inding you here. I was afraid something like this might
happen. I hope you haven't communicated anything to these men."

"Oh, what's the good of remaining silent any longer?" asked Collins
surlily.

"What's the good!" repeated the lawyer with a rising inflection. "Do you
wish to spoil everything? Do you want to condemn yourself?"

"What!" shouted Collins, now beside himself with rage. "Condemn myself!
What do you mean?"

"I mean that if you say a single word, I shall withdraw as your counsel
and permit the law to take its course."

"Then you're trying to intimate that I killed Whitmore!" Collins took a
step forward, a look of horrified amazement on his face. "So there's a
conspiracy now to shift it on to me--eh! Now that I've been robbed and
left penniless--"

"You're not penniless," interjected the lawyer. "Your money is intact."

Collins's eyes expanded into an expression of incredulous wonder.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded savagely. "Are you trying to
fool me? My money's in Ward's bank--"

"And every creditor will be paid in full," interrupted the lawyer.

"Who's going to pay them?" sneered Collins.

"Your wife."

A loud peal of ironic laughter burst from Collins's lips. But Luckstone
silenced the sarcastic merriment with the remark,--

"She has inherited Mr. Whitmore's estate and announced her determination
to repay every dollar of her brother's obligations. This police
officer,"--he pointed a contemptuous finger toward Britz--"will confirm
what I say."

It required no confirmation to convince Collins of something which he
was only too eager to believe. And the knowledge instantly repaired his
shattered nerves. Before the intrusion of the lawyer, Collins, made
dizzy by the multiplicity of incriminating circumstances so adroitly
unfolded by the detective, overcome by the rapidity of Britz's blows,
was an abject creature ready to surrender his soul. All the enchantment
had suddenly passed out of his life, for, to one of his disposition, a
liberal income is as necessary as water to a parched plant. Deprived of
his fortune, existence wasn't worth while. But with the certainty that
his money would be restored to him, life regained all its roseate tints.
As the future outlook cleared and he saw that he could return to his
indolent mode of living, a sudden reaction took place within him,
filling him with a sullen aversion for the detective who had so nearly
beguiled him into committing an irre