panion's arm. Her face flushed,
almost unable to speak from suppressed emotion, she cried:

"Ah! I begin to understand. You knew Robert Underwood? Howard knows your
voice--he heard you--talking to him----Oh, Mrs. Jeffries! Are you the
woman who visited his apartment that night?"

The banker's wife bowed her head and collapsed on a chair.

"Yes," she murmured in a low tone.

Annie looked at her in amazement.

"Why didn't you come forward at once?" she cried. "Think of the pain
which you might have spared us!"

Alicia covered her face with her handkerchief. She was crying now.

"The disgrace--the disgrace!" she moaned.

"Disgrace!" echoed Annie, stupefied. Indignantly, she went on:
"Disgrace--to you? But what of me and Howard?"

Alicia looked up.

"Can't you realize what it means to be associated with such a crime?"
she wailed.

"Disgrace!" cried Annie contemptuously. "What is disgrace when a human
life is at stake?"

"It seemed so useless," moaned Alicia--"a useless sacrifice in the face
of Howard's confession. Of course--if I'd known--if I'd suspected what
you tell me--I'd have come forward and told everything--no matter at
what cost." Tearfully she added: "Surely you realize the position it
puts me in?"

A new light shone in Annie's eyes. What was this woman's misery to her?
Her duty was to the poor fellow who was counting the hours until she
could set him free. His stepmother deserved no mercy. Utterly selfish,
devoid of a spark of humanity, she would have left them both to perish
in order to protect herself from shame and ridicule. Her face was set
and determined as she said calmly:

"It must be done now."

"Yes," murmured Alicia in a low tone that sounded like a sob, "it must
be done now! Oh, if I'd only done it before--if I'd only told Mr.
Jeffries the whole truth! You speak of Howard's sufferings. If he didn't
do it, he has at least the consciousness of his own innocence, but
I--the constant fear of being found out is worse than any hell the
imagination can conjure up. I dreaded it--I dread it now--it means
disgrace--social ostracism--my husband must know--the whole world will
know."

Annie was not listening. Still bewildered, she gazed with the utmost
astonishment at her companion. To think that this mysterious woman they
had been seeking was Howard's stepmother.

"So you're the missing witness we've all been hunting for!" she said; "I
can't believe it even now. How did it happen?"

Alici