worth all
this heartache."

Jim sat for a moment thinking. "You don't know what this has done to
me, Bupps. It's not as though divorcing Helen would straighten the
whole matter out. Ever since I've known Helen I've--idolized
her--foolishly, perhaps. She has been the one big thing worth working
for; the thing I've built my whole life around. I've got to fight for
her, Bupps. I can't let her smash my ideals all to pieces. I've got
to make her live up to what I've always believed her to be."

The tone of the man, the dead seriousness of his words, made me want to
disown Helen and then kill Woods. I left the room with my eyes a bit
misty and did my best, in the case I was working on, to forget.

For two days I was kept so busy I hardly saw Jim except when I had to
go into his office for papers, or to consult an authority. I was
trying to win a case against the L. L. & G. railroad, and though I knew
my client could never pay me a decent fee, even if I should win, I was
pitted against some of the best lawyers in the state, and was anxious
for the prestige that a verdict in my favor would give me. The case
was going my way, or seemed to be, but the opposition was fighting
harder every day, so that I had time for little else than food, sleep
and work. Frank Woods had apparently left town, either on business or
to give Helen a clear field to influence Jim. Helen was still at
Mary's, and her presence on a visit there was so natural that it hid
her separation from Jim better than if she had gone home to mother.

I was just leaving for court one morning when Jim called me into his
office. There was a gleam of triumph in his eyes and his whole
attitude was one of cheerful excitement.

"Have you a minute, Bupps?"

"Only a minute, Jim. This is the day of days for me."

There were several letters and telegrams lying on the table. Jim
pointed exultantly to them and cried: "I've got him, Bupps! There is
enough evidence there to send Woods up for twenty years. I wouldn't
have used such underhand methods against any one else, against anything
but a snake, but I had to win, I had to win!"

I rushed to the table and rapidly scanned one of the telegrams.

"You've started at the wrong end, but it doesn't matter. Frank Woods
has used the money entrusted him by the French Government to gamble
with. He counted on the contracts with the International Biplane
people to bring him clean and leave him a comfortable fortune