I find you on the street about here, I'll arrest you and
send you down for blackmail and stealing. Now do you understand?"

The man turned and silently shuffled away, his face working and a glint
in his bleared eye.

* * * * *

An evening or two later Dave Dennison reported to Keith that he had
found Phrony. Dave's face was black with hate, and his voice was tense
with suppressed feeling.

"How did you find her?" inquired Keith.

"Shadowed the preacher. Knew he and that man had been confabbin'. She's
clean gone," he added. "They've destroyed her. She didn't know me." His
face worked, and an ominous fire burned in his eyes.

"We must get her home."

"She can't go. You'd never know her. We'll have to put her in an
asylum."

Something in his voice made Keith look at him. He met his gaze.

"They're getting ready to do it--that man and the preacher. But I don't
mean 'em to have anything more to do with her. They've done their worst.
Now let 'em keep away from her."

Keith nodded his acquiescence.

That evening Keith went to see a doctor he knew, and next day, through
his intervention, Phrony was removed to the private ward of an asylum,
where she was made as comfortable as possible.

It was evident that she had not much longer to stay. But God had been
merciful to her. She babbled of her baby and her happiness at seeing it
soon. And a small, strongly built man with grave eyes sat by her in the
ambulance, and told her stories of it with a fertility of invention that
amazed the doctor who had her in charge.

When Mr. Rimmon's agents called next day to make the preliminary
arrangements for carrying out his agreement with Wickersham, they found
the room empty. The woman who had charge of the house had been duly
"fixed" by Dave, and she told a story sufficiently plausible to pass
muster. The sick woman had disappeared at night and had gone she did not
know where. She was afraid she might have made away with herself, as she
was out of her head. This was verified, and this was the story that went
back to Mr. Rimmon and finally to Ferdy Wickersham. A little later the
body of a woman was found in the river, and though there was nothing to
identify her, it was stated in one of the papers that there was good
ground for believing that she was the demented woman whose disappearance
had been reported the week before.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE

One day after Phrony was