ly first-class passengers, although accommodations for fifty
had been retained in making a "freighter" of the one-time "record
liner."

Leaving Irma, at her wish, to dream of a future meeting with Clayton,
Fritz Braun was left free to retire to his own capacious cabin.

"Take the whole twenty staterooms," cried the jolly old skipper,
highly propitiated with Braun's wine-opening and the druggist's
superb cigars. And this Tuesday afternoon Braun proposed to devote
to a careful examination of his rich plunder.

As yet he had not verified the whole stolen treasure. When all
his own luggage was arranged in his own double room, he carefully
threw overboard all of the murdered cashier's private articles.
The hat and shoes, which he had feared to burn, were cast into
the foaming wake of the vessel, and even the veriest trifle of the
contents of the deceived lover's pockets.

Braun, greedy at heart, shut his eyes as he tossed the watch-chain
and locket overboard, and even the scarf-pin, links and studs of
the victim. It was an hour after he had locked himself in when he
threw over the last shred of paper and the emptied pocketbook and
purse.

Braun smiled grimly as he carefully transferred to his wallet the
double-month's pay which had been handed to the cashier by accountant
Somers when he hastened away on his furlough.

"Nearly seven hundred dollars," laughed Braun. "My dead friend pays
my way over." There was, moreover, a few dollars in change in the
purse, which was tossed away to follow the other tell-tale objects,
after Braun had extracted Somers' test slip of the deposits. It
brought a frenzy of joy to the murderer's heart to read the lines,
"Currency, $150,000; cheques, $98,975."

He smiled grimly. "The last thing which could betray me is overboard.
I'm safe now! No fool to be caught, even by a tell-tale ring!" He
had hurled poor Clayton's college pin and seal ring far out into
the sapphire blue, and then resolutely screwed up the porthole.

"Now to see if my cashier's tag lies!"

Braun stopped, with his hand on the straps of his valise, a glooming
foreboding seized him. "I must watch this devilish woman! She was
far too placid. She has not swallowed all my story. If she should
try to cable, or to communicate." He paused, and the cold sweat
gathered upon his brow. "I'll closely watch her. I'll rush her
through Stettin. I'll hide her in some little hole on the Polish
frontier. If she tries to follow