hey plead for a postponement on the ground that they needed more time
in which to prepare their defense. If that plea were denied, then
before them seemed certain conviction. On that plea, then, they
decided to place all their hope.

When this matter had been talked out Doctor West took the _Clarion_
from the table and again read the editorial with troubled face, while
Katherine walked to and fro across the floor, her mind all on the
trial.

"If the town does sell, it will be too bad!" he sighed.

"I suppose so," said Katherine mechanically.

"It has reached me that people are saying that the system isn't worth
anything like what we paid for it."

"Is that so?" she asked absently.

Doctor West drew himself up and his faded cheeks flushed indignantly.

"No, it is not so. I don't know what's wrong, but it's the very best
system of its size in the Middle West!"

She paused.

"Forgive me--I wasn't paying any attention to what I was saying. I'm
sure it is."

She resumed her pacing.

"But if they sell out to some company," Doctor West continued, "the
company will probably get it for a third, or less, of what it is
actually worth."

"So, if some corporation has been secretly wanting to buy it,"
commented Katherine, "things could not have worked out better for the
corporation if they had been planned."

She came to a sudden pause, and stood gazing at her father, her lips
slowly parting.

"It could not have worked out better for the corporation if it had
been planned," she repeated.

"No," said Doctor West.

She picked up the _Clarion_, quickly read the editorial, and laid the
paper aside.

"Father!" Her voice was a low, startled cry.

"Yes?"

She moved slowly toward him, in her face a breathless look, and caught
his shoulders with tense hands.

"_Perhaps it was planned!_"

"What?"

Her voice rang out more loudly:

"_Perhaps it was planned!_"

"But Katherine--what do you mean?"

"Let me think. Let me think." She began feverishly to pace the room.
"Oh, why did I not think of this before!" she cried to herself. "I
thought of graft--political corruption--everything else. But it never
occurred to me that there might be a plan, a subtle, deep-laid plan,
to steal the water-works!"

Doctor West watched her rather dazedly as she went up and down the
floor, her brows knit, her lips moving in self-communion. Her
connection with the Municipal League in New York had given her an
intimate knowledge of t