it within the year--I charged him with living by fraud. He
laughed in my face and admitted it. When I threatened to call in the
police, he merely shrugged his shoulders and asked what I thought of a
flaming headline in the press:

'BROTHER OF SENATOR GRELL HELD FOR BIG FRAUDS.'

"I could see it all just as he painted it. My political career was very
dear to me just then. Such a thing would have killed it. I knew if I
exposed him he was capable of carrying out his threat. However, I told
him to get out of the place before I threw him out of the window. He
could see I was losing my temper and took a little pistol from his
pocket--a Derringer.

"'I have a number of letters which you sent to a lady in Vienna,' he
said. 'I know many newspapers which would offer me a good price for
'em.'

"I think it was perhaps fortunate for me that he held the pistol--or I
might have done something I should afterwards have regretted. He flung a
letter face upwards on the table. It was one of those I had written to
Lola Rachael. If he had the rest of the correspondence--and he swore
that he had--it would have been deadly in the hands of an unscrupulous
political opponent. As you know, electioneering in the States is rather
different from what it is here. I was fool enough to pay him money on
his promise to suppress them. He would not sell them outright.

"That was the beginning. After that I never had a secure moment unless I
was away on an exploring expedition. The moment I reappeared in
civilisation my brother would seek me out. He was cunning enough to
press me only to the verge of endurance. He could judge exactly how much
I would stand. At last, however, I resolved not to yield another penny
to his extortions. I cut loose from all my affairs in the United States
and came to England. I thought I could fight him when I had reduced the
stakes. I found after all that I had increased them, for I met
Eileen--Lady Eileen Meredith."

He paused. Neither of his two hearers said anything. An injudicious
remark might break the thread of his thoughts.

"When I became engaged to her," Grell resumed, "I knew that it would not
be long before Goldenburg would see his chance. I set to work to find
Lola, and discovered her as the Princess Petrovska. Then for the first
time I learned that she had married Goldenburg--but she admitted that
any affection she held for him had long since faded. They had parted a
few weeks after the marriage--which