d been warned of my errand here to-night--earlier, that is. I
suppose Captain Gilbert has told you that I phoned him, when I failed to
connect with you, that I was coming here--and what I was coming for?"

"I didn't tell Jerry," Worth picked up a cigarette. "Couldn't very well
tell him what you were coming for. Don't know myself."

The words were blunt; really I think there was no intention to offend,
only the simple statement of a fact; but I could see Cummings beginning
to simmer, as he inquired,

"Does that mean you didn't understand my words on the phone, or that you
understood them and couldn't make out what I meant by them?"

"Little of both," allowed Worth. Cummings stepped close to him and let
him have it direct:

"I'm here to-night, Captain Gilbert, as executor of your father's
estate. I have filed the will to-day. I might have done so earlier, but
when I inventoried this place (you remember, the day before the
funeral--you were here at the time) I failed to locate a considerable
portion of your father's estate."

"You failed to locate? All the estate's here; this house, the down-town
properties. What do you mean, failed to locate?"

"I was not alluding to realty," said Cummings. "It's my duty to locate
and report to the court the present whereabouts of seventy-five thousand
dollars worth of stock in the Van Ness Avenue Savings Bank. Can you
declare to me as executor, where it is? And, if any other person than
your father placed it in its present whereabouts, are you ready to
declare to me how and when it came into that person's possession?"

"Quite a lot of words, Cummings; but it doesn't mean anything," Worth
said casually. "You know where that bank stock is and who put it there."

"Officially, I do not know. Officially, I demand to be told."

"Unofficially, answer it for yourself." Worth turned his back on the
lawyer to get a match from the mantel.

"Very well. My answer is that I intend to find out how and when that
bank stock which formed a part of your payment to the Van Ness Avenue
bank disappeared from this house."

I admit I was scared. Here was the first gun of the coming battle; and I
was sure this enemy, who stood now looking through half closed eyes at
the lad's back, would have poisoned gas among his weapons. He had
emphasized the "_when_." He believed that the stories of Worth's night
visit to his father were true; that the implied denial by Barbara and
myself in my office, was false