“Hello!” exclaimed a cheery voice, as Owen turned[Pg 48] the street corner, so wrapped up in his gloomy meditations that he almost collided with the speaker. “And how’s our young post-office inspector to-day? Not on the trail of malefactors already, I’ll wager. From your pre-occupied air and the frown upon your countenance, Owen, it must be a perplexing problem you’re wrestling with.”
Owen looked into the smiling countenance of ex-Judge Sugden Lawrence, the kind friend whose influence had enabled him to land the government job which he now contemplated resigning.
Acting on an impulse, Sheridan decided to take the lawyer into his confidence. He knew that the latter could be trusted not to betray Dallas’ secret.
“It is a perplexing problem I’m wrestling with, judge,” he said; “one of the most unpleasant a fellow was ever up against.”
“Official or personal?” inquired the lawyer.
“Both,” answered Owen grimly. “And that’s where the trouble comes in. It’s the personal element in this case which makes it impossible for me to do my duty.”
The judge frowned, and looked at him disapprovingly. “Impossible to do your duty, Owen? I’m sorry to hear you talk like that. If I thought that you really meant it, I should regret very much that I had assisted you to become a post-office inspector. No personal considerations should ever cause an officer of the law to shirk his duty.”
“That’s all very well to say,” returned the inspector; “but an officer of the law is human, just like everybody else, and it isn’t reasonable to ask him to arrest the girl he loves.”
“What!” exclaimed Judge Lawrence, in astonishment. “Arrest Miss Worthington? What on earth for?”
In a few words Owen sadly explained to him the nature of his first assignment as a post-office inspector. The lawyer listened with growing amazement.