usiness. Mr. Banks was until recently president of the
Banks & Reddon Iron Works. Last year, you doubtless know, the plant was
sold to the great combine and the old company passed out of existence.
This act was the result of a demand from England that the trust under
which he served be closed and struck from the records. It was his plan
to settle the matter, turn the inheritance over to me according to law,
and then impose upon my inexperience for all time to come. The money,
while mine literally, was to be his in point of possession.

"But he had reckoned without the son of his partner. Tom Reddon in some
way learned the secret, and he was compelled to admit the young man into
all of his plans. This came about some three years ago, while I was in
school. I had known Tom Reddon in Chicago. He won my love. I cannot deny
it, although I despise him to-day more deeply than I ever expect to hate
again. He was even more despicable than my stepfather. Without the
faintest touch of pity, he set about to obliterate every chance Rosalie
could have had for restitution. Time began to prove to me that he was
not the man I thought him to be. His nature revealed itself; and I found
I could not marry him. Besides, my mother was beginning to repent. She
awoke from her stupor of indifference and strove in every way to
circumvent the plot of the two conspirators, so far as I was concerned.
The strain told on her at last, and we went to California soon after my
ridiculous flight from Tinkletown last winter. It was not until after
that adventure that I began to see deep into the wretched soul of Tom
Reddon.

"Then came the most villainous part of the whole conspiracy. Reddon,
knowing full well that exposure was possible at any time, urged my
stepfather to have you kidnaped and hurried off to some part of the
world where you could never be found. Even Reddon did not have the
courage to kill you. Neither had the heart to commit actual murder. It
was while we were at Colonel Randall's place that the abduction took
place, you remember. Mr. Banks and Tom Reddon had engaged their men in
New York. These desperadoes came to Boggs City while Tom was here to
watch their operations. All the time Mr. Crow was chasing us down
Reddon was laughing in his sleeve, for he knew what was to happen during
the marshal's absence. You know how successfully he managed the job. It
was my stepfather's fault that it did not succeed.

"My mother, down in New York, dr