"And was that all Marks ever heard from her?" I asked, when Quinn paused.
"So far as I know," said the former operative. "Of course, Washington never heard about that part of the case. They were too well satisfied with Ezra's haul and the incoming cargo, which they also landed, to care much about the Petersens. So the whole thing was entered on Marks's record precisely as he had figured it—a fifty-fifty split. You see, even government agents aren't always completely successful—especially when they're fighting Cupid as well as crooks!"
XIX
THE CLUE IN THE CLASSIFIED COLUMN
Quinn tossed his evening paper aside with a gesture in which disgust was mingled in equal proportion with annoyance.
"Why is it," he inquired, testily, "that some fools never learn anything?"
"Possibly that's because they're fools," I suggested. "What's the trouble now?"
"Look at that!" And the former Secret Service operative recovered the paper long enough to indicate a short news item near the bottom of the first page—an item which bore the headline, "New Fifty-Dollar Counterfeit Discovered."