The chief shut his mouth with a click, opened it again to say persuasively:

“You’ve heard Thaler talk.⁠ ⁠…”

The woman started and stared big-eyed from the chief to me.

“It was he,” she cried. “It was he.”

Robert Albury, the young assistant cashier of the First National Bank, was sitting in the lobby when I returned to the Great Western Hotel. We went up to my room, had some ice-water brought, used its ice to put chill in Scotch, lemon juice, and grenadine, and then went down to the dining room.

“Now tell me about the lady,” I said when we were working on the soup.

“Have you seen her yet?” he asked.

“Not yet.”