ou Robert Dunn--Charley Wright. Do you know why I can't have you call
yourself Charley Wight?"

Dunn shook his head.

"Because I don't like it," said Deede Dawson. "Why, that's a name that
would drive me mad," he muttered, half to himself.

Dunn did not speak, but he thought this was a strange thing for the
other to say and showed that even he, cold and remorseless and without
any natural feeling, as he had seemed to be, yet had about him still
some touch of humanity.

And as he mused on this, which seemed to him so strange, though really
it was not strange at all, his attentive ears caught the sound of a soft
step without, beginning to descend the stairs.

Had that name, then, been more than she also could bear?

If so, she must know.

"I don't see why, I don't see what's wrong with it," he said aloud. "But
Robert Dunn will suit me just as well."

"All a matter of taste," said Deede Dawson, his manner more composed and
natural again.

"It's a funny thing now--suppose my name was Charley Wright, then there
would be two Charley Wrights in this attic, eh? A coincidence, that
would be?"

"I suppose so," answered Dunn. "I knew another man named Charley Wright
once."

"Did you? Where's he?"

"Oh, he's dead," answered Dunn.

Deede Dawson could not repress the start he gave and for a moment Dunn
thought that his suspicions were really roused. He came a little nearer,
his pistol still ready in his hand.

"Dead, is he?" he said. "That's a pity. He's not here, then; but it
would be funny wouldn't it, if there were two Charley Wrights in one
room?"

"I don't know what you mean," Dunn answered. "I think there are lots of
funnier things than that would be."

"That's where you're wrong," retorted Deede Dawson, and he laughed
again, shrilly and dreadfully, a laughter that had in it anything but
mirth.

"Can you carry that packing-case downstairs if I help you get it on your
shoulder?" he asked abruptly.

"It's heavy, but I might," Dunn answered.

He supposed that now it was about to be hidden somewhere and he felt
that he must know where, since that knowledge would mean everything and
enable him to set the authorities to work at once immediately he could
communicate with them.

The weight of the thing taxed even his great strength to the utmost, but
he managed it somehow, and bending beneath his burden, he descended the
stairs to the hall and then, following the orders Deede Dawson gave him
from behind, ou