aid Crane, and he pushed the one he had been
toying with toward Mortimer. The latter remained standing.

Allis sprang forward and caught him by the arm--Crane turned away,
suddenly discovering that from the window the main street of Brookfield
was a most absorbing study.

"I'm so happy," began Allis. Mortimer shivered in apprehension. Why had
Crane turned his face away--what was coming? How could she be happy, how
could anyone in the world be happy? But evidently she was. She stole
a quick look at Crane--to be exact, Crane's back, for his head and
shoulders were through the window.

Then the girl--she had to raise on her tiptoes--kissed the sad man on
the cheek. I'm ashamed to say that he stared. Were they all mad--was he
not standing with one foot in the penitentiary?

She drew him toward the chair, calling to Crane: "Will you please tell
Mr. Mortimer the good news. I am too happy; I can't."

A fierce anger surged in Mortimer's heart; it was true, then--his
disgrace had been too much for Allis. The other had won; but it was too
cruel to kiss him.

Crane faced about, and coming forward, held out his hand to the man of
distrust. "I hope you'll forgive me."

Mortimer sprang to his feet, shoving back his chair violently, and stood
erect, drawn to his full height, his right hand clenched fiercely at his
side. "Shake hands? No, a thousand times no!" he muttered to himself.

Crane saw the action, and his own hand dropped. "Perhaps I ask too
much," he said, quietly; "I wronged you--"

Mortimer set his teeth and waited. There were great beads of
perspiration on his forehead, and his broad chest set his breath
whistling through contracted nostrils. A pretty misdirected passion was
playing him. This was why they had sent for him--the girl he would have
staked his life on had been brought to believe in his guilt, and had
been won over to his rival. Ah--a new thought; his mind, almost diseased
by unjust accusation, prompted it--perhaps it was to save him from
punishment that Allis had consented to become Crane's wife.

"But I believed you guilty--" Mortimer started as Crane said this "now I
know that you are innocent, I ask--"

Mortimer staggered back a step and caught at the chair to steady
himself. He repeated mechanically the other's words: "You know I'm
innocent?"

"Yes, I've found the guilty man."

"Then Alan--oh, the poor lad! It's a mistake--you are wrong. The boy
didn't take the money--I took it."

Crane l