ue--and I suppose I have rather a gay reputation----"

She uttered a jeering shout.

"Wait!" he said. "I told you I'd cut quite a swathe, when I first
talked to you about myself. Let it go for the present and come
down to this question of Lindley's investment----"

"Yes. That's what I want you to come down to."

"As soon as Lindley paid in his check I gave him his stock
certificates, and cabled the money to be used at once in the
development of the oil-fields----"

"What! That man told me you'd `promoted' a South American rubber
company once, among people of the American colony in Paris. The
details he gave me sounded strangely familiar!"

"You'd as well be patient, Cora. Now, that money has probably been
partially spent, by this time, on tools and labour and----"

"What are you trying to----"

"I'll show you. But first I'd like you to understand that nothing
can be done to me. There's nothing `on' me! I've acted in good
faith, and if the venture in oil is unsuccessful, and the money
lost, I can't be held legally responsible, nor can any one prove
that I am. I could bring forty witnesses from Naples to swear they
have helped to bore the wells. I'm safe as your stubborn friend,
Mr. Trumble, himself. But now then, suppose that old Pryor is
right--as of course he isn't--suppose it, merely for a moment,
because it will aid me to convey something to your mind. If I were
the kind of man he says I am, and, being such a man, had planted
the money out of reach, for my own use, what on earth would induce
me to give it back?"

"I knew it!" she groaned. "I knew you wouldn't!"

"You see," he said quietly, "it would be impossible. We must go on
supposing for a moment: if I had put that money away, I might be
contemplating a departure----"

"You'd better!" she cried fiercely. "He's going to find out
everything you've been doing. He said so. He's heard a rumour that
you were trying to raise money here; he told me so, and said he'd
soon----"

"The better reason for not delaying, perhaps. Cora, see here!" He
moved nearer her. "Wouldn't I need a lot of money if I expected to
have a beautiful lady to care for, and----"

"You idiot!" she screamed. "Do you think I'm going with you?"

He flushed heavily. "Well, aren't you?" He paused, to stare at
her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical laughter.
"I thought," he went on, slowly, "that you would possibly even
insist on that."

"Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!" She stam