"Well, they may have got wise to the fact that we're using Yvonne again-"

"That's right!" a shrill, angry female voice interrupted. "Blame me! Every time somebody gets nervous, you bring me into it!"

Nancy could scarcely restrain herself. She had been right about Yvonne! The girl was mixed up in the Hale Syndicate racket!

"You deserve blame," Al Snead retorted irritably. "First, you didn't have any more sense than to sell a bottle of that perfume to a perfect stranger-"

"I told you, that girl insisted upon buying it, and I was afraid if I flatly refused, she and her friends would get suspicious. Besides, I don't see what harm it did to sell the perfume to a teenager!"

"No," Snead retorted sarcastically, "you're so simple-minded you wouldn't see it might land us in jail! When Pete was on the train going to River Heights he noticed the scent and thought that the girl was one of the Chief's agents! Lucky for all of us, he saw his mistake before he spilled anything!"

Yvonne sputtered back in defense. "Well, at least I phoned Al at his office right away so he could warn the agents about the stray bottle of Blue Jade. It's not my fault Pete happened to be on the same train as those girls."

The leader suddenly became impatient.

"Enough of this!" he shouted. "It's not getting us anywhere! Snead, I placed Yvonne in your office and she'll stay there as long as I say. I'm satisfied with the rest of her work. Get me?"

Snead nodded sullenly.

Nancy had been studying the leader intently and by this time was convinced that he was far more clever and intelligent than his subordinates. She figured that Al Snead was right-hand man to the Chief, but resented his superior's favoritism toward Yvonne Wong. The organization was a large one, evidently changing its scene and type of operation from time to time. If only she could slip away and get help from the authorities!