d got together and determined to make you pay!

"They told the story to others, and they began gathering information
about you. You were making your million, all right, on the foundation
that had wrecked a score of fortunes and lives--on treason instead of
superior financial ability--and they swore that you should pay.

"They knew my father's story, of course, and knew that we had very
little money. So they provided for him, and gave me funds and sent me to
Honduras to spy upon you. Marie, my maid since girlhood, who worshiped
my father and knew all the circumstances, went with me. Soon after I
reached Honduras, I found that you were selling out with the intention
of returning to New York and enjoying your million.

"I communicated with the others and told them all I knew of your plans,
whereupon they made some plans of their own. They won the sympathy of
the most influential men in the city. They determined to make you pay!

"That is why the big trust company would not accept your account. A
whisper in the ear of the hotel manager by the president of the company
that owned the hotel, and you were as good as ordered out. Can you
understand now, Sidney Prale? Coadley, the lawyer, was told that he will
be made a nobody by the influential men of the town unless he ceased to
work for you, and he dropped your case.

"But there was to be no violence, and because they have descended to
that, I have ceased to be interested in the affair. I know nothing about
the Shepley murder case or any trouble it may have caused you. That is
quite another matter. Now that I have told my story, I hope that you are
satisfied. It has shown you, I trust, that I know all, and that any
falsehood you may utter will have no effect on me."

"I do not intend uttering a falsehood, Miss Gilbert," Sidney Prale
assured her. "What you have said has amazed and shocked me. So that is
why I was treated so badly upon returning to my home?"

"Exactly," she said.

"Now listen to me one moment, I beg of you. There is some mystery here,
and though it is ten years old, I shall solve it. Miss Gilbert--whether
you believe me or not--I am not guilty of such treachery. I had no
dealings with the financial wolves. When I left the United States I took
with me the ten thousand dollars I had saved--nothing more. And I left
nothing behind."

"You made a million in ten years with a capital of ten thousand?" she
asked, with a slight sneer.

"I did, Miss Gilbert! I