dison."

"Yes. I knew that," Mr. Benjamin remarked quietly. "I found that out
very soon, of course. Author, and all that sort of thing, isn't he?
Well, go on, Miss Thurwell, please. I am anxious."

She looked surprised.

"Don't you see that this does away with our theory at once? It is quite
impossible that a man like Bernard Maddison could have committed a
horrible crime like this."

Mr. Benjamin looked ingenuously perplexed.

"I can't say that I follow you, Miss Thurwell," he said, shaking his
head. "All I know is that I can prove this Mr. Bernard Brown, or Bernard
Maddison, or whatever else he chooses to call himself, guilty of that
murder. That's what we want, isn't it?"

A cold chill passed over her, and she was compelled to sink into the
chair which stood by her side. Like a flash she suddenly realized the
impossibility of convincing such men as these of his innocence. Yet,
even then, the worst side of the situation did not occur to her.

"Perhaps we had better put it in this way, Mr. Levy," she said. "I gave
you certain instructions to follow out, which I now rescind. I wish
nothing further done in the matter."

Mr. Benjamin's face was a study. He had contrived to conjure up an
expression which combined the blankest surprise with the keenest
disappointment. Helen began to feel still more uncomfortable.

"Under the circumstances," she said, "and as you seem rather
disappointed, I will pay you the reward just as though the thing had
gone on."

Mr. Benjamin shook his head slowly.

"Do you know, Miss Thurwell, that you are proposing a conspiracy to me?"

"A conspiracy!" she repeated. "I don't understand."

"It's very simple," he went on gravely. "I have in my possession, or
shortly shall have, every particular of this Mr. Maddison's life. I can
show the connection between him and Sir Geoffrey Kynaston, and, in
short, I can prove him guilty of murder. What you ask me to do is to
suppress this. That is the moral side of the question. Then, with regard
to the practical side, if this thing is gone on with, we shall get the
reward you promised and, what is far more important to us, a reputation
which we have looked forward to as a certain foundation for a great
extension of our business. If, on the other hand, we drop it, we get
simply the reward, which, pardon my saying so, would be a miserable
return for all our labor. That is how the matter stands from our point
of view. I think I've expressed it fairly