when she had possessed no home of her own--he who had taught
her about the angels and the tenderness of Jesus. From her uncle's
last statement she had received an impression that he knew who had
fired those shots. He could have Lafe released if he would. She would
beg for the cobbler's life, beg as she had never begged before.

"Please, please, listen," she implored, throwing out her hands. "You
must! You must! Lafe's always been so good. Won't you let him live?...
I'll tell him about your wanting the money.... You shall have it! I'll
make any promise for him you want me to, and he'll keep it.... He
didn't kill Maudlin Bates, and I believe you know who did."

Morse lowered his lids until his eyes looked like grey slits across
his face.

"Supposing I do," he taunted. "As I've said, Grandoken knows too much
about me. He won't be the first one I've put out of my way."

He said this emphatically; he would teach her he was not to be
thwarted; that when he desired anything, Heaven and earth,
figuratively speaking, would have to move. He frowned darkly at her as
Jinnie cut in swiftly:

"You killed my father. He told me you did."

Morse flicked an ash from a cigar he had lighted, and his eyes grew
hard, like rocks in a cold, gray dawn.

"So you know all my little indiscretions, eh?" he gritted. "Then don't
you see I can't give you--your liberty?"

Liberty! What did he mean by taking her liberty away? She asked him
with beating heart.

"Just this, my dear child," he advanced mockingly. "There are places
where people're taken care of and--the world thinks them dead. In
fact, your father had a taste of what I can do. Only he happened
to----"

"Did you put him somewhere?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Same kind of a place I'm going to put you----" He hesitated a moment
and ended, "A mad house!"

"Did you let him come home to me?"

"Not I. Damn the careless keepers! He skipped out one day, and I
didn't know until he'd a good start of me. I followed as soon as
possible, but you were gone. Now--now--then, to find _such_ a place
for you!"

Jinnie's imagination called up the loathsome thing he mentioned and
terrified her to numbness. At that moment she understood what her
father had written in that sealed letter to Lafe Grandoken.

But she couldn't allow her mind to dwell upon his threat against
herself.

"What'd you mean when you said I could save my friends?"

"You're fond of Mrs. Grandoken, aren't you?"

Jinnie no