s not beginning. Even then the business
sickened me. What did I care about the money he stole from her? I did not
want her money. What did I care if the boy suspected you had not stolen
it, but that Jason had it all the time? I couldn't have killed him,
because he had some slight glimmerings of sense."

A dozen dim suspicions clashed suddenly together into fact. I looked
sharply at my father. He was nodding, with some faint suspicion of
amusement.

"And so you did not," he said gently. "Your scruples do you credit,
after all."

"It was just as well," said Mr. Lawton. "I thought the news your son was
attacked would fetch you over. Jason did his best to hush it up, but I
knew you would suspect. And you know what it would have meant to me if I
could have sent you back to France."

And yet, for some reason, my father was strangely ill at ease. Like
someone detected in a falsehood, he looked restlessly about him. For the
moment his adroitness seemed to have left him. He made a helpless little
gesture of annoyance.

"You say you have stopped?" inquired my father. "Then why not do so,
Lawton, and stop talking. Do you think what you say interests me? Do you
think I do not know the whole damnable business, without your raking it
up again? Why should Jason have wished to be rid of me except for her
money? Why should you have helped him, except--At least it was not for
money, Lawton."

But Mr. Lawton did not heed my father's voice. His glance had come to
rest again upon the locket on the table, and the hard lines about his
mouth had vanished.

"And she never spoke to me, never looked at me again," he said.

My father started and looked at him quickly.

"Lawton," groaned my uncle, "are you out of your mind?"

Mr. Lawton turned sharp around and faced him with a scowl.

"I told you," he said harshly. "I told you to get me the paper, and I
told you what would happen if you did not, and it is happening already,
Jason. I am going to tell the story."

My uncle moved convulsively to his feet, and his voice was sharp and
malignant.

"Do you suppose anyone will believe you?" he cried. "Do you fancy they
will take your word against mine?"

"We will try it," said Mr. Lawton. "There are still people who wonder
why Shelton stooped to the thing you accused him of. We certainly
will try it."

"And if you do," said my uncle, "I will show it was she who did it--that
it was she who urged him on. I'll tell them! D'you hear me? I'l