wonder at you."

"Read that," he said, drawing from an inside pocket another paper, and
handing it to her.

In the upper right-hand corner was an Australian stamp.

At the end of the first line the letters began to dance before her eyes,
and to crowd into one another. Elizabeth turned to her brother,
wild-eyed.

"Harold, this is false! Tell me it is false!"

"I wish to God it were, Bets. But you must keep your feelings under
better control if you are to help me out of this miserable state of
affairs."

"You know it is false!" she implored. "I shall tell everybody it's a
lie! No one can know him and believe that."

"You must remember that this all happened years ago, before you and I
were born."

"But, his life now! Oh, Harold, you don't believe this! Tell me it isn't
true!"

"I've been almost sweating blood over it since I discovered the truth.
I've tried to find some other explanation or solution, but there is none
other. Father is guilty of the crime for which Adoniah Phillips was made
to suffer. I don't know how they got hold of his true name, for he was
going under an assumed one over there. But they did, and the worst of it
is, the old trader's wife is here in the city right now. She is on
Father's track. I've been staving her off, but she smells a rat in the
fact that I bear his name, and I can't hold her much longer from
locating him."

"No! No! You shall not tell me that Father is a criminal! You must take
back that awful word about him!"

Harold groaned, and settled back into his chair. The girl fell back into
hers, and covered her face with trembling hands. She sprang suddenly to
her feet and to her brother's side.

"Father was never in Australia! He made his money trading in Africa.
We've heard him say that many times, and I believe him. I shall not
believe those papers. They are blackmail."

"Then, I must go on alone. My temptation was to cover this up, but,
Bets, I can't. I had hoped that you'd go through it with me, for it's
going to be a mighty dirty mess to clean up. But if you persist in
believing Father's story instead of mine----"

"I do believe you, too! But can't there be some mistake?"

"If there had been the slightest chance I should have discovered it
before now, but there isn't. It is God's truth. All these years Father
has been safe only because Adoniah Phillips refused years ago to
disclose his identity. It's awful, Sis, but true."

"It's too awful to be true! It seems li