very of the money, I had glanced, as usual, through the
financial column of the _Sun_ as I rode home on the car, and one item
had attracted my attention. The brokerage firm of Swift & Currer had
that day presented at the sub-treasury the sum of one hundred thousand
dollars in currency for conversion into gold. An inquiry at their
office next morning elicited the fact that the exchange had been
effected for the account of Miss Frances Holladay. It was done, of
course, that the recipient of the money might remain beyond trace of
the police.

CHAPTER IX

I Meet Monsieur Martigny

Our regular work at the office just at that time happened to be
unusually heavy and trying. The Brown injunction suit, while not
greatly attracting public attention, involved points of such nicety
and affected interests so widespread, that the whole bar of New York
was watching it. The Hurd substitution case was more spectacular, and
appealed to the press with peculiar force, since one of the principal
victims had been the eldest son of Preston McLandberg, the veteran
managing editor of the _Record_, and the bringing of the suit impugned
the honor of his family--but it is still too fresh in the public mind
to need recapitulation here, even were it connected with this story.
The incessant strain told upon both our partners and even upon me, so
that I returned to my rooms after dinner one evening determined to go
early to bed. But I had scarcely donned my house-coat, settled in my
chair, and got my pipe to going, when there came a tap at the door.

"Come in," I called, thinking it was Mrs. Fitch, my landlady, and too
weary to get up.

But it was not Mrs. Fitch's pale countenance, with its crown of gray
hair, which appeared in the doorway; it was a rotund and exceedingly
florid visage.

"You will pardon me, sir," began a resonant voice, which I instantly
remembered, even before the short, square figure stepped over the
threshold into the full light, "but I have just discovered that I have
no match with which to ignite my gas. If I might from you borrow
one----"

"Help yourself," I said, and held out to him my case, which was lying
on the table at my elbow.

"You are very good," he said, and then, as he stepped forward and saw
me more distinctly, he uttered a little exclamation of surprise. "Ah,
it is Mistair----"

"Lester," I added, seeing that he hesitated.

"It is a great pleasure," he was saying, as he took the matches; "a
g