I believe it's your boy's first offence, and if I could
let him off I would."

"But you can--you can!" she burst out, rocking on her knees, clinging
tighter still to him, as though in a paroxysm of fear that he might
somehow elude her. "It will kill him--it will kill my boy. And you can
save him! And even if they discharged you, what would that mean against
my boy's life! You wouldn't suffer, your family wouldn't suffer,
I'll--I'll take care of that--perhaps I could raise a little more than
fifteen thousand--but, oh, have pity, have mercy--don't take him away!"

The man stared at her a moment, stared at the white face on the
reclining chair--and passed his hand heavily across his eyes.

"You will! You will!" It came in a great surging cry of joy from the old
lady. "You will--oh, thank God, thank God!--I can see it in your face!"

"I--I guess I'm soft," he said huskily, and stooped and raised Mrs.
Matthews to her feet. "Don't cry any more. It'll be all right--it'll be
all right. I'll--I'll fix it up somehow. I haven't made any arrests yet,
and--well, I'll take my chances. I'll get the plate and turn it over to
you to-morrow, only--only it's got to be destroyed in my presence."

"Yes, yes!" she cried, trying to smile through her tears--and then
she flung her arms around her son's neck again. "And when you come
to-morrow, I'll be ready with the money to do my share, too, and--"

But Sammy Matthews shook his head.

"You're wrong, both of you," he said weakly. "You're a white man,
Kline. But destroying that plate won't save me. The minute a single note
printed from it shows up, they'll know back there in Washington that the
plate was stolen, and--"

"No; you're safe enough there," the other interposed heavily. "Knowing
what was up, you don't think I'd give the gang a chance to get them
into circulation, do you? I got them all when I got the plate. And"--he
smiled a little anxiously--"I'll bring them here to be destroyed with
the plate. It would finish me now, as well as you, if one of them ever
showed up. Say," he said suddenly, with a catch in his breath, "I--I
don't think I know what I'm doing."

Mrs. Matthews reached out her hands to him.

"What can I say to you!" she said brokenly, "What--"

Jimmie Dale drew back along the wall. A little way from the door he
quickened his pace, still moving, however, with extreme caution. They
were still talking behind him as he turned from the corridor into the
passageway le