ted."

"But after Overton was convicted, he was not allowed to be punished,
sir."

Santoine's lips straightened in contempt. "He was not allowed to be
punished?"

"Overton didn't actually escape, you know, Mr. Santoine--that is, he
couldn't have escaped without help; Latron was thoroughly frightened
and he wanted it carried through and Overton executed; but some of the
others rebelled against this and saw that Overton got away; but he
never knew he'd been helped. I understand it was evidence of Latron's
insistence on the sentence being carried out that Warden found, after
his first suspicions had been aroused, and that put Warden in a
position to have Latron tried for his life, and made it necessary to
kill Warden."

"Latron is dead, of course, Avery, or fatally wounded?"

"He's dead. Over--Eaton, that is, sir--hit him last night with three
shots."

"As a housebreaker engaged in rifling my safe, Avery."

"Yes, sir. Latron was dying when they took him out of the car last
night. They got him away, though; put him on the boat he'd come on. I
saw them in the woods last night. They'll not destroy the body or make
away with it, sir, at present."

"In other words, you instructed them not to do so until you had found
out whether Overton could be handed over for execution and the facts
regarding Latron kept secret, or whether some other course was
necessary."

The blind man did not wait for any answer to this; he straightened
suddenly, gripping the arms of his chair, and got up. There was more
he wished to ask; in the bitterness he felt at his blindness having
been used to make him an unconscious agent in these things of which
Avery spoke so calmly, he was resolved that no one who had shared
knowingly in them should go unpunished. But now he heard the noise
made by approach of Eaton's captors. He had noted it a minute or more
earlier; he was sure now that it was definitely nearing the house. He
crossed to the window, opened it and stood there listening; the people
outside were coming up the driveway. Santoine went into the hall.

"Where is Miss Santoine?" he inquired.

The servant who waited in the hall told him she had gone out. As
Santoine stood listening, the sounds without became coherent to him.

"They have taken Overton, Avery," he commented. "Of course they have
taken no one else. I shall tell those in charge of him that he is not
the one they are to hold prisoner but that I have another for