cannot."

Wickersham looked at him with level eyes.

"You will do it, or I will sell you out," he said coldly.

"You cannot. You promised to carry that stock for me till I could pay up
the margins."

"Write me that letter, or I will turn you out of your pulpit. You know
what will happen if I tell what I know of you."

The other man's face turned white.

"You would not be so base."

Wickersham rose and buttoned up his coat.

"It will be in the papers day after to-morrow."

"Wait," gasped Rimmon. "I will see what I can say." He poured a drink
out of the decanter, and gulped it down. Then he seized a pen and a
sheet of paper and began to write. He wrote with care.

"Will this do?" he asked tremulously.

"Yes."

"You promise not to use it unless you have to?"

"Yes."

"And to carry the stock for me till it reacts and lets me out?"

"I will make no more promises."

"But you did promise--," began Mr. Rimmon.

Wickersham put the letter in his pocket, and taking up his hat, walked
out without a word. But his eyes glinted with a curious light.

CHAPTER XXVIII

ALICE LANCASTER FINDS PHRONY

Mr. Rimmon was calling at Mrs. Lancaster's a few days after his
interview with Keith and the day following the interview with
Wickersham. Mr. Rimmon called at Mrs. Lancaster's quite frequently of
late. They had known each other a long time, almost ever since Mr.
Rimmon had been an acolyte at his uncle Dr. Little's church, when the
stout young man had first discovered the slim, straight figure and
pretty face, with its blue eyes and rosy mouth, in one of the best pews,
with a richly dressed lady beside her. He had soon learned that this was
Miss Alice Yorke, the only daughter of one of the wealthiest men in
town. Miss Alice was then very devout: just at the age and stage when
she bent particularly low on all the occasions when such bowing is held
seemly. And the mind of the young man was not unnaturally affected by
her devoutness.

Since then Mr. Rimmon had never quite banished her from his mind,
except, of course, during the brief interval when she had been a wife.
When she became a widow she resumed her place with renewed power. And of
late Mr. Rimmon had begun to have hope.

Now Mr. Rimmon was far from easy in his mind. He knew something of
Keith's attention to Mrs. Lancaster; but it had never occurred to him
until lately that he might be successful. Wickersham he had feared at
times; but Wickersham's habits