off his shoes,--carefully, mind you. We want that mud on them. And get another pair for him, if you can find them."

He motioned Henry to sit down, but instead of dropping obligingly into the nearest chair, Henry stalked indignantly across the room and threw himself down on an upholstered lounge. Then he thrust out both feet before him with an arrogant air, and the two policemen, who had followed him closely, dropped on their knees and unfastened and removed his shoes. Higgins, who was proud of himself for thinking of a detail which might prove important, watched the process so closely that he paid no attention to anything else. Underwood, who leaned heavily against the door-casing, watched his son\'s face with a look that was something like despair. But Burton, who stood silently at one side, watched Henry, and so saw an apparently casual motion that took his right hand from the vicinity of his breast pocket to the inner edge of the upholstered seat of the lounge.

"Well, what next?" Henry asked brusquely, when the men had shod him.

"You will come with us," said Higgins.

He rose without a word, and reached for his hat and coat.

"Henry!" The word broke from Dr. Underwood like a cry. "Have you anything to say to me?"

Henry gave him one look, and then dropped his eyelids.

"I think not," he said, with a curious air of deliberation.

"I\'ll come ............