ilty."

"Thank you, Miss Gilbert. I assure you that I am not. It is an
unfortunate affair, which we hope to have cleared up within a short
time."

"I hope that you will be free soon," she said. "And then you will be
able to enjoy yourself, I suppose."

"I hope to have my vacation yet," Prale said.

"You are going to remain in New York?"

"Certainly; it is my home."

"Sometimes a man does better away from home."

"But I have been away from home for ten years. I have made my pile, as
the saying is, and have come home to show off and lord it over my
neighbors," Prale replied, laughing.

They had reached the lower end of Central Park now, and the taxi turned
into a driveway, and made its way around the curves toward the upper
end. The chauffeur was busy nodding to others of his craft and paying no
attention to his fares. Sweethearts, he supposed, talking silly nothings
as they were driven through the Park. The chauffeur was used to such; he
hauled many of them.

Kate Gilbert leaned a bit closer to Prale, and when she spoke it was in
a low, tense voice.

"Go away from New York, Mr. Prale!"

"Why should I do that?" he asked.

"It would be better for you, I feel sure."

"Because of the absurd charge against me? I intend to have my innocence
proved, and I'd hate to run away and let people think that perhaps I was
guilty after all."

"You have the right to prove your innocence of such a charge to all the
world," she said. "But, after you have done it conclusively, you should
go away."

"Why?" he asked, again.

"Because--you have enemies, Mr. Prale!"

"I have discovered that; but I do not know why I should have enemies."

"Perhaps you did something, some time, to create them."

"But I haven't," Prale declared.

"Retribution comes when we least expect it, Mr. Prale."

"Yes. I believe that you wrote that in one of your notes."

He had said it! And Jim Farland had told him not to let her suspect that
they knew. Well, he couldn't help it now.

Kate Gilbert gasped and sat back from him.

"In my note?" she said.

"The notes interested me greatly, Miss Gilbert. I have saved them. But
why should you send them to me?"

"You can ask me that!" she exclaimed. "So you know that I wrote them, do
you? In that case, Mr. Prale, you know why I spoke of retribution, you
probably know my identity and intentions, and you know why you have
enemies!"

"But I do not!" he protested.

"Please do not attempt to tell a