"I'm
all in. I'm bleedin' inside. I've seen too many fellows with a shot like
this ever to have any hopes. Send for my wife and a priest. I ain't
afraid to go, chief, but I hate to leave Maggie like this."
"We'll take care of her, Tom. Get that off your mind."
"All right, chief. If you say so, I know it'll be all right. Poor girl,
it's hard luck for her."
"That's right, Tom, but brace up and don't let her see that you're
worried."
A woman's scream sounded through the hall, and a slender, girlish figure
pushed its way toward the prostrate man.
"Tom," she cried, and knelt beside him. "Are you hit? Did they get you
at last?"
"Oh, I ain't bad, Maggie," said the dying detective bravely. "The
chief's going to have me sent to the hospital, and I'll be all right in
a week."
But before midnight he died.
An hour later Ted met the chief of detectives.
"Get into my car," said the chief, "and come down to my office, and
we'll have a talk."
In a short time they were at the Four Courts, the big central police
station of St.
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