mphant fire, and she looked straight into his square, rather
massive face. Over Blake she had felt an infinity of regret and pain.
For this man she felt only boundless hatred, and she thrilled with a
vengeful, exultant joy that she was about to unmask him--that later
she might crush him utterly.

"I am at your service," he repeated.

She slowly wet her lips and gathered herself to strike, alert to watch
the effects of her blow.

"I have called, Mr. Bruce," she said with slow distinctness, "to let
you know that I know that a conspiracy is under way to steal the
water-works! And to let you know that I know that you are near its
centre!"

He started.

"What?" he cried.

Her devouring gaze did not lose a change of feature, not so much as
the shifting in the pupil of his eye.

"Oh, I know your plot!" she went on rapidly. "It's every detail! The
first step was to ruin the water-works, so the city would sell and
sell cheap. The first step toward ruining the system was to get my
father out of the way. And so this charge against my father was
trumped up to ruin him. The leader of the whole plot is Mr. Blake; his
right hand man yourself. Oh, I know every detail of your infamous
scheme!"

He stared at her. His lips had slowly parted.

"What--you say that Mr. Blake----"

"Oh, you are trying to play your part of innocence well, but you
cannot deceive me!" she cried with fierce contempt. "Yes, Mr. Blake is
the head of it. I just came from his office. There's not a doubt in
the world of his guilt. He has admitted it. Oh----"

"Admitted it?"

"Yes, admitted it! Oh, it was a fine and easy way to make a
fortune--to dupe the city into selling at a fraction of its value a
business that run privately will pay an immense and ever-growing
profit."

He had stood up and was scratching his bristling hair.

"My God! My God!" he whispered.

She rose.

"And you!" she cried, glaring at him, her voice mounting to a climax
of scorn, "You! Don't walk the room"--he had begun to do so--"but look
me in the face. To think how you have attacked my father, maligned
him, covered him with dishonour! And for what? To help you carry
through a dirty trick to rob the city! Oh, I wish I had the words to
tell you----"

But he had begun again to pace the little room, scratching his head,
his eyes gleaming behind the heavy glasses.

"Listen to me!" she commanded.

"Oh, give me all the hell you want to!" he cried out. "Only don't ask
me to