made to direct the
finger of accusation against him. One man there was in whose heart
bitterness and rancor could be aroused against the merchant's secretary.

Beset by financial difficulties, deserted by the girl to whom he was
engaged, Lester Ward would be an easy prey to the acute mind and
provoking methods of the experienced detective. If jealousy can inspire
hatred, then Ward must feel toward his successful rival all the
ferocious hatred of a man resenting a great deprivation. And that
vengeful passion must not be permitted to expend itself in profitless
inward torture. It was a potent force for Britz's dexterous hands to
manipulate, a destructive fury that should annihilate Beard--if Beard
was the slayer of Herbert Whitmore.

CHAPTER XII

Like one inspired by a great purpose, Britz moved with the human current
down Broadway. It pleased him to think that he had converted Miss
Burden's confiding love into an instrument of justice; that by its means
he would establish ere another hour had sped, the innocence or the guilt
of Beard. What her own feelings in the matter might be, did not concern
him. He might deplore the necessity of causing an innocent woman to
suffer; but if it were necessary for the accomplishment of his
end--well, law and order are exacting taskmasters and cannot pause to
consider the injured feelings of individuals!

Britz turned into Wall street, possessed by a sense of elation, like a
man about to reach out for a long-coveted prize. Through the knowledge
gleaned that morning in the Tombs, he would render Lester Ward pliant to
his will; would extract from his unsuspecting lips the truth concerning
Whitmore's death.

In front of a huge office building the detective halted, permitting his
eyes to linger a moment on a brass door-plate that bore the simple
device--Ward & Co.

Britz was aware that the firm was one of the oldest in the district,
having been established by Ward's grandfather. It did a brokerage and
private banking business, and while not one of the largest houses of its
kind, it bore an enviable reputation for conservatism and fairness
toward its customers.

The front door of the firm's office led into the corridor of the
building, its street frontage consisting of a huge plate-glass window,
above the half-drawn shade of which, one obtained an indistinct glimpse
of wooden partitions and frosted panes. Outwardly the office presented
the same conservative appearance as its