ed
gratefully.

"Telephone!" he ejaculated. "I don't understand."

"Didn't you have one of your men 'phone me? He told me of the will--that
I had inherited Mr. Whitmore's estate."

Luckstone turned his searching eyes on her.

"Mr. Whitmore's will was drawn by one of his other attorneys," he said.
"I never saw it. It was entrusted to Mr. Beard's keeping. It vanished on
the night of his arrest and has not been found."

A shiver ran down the woman's form. The blood seemed to drain from her
face; a new terror gripped her heart.

"I have been fooled," she moaned, "Everything is lost. Money,
honor,--everything! I cannot keep my promise to these men."

"Perhaps you simply mistook the source of the message," ventured the
lawyer cautiously.

Moved by the woman's distress, Britz came forward, the missing will in
his hand.

"Mrs. Collins is right as to the inheritance," he said. "I have the
will. You may read it." He passed the document to the lawyer, who read
it with undisguised satisfaction.

"Yes, Mr. Whitmore has left you the residue of his estate," he affirmed,
addressing the woman. "There will be more than sufficient to meet all
the obligations of the banking house. Having some knowledge of Mr.
Whitmore's holdings, I feel confident in saying the estate will amount
to upward of ten million dollars."

The news did not revive Mrs. Collins's spirits. For days now, every new
expectation had been succeeded by a new disappointment. This woman, who
through all the years of her harrowing married life, had never faltered
in her conduct; who had never wavered in the high standard of her
womanhood; whose actions had ever been inspired by the noblest ideals of
her sex;--this woman had been selected by fate as the victim of its
unrelenting wrath.

The rapid succession of misfortunes which had been visited on her had
made her wary of anything that savored of a more favorable providence.
So she received the confirmation of her inheritance with a self-pitying
stare, as if it must, of necessity, hide some new form of anguish.

"Don't you realize what it means?" Luckstone tried to encourage her. "It
means that the bank is saved. All the depositors will be paid. You are
wealthy again--far wealthier than ever before." Checking himself
suddenly, the lawyer turned toward Britz. "I wonder who telephoned to
Mrs. Collins?" he asked.

"I took the liberty of using your name," said Britz.

The lawyer tried to freeze him with a glance