ow everything. They know of the forged will, the false
certificate of death, and Winthrop has confirmed the knowledge.
Fortunately, I have secured the more important document I hastened to
his room while they were yet talking, opened his desk, and carried away
the will. As to the certificate, the Laytons and the detective had set
off for Meisner the moment after reaching Bregenz, to establish its
forged character."

"Who cares for that?" said she, carelessly. "It is a trifling offence.
Where is the other,--the will?"

"I have it here," said he, pointing to his breast-pocket

"Let us make a bonfire, then," said she, "for I, too, have some
inconvenient records to get rid of. I thought of keeping them as
memories, but I suspect I shall need no reminders."

While Trover tore the forged will in pieces, she did the like by the
letters, and, a match being applied to the fragments, the flames rose
up, and in a few seconds the blackened remnants were carried away by the
winds, and lost.

"So, then, Mr. Trover," said she, at length, "Norfolk Island has been
defrauded of your society for this time. By the way, papa, is not this
Dr. Layton your friend as well as mine?"

"Yes, Loo, he is the man of ozone and vulcanized zinc, and I don't know
what else. I hoped he had died ere this."

"No, papa, they don't die. If you remark, you 'll see that the people
whose mission it is to torment are wonderfully long-lived, and if I were
an assurance agent, I 'd take far more account of men's tempers than
their gout tendencies and dropsies. Was there any allusion to papa, Mr.
Trover?"

"Yes; old Layton seems to have a warrant, or something of the kind,
against him, on a grave charge, but I had no mind to hear what."

"So that, I suppose," said she, laughing, "I am the only 'innocent'
in the company; for _you_ know, Mr. Trover, that I forged nothing,
falsified nothing; I was betrayed, by my natural simplicity of
character, into believing that a fortune was left me. I never dreamed
that Mr. Trover was a villain."

"I don't know how you take it so easily. We have escaped transportation,
it is true, but we have not escaped public shame and exposure," said
Trover, peevishly.

"She's right, though, Trover,--she's right One never gets in the true
frame of mind to meet difficulties till one is able to laugh a little at
them."

"Not to mention," added she, "that there is a ludicrous side in all
troubles. I wonder how poor dear Mr. Winthrop