papers and letters.

"Is that you, Bagley? What's that? General Dodge? Get rid of him.
I can't see him to-day. Tell him to come to-morrow. What's that?
My son wants to see me? Tell him to come to the phone."

At that instant Shirley gave a little cry, which in vain she tried
to suppress. Ryder looked up.

"What's the matter?" he demanded startled.

"Nothing--nothing!" she replied in a hoarse whisper. "I pricked
myself with a pin. Don't mind me."

She had just come across her father's missing letters, which had
got mixed up, evidently without Ryder's knowledge, in the mass of
papers he had handed her. Prepared as she was to find the letters
somewhere in the house, she never dreamed that fate would put them
so easily and so quickly into her hands; the suddenness of their
appearance and the sight of her father's familiar signature
affected her almost like a shock. Now she had them, she must not
let them go again; yet how could she keep them unobserved? Could
she conceal them? Would he miss them? She tried to slip them in
her bosom while Ryder was busy at the 'phone, but he suddenly
glanced in her direction and caught her eye. She still held the
letters in her hand, which shook from nervousness, but he noticed
nothing and went on speaking through the 'phone:

"Hallo, Jefferson, boy! You want to see me. Can you wait till I'm
through? I've got a lady here. Going away? Nonsense! Determined,
eh? Well, I can't keep you here if you've made up your mind. You
want to say good-bye. Come up in about five minutes and I'll
introduce you to a very interesting person,"

He laughed and hung up the receiver. Shirley was all unstrung,
trying to overcome the emotion which her discovery had caused her,
and in a strangely altered voice, the result of the nervous strain
she was under, she said:

"You want me to come here?"

She looked up from the letters she was reading across to Ryder,
who was standing watching her on the other side of the desk. He
caught her glance and, leaning over to take some manuscript, he
said:

"Yes, I don't want these papers to get--"

His eye suddenly rested on the letters she was holding. He stopped
short, and reaching forward he tried to snatch them from her.

"What have you got there?" he exclaimed.

He took the letters and she made no resistance. It would be folly
to force the issue now, she thought. Another opportunity would
present itself. Ryder locked the letters up very carefully in the
draw