e my baby."

"Where?"

"Where she can sleep in peace--in hallowed ground. I--I want a priest
for her. Tell him that I baptized her Helena."

"Yes. And the other name?"

A weird laugh came from the colorless lips.

"She hasn't one."

"But--"

"Then use mine--so you'll have evidence that I'm not married. Use
mine, if that's the kind of a man you are--so you can go back and tell
them--back home--that I--I--" The last bond had snapped. She caught
at him with clawing hands, her eyes wild, her teeth showing from behind
tightly drawn lips. "Torture me--that's it--torture me! At least, I
didn't do that to you! I told you that I believed in you--at least
that cheered you up when you needed it--I didn't tell you that I
believed you guilty. Did I? I didn't continually ask you for the name
of the man you'd killed? Oh, there were other things--I know there
were other things--" the lips seemed to fairly stream words, "but at
least, I didn't torture you. I--I--"

Then she halted, for the briefest part of a moment, to become suddenly
madly cajoling, crazily cunning:

"Listen, Barry, listen to me. You want to know things. I can tell
them to you--oh, so many of them. I'll tell them too--if you'll only
do this for me. It's my baby--my baby. Don't you know what that
means? Won't you promise for me? Take her to a priest--please,
Barry--for what you once thought I was? Won't you, Barry? Haven't I
had punishment enough? Did you ever lie all day and listen to the wind
shriek, waiting for somebody who didn't come--with your dead baby in
your arms? Do you want to punish me more? Do you want me to die
too--or do you want me to live and tell you why I did the things I did?
Do you? Do you want to know who was back of everything? I didn't do
it for myself, Barry. It was some one else--I'll help you, Barry,
honestly I'll help you."

"About the murder?" Houston was leaning forward now, tense, hopeful.
But the woman shook her head.

"No--I don't know about that. Maybe you did it--I can't say. It's
about other things--the lease, and the contract. I'll help you about
that--if you'll help me. Take my baby--"

"And keep your secret, Agnes? Is that it?"

"Will you?" The woman's eyes were gleaming strangely. "My mother
doesn't know. She's old--you know her, Barry. She thinks I'm--what I
should have been. That's why I came back out here. I--I--"

The man rose. He walked to the window and stood for a