wish to pry into your affairs, and if you don't care to say any more,
I'll understand it perfectly. But I've heard it said that the man who
started the thing was Ellis."

Montague, in his turn, hesitated; then he said, "That is
correct--between you and me."

"Very good," said Harvey, "and that is what made me suspicious. Do you
know anything about Ellis?"

"I didn't," said the other. "I've heard a little since."

"I can fancy so," said Harvey. "And I can tell you that Ellis is mixed
up in life-insurance matters in all sorts of dubious ways. It seems to
me that you have reason to be most careful where you follow him."

Montague sat with his hands clenched and his brows knitted. His
friend's talk had been like a flash of lightning; it revealed huge
menacing forms in the darkness about him. All the structure of his
hopes seemed to be tottering; his case, that he had worked so hard
over--his fifty thousand dollars that he had been so proud of! Could it
be that he had been tricked, and had made a fool of himself?

"How in the world am I to know?" he cried.

"That is more than I can tell," said his friend. "And for that matter,
I'm not sure that you could do anything now. All that I could do was to
warn you what sort of ground you were treading on, so that you could
watch out for yourself in future."

Montague thanked him heartily for that service; and then he went back
to his office, and spent the rest of the day pondering the matter.

What he had heard had made a vast change in things. Before it
everything had seemed simple; and now nothing was clear. He was
overwhelmed with a sense of the utter futility of his efforts; he was
trying to build a house upon quicksands. There was nowhere a solid spot
upon which he could set his foot. There was nowhere any truth--there
were only contending powers who used the phrases of truth for their own
purposes! And now he saw himself as the world saw him,--a party to a
piece of trickery,--a knave like all the rest. He felt that he had been
tripped up at the first step in his career.

The conclusion of the whole matter was that he took an afternoon train
for Albany; and the next morning he talked the matter out with the
Judge. Montague had realized the need of going slowly, for, after all,
he had no definite ground for suspicion; and so, very tactfully and
cautiously he explained, that it had come to his ears that many people
believed there were interested parties behind the su