dollar denomination. He signed for them,
writing your name, excusing an almost illegible signature by the need
of haste and by a finger tied up as though it were badly hurt. So much
for what the cashier of the Merchants' and Citizens' Bank of Reno knows
about it."

"It was Hume?"

"From evidence so far given it might have been Hume or you! All right.
The man with the big roll of bills went out with the train. He might
have gone on to New York; he might have dropped off at Sparks and taken
the next train back in half an hour. He might have got back to
Sacramento the next morning. We find the rather interesting fact that
in Sacramento a man, giving his name as Arnold Wentworth paid to Wells
Fargo and Company the sum of twenty thousand dollars in bills of a
thousand dollars each for an order payable to Helga Strawn in New York.
Now do you see where Helga Strawn comes in?"

Shandon, merely puzzled, shook his head at the bright eyes suddenly
turned upon him.

"Assuming," went on Kinsell, "that it was Hume and not yourself who
made that deposit at the Reno bank, don't you see that as things stand
he has piled up a pretty piece of evidence against you? You might have
done just that thing, deposited the money while the train waited,
became alarmed at something, and gone back for it. I wonder if a
cashier, after two years' time, would remember the features of a
stranger so that he could say whether it was you or Hume? All right.
Next, there's Helga Strawn. If she'd talk, if she'd tell us that she
had a draft of five thousand and a Wells Fargo order for twenty
thousand, that Hume had sent one and had explained that a friend would
send the other, we'd have Mr. Hume in a certain place that men don't
like to think of."

"Make her tell!" cried Shandon.

Kinsell arched his brows.

"She's out here for blackmail, isn't she? Let her understand what
conditions are, and what's a clever woman's clever play? She'd go to
Hume and say, 'Look here, Mr. Hume. I can crook my little finger and
swing you off into space at the end of a rope. Or I can keep still and
you can stand pat.' I fancy she'd do that. And she'd get her Dry
Lands back."

"She can't be as bad as that!"

"Can't she? Wait until you have a talk with Jeanette Compton."

"It all depends upon Helga Strawn, then? There is a deadlock until you
can get her to talk?"

"By no means. I'm just making a sort of unofficial report, you
understand. I wanted y