Drew walked down the corridor, turned to the right, entered the third door to the left, waited for Tom Howe and Johnny Thompson to enter, and then closed the door. Dropping into one of the three hard-bottomed chairs the narrow, box-like room afforded, he sat looking out of the window, first down the cement paved court, then far up to the tenth floor where were many barred windows.  
“What does it mean?” Johnny asked at last.
 
“Mean?” Drew Lane pointed to the bars above and across the court. “It means that the fellows behind those bars (and we put some there, too) are going to have it soft compared with us.
 
“They got thirty days, maybe sixty. But when that’s over, they are free. But we—we have an indeterminate sentence.
 
104
“Court duty!” He threw out his hands in a gesture of disgust. “Know what that means? It means that you stand all day with your back against the wall, keeping guard against disturbances that never come.
 
“You listen to well-dressed young men tell the judge that their well-dressed young wives will not try shop-lifting any more, if he’ll let them off.
 
“You see ten or twenty colored men brought in for shooting craps or drinking moonshine.
 
“And all the time the court room smells of garlic and sour beer.
 
“If you’re sent out at all it’s to bring in a witness who has forgotten to appear. And that takes about as much brains as a six-year-old child has, and not half as much courage.
 
“Oh, I know,” he ended bitterly. “Some one has to do it. But why Howe and me?”
 
“Why did he do it?” There was pain as well as disgust in Tom Howe’s voice.
 
“The Chief? Yes, why?” Once more Drew Lane lapsed into silence.
 
105
After that the moments ticked themselves away and not a single word was spoken.
 
Through Drew Lane’s mind many dark thoughts were passing. The Chief had thrown them down. That seemed certain. Why? He could form no answer.
 
The fact that they had made no report for three days was not the reason. He was sure of that. The same thing had happened many times before, and there had been no protest.
 
It had been generally understood that he and Tom Howe were to be free lance detectives for the city.
 
This freedom they had welcomed. And, happy in it, they had done their best to deserve it. They had studied the city and the ways of evil doers as a factory foreman studies his plant. They had familiarized themselves with hundreds of faces. They could actually call hundreds of pickpockets, tin-horn gamblers, stick-up men and general hoodlums by name.
 
106
Not that they were friendly with them. Quite the reverse. They were constantly on their heels. Making it hard for them to do wrong. Making it easy to do right? Yes, if any sincerely wished it. But how few ever did!
 
“Professional criminals.” How those words had been borne in upon them. What else would such “professionals” do but rob and steal?
 
“And now,” Drew said aloud, bitterly, “all the months we have spent in preparing ourselves for the great task of city detectives is lost!”
 
“Perhaps not,” Tom said hopefully. “The Chief may put us back after a week or two.”
 
“Not he!” Dre............