ay frighten a good sum out of Worthington.

"But you must let this annual election go on undisturbed. Smile
and keep your counsel. Let this sleek ferret Ferris, go on and marry
the girl, for I, alone, can aid you. Worthington fears me. I know
too much of his secret operations.

"When I get you a slice of your lost patrimony, you can break loose,
find yourself a fitting mate, and lead the life of a man, and not
a galley-slave. Oh! It has been a beautifully worked scheme. The
parchment-faced old wretch!"

"What do you mean? Explain yourself! Have I been tricked like a
dog my whole life?" cried Randall Clayton, the hidden espionage
and Ferris' duplicity returning to arouse him into a glow of rage.

"I mean only this," coolly answered Jack Witherspoon, "our railroad
has just agreed to pay Hugh Worthington two millions of dollars for
two hundred acres of outlying city lands, to be used as our lumber
and ore and stock-handling depots. The lake commerce has increased
a thousand fold.

"I had still supposed it was only railroad rivalry which caused our
people to keep the purchase secret and to record only a ninety-nine
year lease, when they had Hugh Worthington's guarantee deed in
their possession.

"He takes the whole purchase price out in freights, paid in to him
by your cattle trust, and with this same money he buys the majority
of the outlying stock."

"How does this touch me?" cried the now thoroughly angered Clayton.

"Because your father deeded all the real estate holdings of Clayton
& Worthington to his partner before the old trouble came on. Only
this, a then valueless, tract was forgotten.

"In honor and equity you are entitled to one-half as Everett
Clayton's heir."

The young cashier clenched his fists in anguish, as Witherspoon
sadly said: "But he has had twenty-one years' unbroken possession.
You were of age seven years ago, and he allowed it to be sold
for taxes every year, and has also secretly bought up all the tax
titles. It is too late. But wait, keep silent, and trust to me."

CHAPTER III.

IN MAGDAL'S PHARMACY.

Randall Clayton and his friend heard the "chimes at midnight" after
the disquieting disclosures. Witherspoon finally allayed Clayton's
sudden distrust. The Detroit lawyer succeeded in lamely explaining
his own delay in making the fraud known.

"You see, Randall," he finally said at parting for the night, "I
must live my life in Detroit under the heel of these grea