uthven he had been so certain that he had
hitherto discounted any interference from him. Yet, now, the man was
apparently preparing for some sort of interference. What did he want?
Selwyn had contemptuously refused to permit him to seek a divorce on the
ground of his wife's infirmity. What was the man after?

* * * * *

The man was after his divorce, that was what it all meant. His first
check on the long trail came with the stupefying news of Gerald's
runaway marriage to the young girl he was laying his own plans to marry
some day in the future, and at first the news staggered him, leaving him
apparently no immediate incentive for securing his freedom.

But Ruthven instantly began to realise that what he had lost he might
not have lost had he been free to shoulder aside the young fellow who
had forestalled him. The chance had passed--that particular chance. But
he'd never again allow himself to be caught in a position where such a
chance could pass him by because he was not legally free to at least
make the effort to seize it.

Fear in his soul had kept him from blazoning his wife's infirmity to the
world as cause for an action against her; but he remembered Neergard's
impudent cruise with her on the _Niobrara_, and he had temporarily
settled on that as a means to extort revenue, not intending such an
action should ever come to trial. And then he learned that Neergard had
gone to pieces. That was the second check.

Ruthven needed money. He needed it because he meant to put the ocean
between himself and Selwyn before commencing any suit--whatever ground
he might choose for entering such a suit. He required capital on which
to live abroad during the proceedings, if that could be legally
arranged. And meanwhile, preliminary to any plan of campaign, he desired
to know where his wife was and what might he her actual physical and
mental condition.

He had supposed her to be, or to have been, ill--at least erratic and
not to be trusted with her own freedom; therefore he had been quite
prepared to hear from those whom he employed to trace and find her that
she was housed in some institution devoted to the incarceration of such
unfortunates.

But Ruthven was totally unprepared for the report brought him by a
private agency to the effect that Mrs. Ruthven was apparently in perfect
health, living in the country, maintaining a villa and staff of
servants; that she might be seen driving a perf