not make him guilty, but it made him _look_ guilty. The same can be
said of the bookkeeper."

"But how can you go farther than that?" asked Mr. Grimes. "It's too long
ago for the facts to be brought out. We can have our suspicions. We might
even publish our suspicions. Let us get something in the papers--I can do
it," and he nodded, decisively, "stating that facts recently brought to
light seemed to prove conclusively that Prince Morrell, once accused of
embezzlement of the bank accounts of the firm of Grimes & Morrell, was
guiltless of that crime. And we will state that the surviving partner of
the firm is convinced that the only person guilty of that embezzlement was
one Allen Chesterton, who was the firm's bookkeeper. How about _that_?
Wouldn't that fill the bill?" asked Mr. Grimes, rubbing his hands
together.

"If we had such an article published in the papers and circulated among
his old friends, wouldn't that satisfy you, my dear? Then you would do no
more of this foolish probing for facts that cannot possibly be
reached--eh? What do you say, Helen Morrell? Isn't that a famous idea?"

But the girl from Sunset Ranch was, for the moment, speechless. For a
second time, it seemed to her, she was being bribed to make no serious
investigation of the evidence connected with her father's old trouble.
Both Uncle Starkweather and this old man seemed to desire to head her
off!

CHAPTER XIX

"JONES"

"Isn't that a famous idea?" demanded Mr. Grimes, for the second time.

"I--I am not so sure, sir," Helen stammered.

"Why, of course it is!" he cried, smiting the desk before him with the
flat of his palm. "Don't you see that your father's name will be cleared
of all doubt? And quite right, too! He never _was_ guilty."

"It makes me quite happy to hear you say so," said the girl, wiping her
eyes. "But how about the bookkeeper?"

"Who--Allen?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, we couldn't find him now. If he kept hidden then, when there was a
hue and cry out for him, what chance would there be of finding him after
seventeen years? Oh, no! Allen can't be found. And, even if he could, I
doubt but the thing is outlawed. I don't know that the authorities would
take it up. And I am pretty sure the creditors of the old firm would
not."

"That is not what I mean," said Helen, softly. "But suppose we accuse this
bookkeeper--_and he is not guilty, either_?"

"Well! Is that any great odds? Nobody knows where he is----"

"But