d her amused and amazed father had not only been
forced to yield, but to keep his eye out all over Europe, Asia and
Africa for new bargains in well bred lions ever since.

It was also typical of Sophie that she had selected from among all the
dashing wooers; at her heels, Walter Trumwell, simple and sedate, who
was horrified by her pranks and shocked by her use of slang, but who
adored her with the devotion of a frightened puppy. Their engagement
had been long announced. It was only in its high-handed abruptness
that the wedding was a surprise.

Pauline dropped the letter on the table and hurried from the room to
look for Harry.

He had head her first call and was coming in from the garage. Pausing
at the door of the library, where he had last seen her, he narrowly
avoided a collision with Owen, who was hurrying out. The look of
covert guilt on the secretary's face aroused his latent suspicion. But
Owen, quickly recovering himself, bowed, apologized and passed on.

Harry stepped into the library. He saw the open letter on the table,
looked at the envelope and saw that, he was included in the address.
He read the letter, and the old look of trouble came into his eyes as
he turned to see if Owen were watching.

As he stepped into the hall he saw the secretary leaving the house. He
stood in the doorway and watched Owen depart in his own machine, driven
by his own chauffeur, a sullen young fellow whom the other employees
held in aversion.

"He's up to something. I wonder what harm he could do at the McCallan
wedding," muttered Harry, as he moved down the steps and out to where
the new gardener was working. The man had been greatly improved as to
cleanliness and clothes, but there was still the strange distant look
in his eyes as he got up from a flower bed to speak to Harry.

Pauline, after circling the house in vain search of her brother, had
returned to her unread letters and her magazine.

As she lifted the latter from the table, the picture of the man in
racing costume again struck her eye, and this time she read the
caption:

"Ralph Palmer, whose skull was fractured in the Vanderbilt Cup Race and
who disappeared from a hospital six weeks ago."

She studied the face again. It seemed the living likeness of one whom
she had seen dead. Suddenly her thoughts crystallized and she sprang
up. She rushed again to the front door, carrying the magazine open and
saw Harry and the gardener talking on the pat