nnie nodded.

"Only she isn't Miss Murdaugh at all, according to Starr Wiley. He's
dug up proof that the real Willa Murdaugh died and she is just a
trapper's daughter from the wilds somewhere, whom that gambler adopted
in order to bilk the estate later. The governor told me all about it,
he was so wrought up he couldn't keep it to himself."

"Not Willa Murdaugh!" repeated Thode in stunned accents. "And Starr
Wiley brought forward the proof? You'd better tell me all about it,
Win, now that you've started."

Nothing loth, Winnie complied and the other heard him through in
silence, until he told of Willa's disappearance the morning after the
revelation, and the little note she had left behind her.

"I swear I thought the governor would spill over when he read it to
me," Winnie concluded. "It was sort of fine for her to go away like
that. I don't care who she really is, she's the most wonderful girl I
know. She wouldn't even sign herself 'Murdaugh' after they questioned
her right; she used the name of the gambler chap who'd been so good to
her."

"How did she learn it?" Thode asked quickly. "He was known only as
'Gentleman Geoff' in Limasito. I'm certain she herself never heard the
name there."

"It was signed to the adoption agreement he and the trapper, Hillery,
made out when he took her in place of the real Willa. The governor
showed me the paper and there it was in black and white: Geoff
Abercrombie."

"Abercrombie!" Kearn Thode seized the other's arm in a convulsive grip
which made the steering-wheel jerk. "You're sure--you're sure of the
name, Win?"

"Dead sure! I'll get the governor to show you the document if you
like. But why the excitement? You nearly landed us up against that
rock, then."

"Never mind the rock!" exclaimed Thode. "I'm going to take you up on
that; I'd give a good bit to see that paper and the signature."

"I'll fix it." Winnie shot a quick glance at his companion. "I say,
you don't think it's phony, do you? The governor says it is absolutely
the straight goods."

"It isn't that," Thode hastened to explain cautiously. "But I knew
Gentleman Geoff personally, you know. It isn't etiquette to ask a man
for more of a name than he chooses to give below the border, but I had
a hazy idea of Gentleman Geoff's identity and the name in my mind was
not Abercrombie. It was just a suspicion of my own and I had nothing
to substantiate it, but the old chap interested me and I'v