are, Mrs. Dunlap--you're on the wrong track here, and going the wrong
way."

"Mr. Warrington is--" began Floretta.

"Show him in--quick," demanded Constance, determined to bring the
affair to a show-down on the spot.

As the door swung open, Warrington looked at the group in unfeigned
surprise.

"Mr. Warrington," greeted Constance without giving any of the others a
chance, "this morning, I heard a little conversation up here. Floretta,
will you go into the little room, and on the top shelf you will find a
bottle. Bring it here carefully. I have a sheet of paper, also, which I
am going to show you. I had already seen the little woman, Mr.
Warrington, whom you have treated so unjustly. She was here trying
vainly to win you back by those arts which she thinks must appeal to
you."

Floretta returned with the bottle and placed it on the secretary beside
Constance.

"Some one took some tablets from this bottle and gave them to some one
else who wrote on this paper," she resumed, bending first over the
paper she had torn from the pad. "Ah, a loop with twelve ridges,
another loop, a whorl, a whorl, a loop. The marks on this paper
correspond precisely with those made here just now by--Vera Charmant
herself!"

"You get out of here--quick," snarled Drummond, placing himself between
the now furious Vera and Constance.

"One minute," replied Constance calmly. "I am sure Mr. Warrington is a
gentleman, if you are not. Perhaps I have no finger prints to
correspond with those on the bottle. If not, I am sure that we can send
for some one whose prints will do so."

She was studying the bottle.

"The other, however," she said slowly to conceal her own surprise, "was
a person who has been set to trail you and Stella, Mr. Warrington, a
detective named Drummond!"

Suddenly the truth flashed over her. Drummond was not employed by Mrs.
Warrington at all. Then by whom? By the directors. And the rest of
these people? Grafters who were using Stella to bait the hook. Braden
had gone over to them, had aided in plunging Warrington into the wild
life until he could no longer play the business game as before.
Charmant was his confederate, Drummond his witness.

"Stella," said Constance, turning suddenly to the little actress,
"Stella, they are using you, 'Diamond Jack' and Vera, using you to lead
him on, playing the game of the minority of the directors of the
Syndicate to get him out. There is to be a meeting of the directors
to-nig