ry road well into the
lake-enclosing forest when he heard the rattle of wheels and the
hoof-beats of a horse. Presently the vehicle overtook and passed him. It
was Miss Grierson's trap, drawn by the big English trap-horse, with Miss
Grierson herself holding the reins and Raymer lounging comfortably in
the spare seat.

The sight of the pair moved Broffin to speech apostrophic--when the two
were out of earshot. "You're the little lady I'd like to back into a
corner," he muttered. "What you know about this business--and wouldn't
tell, not if you was gettin' the third degree for it--would tie up all
the broken strings in a hurry. How do I know you didn't help him to get
out of St. Louis? How do I know that the whole blame sick play wasn't a
plant from start to finish?" He stopped and struck viciously at a
roadside weed with the switch he had cut. It was a new idea, an idea
with promise; and when he went on, the reflective excursion had become a
journey with a purpose. Chance had been good to him now and then in his
hard-working career: perhaps it would be good to him again. Having let
one woman put a stumbling-block in his way, perhaps it was going to
even things up by making another woman remove it.

Half an hour later Broffin had followed the huge hoof-prints of the
great English trap-horse to the driveway portal of the De Soto grounds
where they were lost on the pebbled carriage approach. Strolling on
through the grounds into the lake-fronting lobby of the Inn, he was soon
able to account for Raymer. The young iron-founder was evidently on
business bent. He was sitting in the lobby with a man whom Broffin
recognized as the master car builder of the Pineboro Railroad, and the
two were discussing mechanical details over a thick file of blue-prints
spread out on Raymer's knees. The smile under Broffin's drooping
mustaches was a grin of instant comprehension. Miss Grierson, driving
Raymer's way, had picked up the iron-founder and brought him along to
the business appointment. It was a way she had--when the candidate for
the spare seat in the trap happened to be young and good-looking.

Having placed Raymer, Broffin went in search of Miss Grierson. He found
her on the broad veranda, alone, and for the moment unoccupied. How to
make the attack so direct and so overwhelming that it could not be
withstood was the only remaining question; and Broffin had answered it
to his own satisfaction, and was advancing through an open Fre