laid the case on
the table.

But now Burton made no effort to take the case--his eyes, in that
puzzled way again, were on Jimmie Dale.

"A better way?" he repeated tensely. "What do you mean? What way?"

"Well, say at the expense of another man's reputation--of mine,"
suggested Jimmie Dale, with his whimsical smile. "You need only say that
a man came to you this evening, told you that he stole these rubies from
Mr. Maddon during the afternoon, and asked you, as Mr. Maddon's private
secretary, to restore them with his compliments to their owner."

A slow flush of disappointment, deepening to one of anger dyed Burton's
cheeks.

"Are you trying to make a fool of me?" he cried out. "Go to Maddon with
a childish tale like that! There's no man living would believe such a
cock-and-bull story!"

"No?" inquired Jimmie Dale softly. "And yet I am inclined to think there
are a good many--that even Maddon would, hard-headed as he is. You
might say that when the man handed you the case you thought it was some
practical joke being foisted on you, until you opened the case"--Jimmie
Dale pushed it a little farther across the table, and Burton,
mechanically, his eyes still on Jimme Dale, loosened the catch with his
thumb nail--"until you opened the case, saw the rubies, and--"

"The Gray Seal!" Burton had snatched the case toward him, and was
straining his eyes at the inside cover. "You--the Gray Seal!"

"Well?" said Jimmie Dale whimsically.

Motionless, the case held open in his hands, Burton stood there.

"The Gray Seal!" he whispered. Then, with a catch in his voice: "You
mean this? You mean to let me have these back--you mean--you mean all
you've said? For God's sake, don't play with me--the Gray Seal, the most
notorious criminal in the country, to give back a fortune like this!
You--you--"

"Dog with a bad name," said Jimmie Dale, with a wry smile; then, a
little gruffly: "Put it in your pocket!"

Slowly, almost as though he expected the case to be snatched back from
him the next instant, Burton obeyed.

"I don't understand--I CAN'T understand!" he murmured. "They say that
you--and yet I believe you now--you've saved me from a ruined life
to-night. The Gray Seal! If--if every one knew what you had done,
they--"

"But every one won't," Jimmie Dale broke in bluntly, "Who is to tell
them? You? You couldn't very well, when you come to think of it--could
you? Well, who knows, perhaps there have been others like you!"