Bobbie returned with Mary and Lorna. Trubus started perceptibly as he observed the new telephone girl whom his wife had induced him to employ that day.
Sawyer nodded again to Burke.
"Now the go-between." He turned to Mary. "Do you know this man, Miss Barton?"
The name had a strangely familiar sound to Trubus. He wondered uneasily.
"He is William Trubus, president of the Purity League. I worked for him to-day."
"Do you recognize this man?" was queried, as Clemm shuffled forward, with the assistance of Burke's sturdy push.
"This is the one who was embracing the other telephone girl. But he did not stay there long. I never saw him before that, to my recollection."
"What do you know about this man, Officer 4434?" asked the captain. Clemm fumbled with his handcuffs, looking down in a sheepish way to avoid the malevolent looks of Trubus.
"He is known as John Clemm, although we have found a police record of him under a dozen different aliases. He formerly ran a gambling house, and at different times has been involved in bunco game and wire-tapping tricks. He is one of the cleverest crooks in New York. In the present case he has been the go-between for this man Trubus, who, posing as a reformer to cover his activities, has kept in touch with the work of the Vice Trust, managed by Clemm. They had a dictagraph and a mechanical pencil register which connected Trubus's office with Clemm's."
"It's a lie!" shouted Trubus, furiously. "Some of these degraded criminals are drawing my famous and honored name into this case to protect themselves. It is a police scheme for notoriety."