o
postpone our visit? He ran very little risk. The chances were one in a
thousand that any of his few acquaintances in Australia would ever run
across him in New Zealand; and besides, he was chosen because it
seems there was a slight resemblance between him and the real Henry
LaSalle--enough, with his changed mode of living and more elaborate and
pretentious surroundings, to have enabled him to carry through a bluff
had it become necessary. He had all of my uncle's papers; and the Crime
Club furnished him with every detail of our lives here. I forgot to
say, too, that from the moment my uncle was supposed to have reached New
Zealand all his letters were typewritten--an evidence in father's eyes
that his brother had secured a position of some importance; as, indeed,
from apparently unprejudiced sources, they took pains to assure father
was a fact. This left them with only my uncle's signature to forge to
the letters--not a difficult matter for them!

"Believing that they had Travers so deeply implicated that he could do
nothing, even if he had the inclination, which they had not for a moment
imagined, and arrogant in the belief in their own power to put him out
of the way in any case if he proved refractory, they admitted all this
to him that night when he brought up the issue of the real Henry LaSalle
putting in an appearance sooner or later, and when they wanted him to
smooth their path by releasing all documents where his power of attorney
was involved. Do you see now the part they gave Travers to play? It was
to put the stamp of genuineness upon the false Henry LaSalle. Not but
that they were prepared with what would appear to be overwhelmingly
convincing evidence to prove it if it were necessary; but if the man
were accepted by the estate's lawyer there was little chance of any one
else questioning his identity."

She halted again by the table--and forced a smile, as her eyes met
Jimmie Dale's.

"I am almost through, Jimmie. That night was a terrible one for both
of us. Travers' life was not worth a moment's purchase once they found
him--and mine was only under reprieve until sufficient time to obviate
suspicion should have elapsed after father's death. We had no proof that
would stand in any court--even if we should have been given the chance
to adopt that course. And without absolute, irrefutable proof, it was
all so cleverly woven, stretched over so many years, that our charge
must have been held to be too vis