“Come again! Say that just once more.”

“A quarter million.”

“I reckoned I must have misunderstood. Say, you ain’t nutty, are you?” questioned Patsy, with a suspicious growl. “Your dome ain’t cracked, is it?”

“Not a crack in it,” Magill earnestly assured him. “I’m handing you straight goods. There’s a quarter million that may be had for—well, Dolan, for a mere bit of chesty work. You wouldn’t get in on it, mind you, only I cannot get word to pals of mine in time to use them. I want a little help.”

“For what?”

“To take that skirt where she can be properly questioned,” Magill said pointedly.

“Take her where?”

“To a house about three miles from here.”

“What’s the matter with a hack or a buzz wagon?”

“Either would fill the bill,” said Magill. “There is only one difficulty.”