t random, Mr. Grant. The levying of blackmail connotes
that the person bled desires that some discreditable, or dangerous, fact
should be concealed."

"Such is not my position."

"I--I wonder."

"I can relieve you of any oppressive doubt. I informed the police some
few hours ago that you have appeared already in a similar role."

"Oh, you did, did you?" snarled Ingerman, suddenly abandoning his pose,
and gazing at Grant with a curiously snakelike glint in his black eyes.

"Yes. It interested them, I fancied."

Grant was sure of his man now, and rather relieved that the battle of
wits was turning in his favor.

"So you have begun already to scheme your defense?"

"Hadn't you better go?" was the contemptuous retort.

"You refuse to answer any further questions?"

"I refuse to buy your proffered friendship--whatever that may mean."

"Have I offered to sell it?"

"I gathered as much."

Ingerman rose. He was still master of himself, though his lanky body was
taut with rage. He spoke calmly and with remarkable restraint.

"Go through what I have said, and discover, if you can, the slightest
hint of any suggested condonation of your offenses, whether avowed or
merely suspected. I shall prove beyond dispute that you came between me
and my wife. Don't hug the delusion that your three years' limit will
save you. It will not. I wish you well of your attempt to prove that I
was a consenting party to divorce proceedings. I came here to look you
over. I have done so, and have arrived at a very definite opinion. I,
also, have been interviewed by the police, and any unfavorable views they
may have formed concerning me as the outcome of your ex parte statements
are more than counteracted by the ugly facts of a ghastly murder. You
were here shortly before eleven o'clock last night. My wife was here,
too, and alive. This morning she was found dead, by you. At eleven
o'clock last night I was playing bridge with three city men in my flat.
When the news of the murder reached me to-day my first thought, after the
shock of it had passed, was:--'That fellow, Grant, may be innocently
involved in a terrible crime, and I may figure as the chief witness
against him.' I am not speaking idly, as you will learn to your cost.
Yet, when I come on an errand of mercy, you have the impudence to charge
me with blackmail. You are in for a great awakening. Be sure of that!"

And Isidor G. Ingerman walked out, leaving Grant uncomfortably aware