ief-makers get hold of it. You have your future,
which means your professional reputation, to think of. In all human
probability my poor brother can't last very long, and this may handicap
you for years. I cannot----"

"Damn my professional reputation! Can't you believe your ears?"
Geoffrey broke in.

"I'm not blind yet, and would sooner trust my eyes," was the dry
answer. "Nobody shall persuade me that I don't know my own brother's
figures. There are limits, Geoffrey, and neither Helen nor I would
hold our peace about this."

"Listen to me!" Geoffrey's face was as hard as flint. "I see I can't
bluff you as easily as the Government man, but I give you fair warning
that if you attempt to make use of your suspicions I'll find means of
checkmating you. Just supposing you're not mistaken, a young man with
any grit in him could live down a dozen similar blunders, and, if he
couldn't, what is my confounded personal credit in comparison with what
your brother has done for me and my promise to Miss Savine? So far as
I can accomplish it, Julius Savine shall honorably wind up a successful
career, and if you either reopen the subject or tell his daughter about
the drawing, there will be war between you and me. That is the last
word I have to say."

"I wonder if Helen knows the grit there is in that man," pondered
Savine, when, seeing all protests were useless, he turned away, divided
between compunction and gratitude. Neither he nor the lawyer succeeded
in finding out how the drawing fell into hostile hands, while, if
Geoffrey had his suspicions, he decided that it might be better not to
follow them up.

CHAPTER XIX

THE ABDUCTION OF BLACK CHRISTY

These were weighty reasons why Christy Black, whose comrades reversed
his name and called him Black Christy instead, remained in Thurston's
camp as long as he did. Although a good mechanic, he was by no means
fond of manual labor, and he had discovered that profitable occupations
were open to an enterprising and not over-scrupulous man. On the
memorable night when Thurston fished him out of the river, his rescuer
had made it plain that he must earn the liberal wages that were
promised to him. As a matter of fact, Black had made the most of his
opportunities, and in doing so had brought himself under the ban of the
law during an altercation over a disputed mineral claim.

Black, who then called himself by another name, disappeared before an
inquiry as to h