He decided it would be best to go quietly with the "plain-clothes man." Weldon had become nearly frantic in his demands to be released when Mershone was ushered into the station.

He started at seeing his enemy and began to fear a thousand terrible, indefinite things, knowing how unscrupulous Mershone was.

But the Waldorf detective, who seemed friendly with the police sergeant, made a clear, brief statement of the facts he had observed.

Mershone denied the accusation; the bruiser denied it; the policeman and the driver of the patrol wagon likewise stolidly denied it.

Indeed, they had quite another story to tell.
But the sergeant acted on his own judgment.