oung Dick Sherwood?"

The two men started and wilted at these driving questions. "But--but,
Joe," stammered Old Jimmie, "you've gone out of your head. She's not in
any such game. She never even heard of any Dick Sherwood."

"Cut out your lies, Jimmie Carlisle!" Joe ordered harshly. "We've got
something more to do here, the four of us, than to waste any time on
lies. And just to prove to you that your lies will be wasted, I'll lay
all my cards face up on the table. Since I got out I've been working for
the Sherwoods. Larry Brainard was working there before me, and got me
my job. I've seen this girl here--my daughter that you've made into a
crook--out there twice. Dick Sherwood was supposed to be in love with
her. At the end of this afternoon some officers came to the Sherwoods'
and arrested Larry Brainard. I was working outside, overheard what
was happening, and crept up on the porch. Officer Gavegan, who was in
charge, found a painting among Larry Brainard's things. Miss Sherwood
said that it was a picture of Miss Maggie Cameron who had been visiting
there, and I could see that it was. Officer Gavegan said it was a
picture of Maggie Carlisle, daughter of Jimmie Carlisle, and that she
was a crook. Larry Brainard, cornered, had to admit that Gavegan was
right. I guessed at once who Maggie Carlisle was, since she was just the
age my girl would have been and since you never had any children.
And that's how, Jimmie Carlisle, standing there outside the window,"
concluded the terrible voice of Joe Ellison, "I learned for the first
time that the baby I'd trusted with you to be brought up straight, and
that I believed was now happy somewhere as a nice, decent girl, you had
really brought up as your own daughter and trained to be a crook!"

Old Jimmie shrank back from Joe's blazing eyes; his mouth opened
spasmodically, but no words came therefrom. There was stupendous silence
in the room. Within the closet, Larry now understood that low, strange
sound he had heard on the Sherwoods' porch and which Gavegan and Hunt
had investigated. It had been the suppressed cry of Joe Ellison when
he had learned the truth--the difference between his dreams and the
reality. He could not imagine what that moment had been to Joe: the
swift, unbelievable knowledge that had seemed to be tearing his very
being apart.

Larry had an impulse to step out to Joe's side. But just as a little
earlier he had felt the scene had belonged to Maggie, he now