verything----"

But Katherine had torn open an envelope and was holding in her hands a
fifty dollar check from the Acme Filter Company.

"What was the date of your arrest?" she asked sharply. "The date Mr.
Marcy gave you that money?"

"The fifteenth of May."

"This check is dated the twelfth of May. The envelope shows it was
received in Westville on the thirteenth."

"Well, what of that?"

"Only this," said Katherine slowly, and with a chill at her heart,
"that the prosecution can charge, and we cannot disprove the charge,
that the real donation was already in your possession at the time you
accepted what you say you believed was the donation."

Then, with a rush, a great temptation assailed Katherine--to destroy
this piece of evidence unfavourable to her father which she held in
her hands. For several moments the struggle continued fiercely. But
she had made a vow with herself when she had entered law that she was
going to keep free from the trickery and dishonourable practices so
common in her profession. She was going to be an honest lawyer, or be
no lawyer at all. And so, at length, she laid the check before her
father.

"Just indorse it, and we'll send it in to the hospital," she said.

Afterward it occurred to her that to have destroyed the check would at
the best have helped but little, for the prosecution, if it so
desired, could introduce witnesses to prove that the donation had been
sent. Suspicion of having destroyed or suppressed the check would then
inevitably have rested upon her father.

This discovery of the check was a heavy blow, but Katherine went
doggedly back to the first beginnings; and as the weeks crept slowly
by she continued without remission her desperate search for a clue
which, followed up, would make clear to every one that the whole
affair was merely a mistake. But the only development of the summer
which bore at all upon the case--and that bearing seemed to Katherine
indirect--was that, since early June, the service of the water-works
had steadily been deteriorating. There was frequently a shortage in
the supply, and the filtering plant, the direct cause of Doctor West's
disgrace, had proved so complete a failure that its use had been
discontinued. The water was often murky and unpleasant to the taste.
Moreover, all kinds of other faults began to develop in the plant. The
city complained loudly of the quality of the water and the failure of
the system. It was like one of thes