shows that he is
not a scoundrel! I think you owe it to me to give me a chance. You have
condemned me unheard."

"I would give almost anything to have you prove your innocence," Griffin
said. "You don't know how it hurt me. But the case against you was so
strong--and is so strong----"

"Let us waste no more time," Prale said. "I remember the details of the
big deal that was under way when I left New York ten years ago. If you
recall, sir, I helped plan the campaign. If I can look at papers in your
office, I think I can show that I am not guilty."

"I'd like to believe you, but this is preposterous!" Griffin cried. "I
tell you the evidence----"

"It probably was strong, because the guilty man wanted to make it so.
Mr. Griffin, were I guilty I should not be here. Please give me a few
minutes, and let us talk this over. Then, if you wish, we can go to your
office and continue the investigation."

Griffin sat down and motioned for Sidney Prale to do the same. Prale
returned the automatic to his pocket, much to the relief of the servant.

Murk, standing outside by the gate, paced back and forth and wondered
whether he should attempt to take the house by storm and rescue his
employer. The chauffeur, waiting at the corner, wondered whether his
fare had slipped down the next street without paying the bill. Murk
relieved him on that point and threatened to beat him up because he
intimated that Prale might do such a thing.

It was more than two hours later when Prale left the house and went out
to the street. He paid the chauffeur and dismissed him, and told Murk to
return to the hotel. Then he went back into the house and joined Mr.
Griffin again, and after Griffin had telephoned several persons, he
ordered his car, got into it with Prale, and started downtown.

An astonished watchman took them up in an elevator in an office building
in the financial district, and a little later he took up several other
gentlemen.

"Them financiers make me sick!" the watchman told himself. "Why can't
they lay their schemes in the daytime?"

It was almost dawn when they left the building and scattered. They had
spent hours investigating books and papers. Sidney Prale had even sent a
messenger to the hotel with an order to Murk for certain books and
papers of his own, and these had been investigated, too.

"And there we are, gentlemen," Prale had said, at the last. "I have
shown you, I think, that I did not do this thing. I do not wan