e is no use getting
melodramatic about it. I've taken a lot of insolence from you, and I'm
prepared to teach you a lesson."

"And I am always willing to learn, my dear Starr. It's up to you." He
bowed formally, and, turning on his heel, left the room.

For a time Wiley communed with himself. The worm had turned, with a
vengeance, and the maneuver was beyond his comprehension. In spite of
his declaration anent a bluff, he was not prepared to push the matter
of the check to the end he had threatened. A scandal was farthest from
his desire and other considerations were involved; his matrimonial
ambitions not the least of them, if he antagonized the Halstead family.
Then, too, what could have been back of Vernon's sudden independence?
Was it an idle bluff, or had the young scamp managed in some way to
protect himself?

The conclusion of his cogitations led him to the telephone and a half
hour later found him confronting Mason North in the latter's home, much
as Willa had done on the previous night.

"Sorry to have disturbed you, Mr. North, but this is a strictly
confidential matter, and rather urgent. I have your assurance that it
will go no farther?"

"Certainly!" Mason North was suspiciously affable. "Take a seat and
try one of these cigars. They're made especially for me in Porto Rico
and I know you to be a connoisseur. You were saying----?"

"I have a check in my possession signed presumably by you." Wiley
chose his words with evident care. "It was made payable to bearer and
of course I do not know whether it changed hands or not before reaching
me. I wish to insinuate nothing, but I should like your assurance that
the signature is genuine before depositing it."

"You have it with you?" the attorney asked crisply.

Wiley nodded, and, taking an oblong slip of paper from his bill-case,
he presented it for the older man's inspection.

"Um! Four thousand dollars, eh? The signature looks all right to me,
but I don't quite recall making it out. I have my old stubs here in
the desk, and if you will wait I'll look it up."

Secure in the outcome, Wiley was more than willing to wait. He sat
with a half smile on his face, puffing at his fragrant cigar and
formulating his next move, when the storm should break.

But the other's voice cut short his pleasant reflections and the words
themselves brought him up standing.

"Yes. Here we are! I gave that check to young Halstead. It is quite
correct; 'f