n have killed
himself? He had lied to me, it is true, but life was always sweet to
him, and it hardly seems to me that he was the sort to die simply
because his falsehood was discovered. Was there some other act of
cruelty--some side to the story of which we are none of us aware? I
wonder."

He was silent a moment.

"Anyhow, I have told you all I know," he said. "Shall I tell it also to
the coroner? Or shall we allow Hayden's suicide to pass as the result of
his implication in this attempt at bribery? I ask your advice, Mr.
Magee."

"My advice," returned Magee, "is that you befuddle no pompous little
village doctor with the complication of this unhappy tale. No, let the
story be that Hayden killed himself as the toils closed in on him--the
toils of the law that punishes the bribe giver--now and then and
occasionally. Mr. Kendrick, you have my deepest sympathy. Is it too much
for me to hope"--he glanced across the room to where Myra Thornhill sat
beside the professor--"that the best of your life is yet to come--that
out of the wreck this man made of it you may yet be happy?"

Kendrick smiled.

"You are very kind," he said. "Twice we have met and battled in the
snow, and I do not hold it against you that both times you were the
victor. Life in a tropic town, Mr. Magee, is not exactly a
muscle-building experience. Once I might have given the whole proceeding
a different turn. Yes, Miss Thornhill has waited for me--all these
years--waited, believing. It is a loyalty of which I can not speak
without--you understand. She knows why I went away--why I stayed away.
She is still ready to marry me. I shall go again into the Suburban
office and try to lift the road from the muck into which it has fallen.
Yes, it is not too much for me to hope--and for you in your
kindness--that a great happiness is still for me."

"Believe me, I'm glad," replied Magee with youthful enthusiasm, holding
out his hand. "I'm sorry I spoiled your little game up here, but--"

"I understand," smiled Kendrick. "I think none the less of you for what
you have done. And who knows? It may turn out to have been the wisest
course after all."

Ah, would it? Mr. Magee walked to the window, pondering on the odd
tangle of events that had not yet been completely straightened out.
Certainly her eyes were an honest blue as well as a beautiful--but who
was she? Where was she? The great figure of Mrs. Norton stirred
restlessly near at hand; the puffed lids of h