it isn't so, Mr. Morton--not a word of it! You must
realize that it isn't--that it couldn't be so."

Morton, however, was not convinced by the earnestness of the young man's
repudiation. Instead, he looked his host up and down with a sneering
scrutiny that was infinitely galling.

[Illustration]

"I see," he said harshly, "that you're just like your father before
you. He could always manage to contrive some way by which to accomplish
his ends, without being over-troubled with scruples. Only, he would
never have confided his business secrets to a woman."

Hamilton turned reproachful eyes on his wife.

"Cicily," he cried entreatingly, "I want you to tell Mr. Morton--"

But that resourceful woman interrupted him. Her face showed a shocked
amazement, as she spoke swiftly:

"Charles, do you mean that you want me to--?" She did not finish the
sentence; but the inference was so plain that Morton did not hesitate to
make use of it.

"Trying to make your wife lie for you won't do any good, Hamilton," he
advised, disagreeably.

But, if Hamilton had been perplexed before, he was now suddenly dazed by
the inexplicable conduct of Delancy, who advanced nimbly from the
tea-table, caught Hamilton by the arm, and drew him apart a little. He
spoke hurriedly, in a low voice, but intentionally pitched so that
Morton could overhear.

"It's no good, my boy," he declared, warningly. "You see, the fact of
the matter is, you're caught--caught with the goods on, as the police
say. And, when you're caught with the goods, don't waste time in lying.
It makes a bad business worse, that's all." Having uttered these
extraordinary words of advice to his marveling nephew, the old gentleman
turned jauntily on the seething Morton. "Well, what are you going to do
about it?" he demanded, composedly.

Morton, frantic over the trickery that, as he believed, had been
attempted against him, made no pretense of suavity in this emergency. In
his vindictiveness, he spoke with a candor unusual to him in his
business dealings.

"Do?" he rasped. "I'll show you mighty quick what I'll do! You seem to
forget, Hamilton, that we have a contract with you. You are under
agreement with us to put all your work out for us at eleven cents a
box."

Hamilton would have entered a violent protest against any purpose of
evading his obligations; but Delancy silenced the young man by an
imperative gesture, and took it on himself to reply, bearing in mind
the whispere