ou believe Ryder did this?"

"I have no longer any doubt of it," answered the judge. "I think
John Ryder would see me dead before he would raise a finger to
help me. His answer to my demand for my letters convinced me that
he was the arch plotter."

"What letters do you refer to?" demanded Shirley.

"The letters I wrote to him in regard to my making an investment.
He advised the purchase of certain stock. I wrote him two letters
at the time, which letters if I had them now would go a long way
to clearing me of this charge of bribery, for they plainly showed
that I regarded the transaction as a _bona fide_ investment. Since
this trouble began I wrote to Ryder asking him to return me these
letters so I might use them in my defence. The only reply I got
was an insolent note from his secretary saying that Mr. Ryder had
forgotten all about the transaction, and in any case had not the
letters I referred to."

"Couldn't you compel him to return them?" asked Shirley.

"We could never get at him," interrupted Stott. "The man is
guarded as carefully as the Czar."

"Still," objected Shirley, "it is possible that he may have lost
the letters or even never received them."

"Oh, he has them safe enough," replied Stott. "A man like Ryder
keeps every scrap of paper, with the idea that it may prove useful
some day. The letters are lying somewhere in his desk. Besides,
after the Transcontinental decision he was heard to say that he'd
have Judge Rossmore off the Bench inside of a year."

"And it wasn't a vain boast--he's done it," muttered the judge.

Shirley relapsed into silence. Her brain was in a whirl. It was
true then. This merciless man of money, this ogre of monopolistic
corporations, this human juggernaut had crushed her father merely
because by his honesty he interfered with his shady business
deals! Ah, why had she spared him in her book? She felt now that
she had been too lenient, not bitter enough, not sufficiently
pitiless. Such a man was entitled to no mercy. Yes, it was all
clear enough now. John Burkett Ryder, the head of "the System,"
the plutocrat whose fabulous fortune gave him absolute control
over the entire country, which invested him with a personal power
greater than that of any king, this was the man who now dared
attack the Judiciary, the corner stone of the Constitution, the
one safeguard of the people's liberty. Where would it end? How
long would the nation tolerate being thus ruthlessly trodden un