ying pinochle all
night long with two other down-and-outs like myself, in a cheap hall
bed-room--I, Herbert Armstrong, who used to play for thousands a game,
in the best clubs in Illington! And I never knew that the man who had
brought me to that pass was gasping his life away! Think of it! We
played until dawn, when the extras, cried in the street below, gave us
the news!"

"If you will give me the address of this boarding-house you mention,
and the names of your two friends, I can promise that you will be
under no further espionage, Mr. Armstrong."

"I don't care whether you know it or not, if that's all you want!" The
gaunt man shrugged wearily. "I'm tired of being hounded, and I'm too
weak and too tired to oppose you, even if it did matter."

He gave the required names and addresses, and slouched away, his
animosity gone, and only a dull, miserable lethargy sagging upon his
worn body.

When the outer door of the offices had closed upon him, Henry Blaine
again called up Anita Lawton. This time her voice came to him
sharpened by acute distress.

"I did not recognize the tones of the person's voice, Mr. Blaine, only
I am quite, quite sure that he was not the man in the library with my
father the night of his death. But oh, what did he mean by the
terrible things he said? It could not be that my father brought ruin
and tragedy upon any one, much less drove them to suicide. Won't you
tell me, Mr. Blaine? Ramon won't, although I am convinced he knows all
about it. I must know."

"You shall, Miss Lawton. I think the time has come when you should no
longer be left in the dark. I will tell Mr. Hamilton when he comes to
me this afternoon for the interview we have arranged that you must
know the whole story."

But Ramon Hamilton failed to appear for the promised interview. Henry
Blaine called up his office and his home, but was unable to locate
him. Then Miss Lawton began making anxious inquiries, and finally the
mother of the young lawyer appealed to the detective, but in vain.
Late that night the truth was established beyond peradventure of a
doubt. Ramon Hamilton had disappeared as if the earth had opened and
engulfed him.

CHAPTER X

MARGARET HEFFERMAN'S FAILURE

The disappearance of Ramon Hamilton, coming so soon after the sudden
death of his prospective father-in-law, caused a profound sensation.
In the small hours of the night, before the press had been apprised of
the event and when every probabl