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Show doorway, blowing hiui gooa mgnt; nnu that, though my brother had eeemed not quite himself, yet he was able to take care of himself. lie denied any knowledge of the blow. But it was proved that ho had threatened my brother; and it was thought that lie might have emptied my brother's poeket3 only to make it appear that tho murder was tho work of coma common thief. So the coroner held him for trial." "I remember the case now," put in tho inspector. '"The case was pushed against him vigorously, but it broke down r.t last for want of conclusive evidence, and Dupee was discharged, as you say, after having been kept in jail for a year. Well, I must say. Miss Kolen, that the YemoTea ws own cmer reason lor iiumig him." "I understand; but" "Very well. Having no longer any especial reason for revenging himself upon Percy, and probably not believing, on sober second thought, that he h.ul committed tho crime, ho would begin to ask himself how the public trial vvouid affect liis wife and himself. And the first thing ho would see would be that it would iuvolvo letting out the whole story of the flirtation. Now, if his wife' had persisted in her folly, instead of net-, ing the part of a virtuous cur, as she did, he might have been willing to have her shown up; but as it was, he would desire to hush it up as securely as possible. There was only one way to do that, and that was" "Ah! I see. Tho plaintiff would decline de-cline to prosecute?" "Exactly, and that (as I have t!i: lv:.: reason for knowing) is just what l.e ::: done.. His counsel are instructed I withdraw the charge; and of course, under the circumstances, the judge would allow him to do so. But when they see that the prisoner is not on hand, it may cause them to modify this rourse. They might profess themselves ready to go on with the case, and as the prisoner is absent judgment would issue agaiivjt him." "It is that result that I hoped to avoid. It would be a sad thing for an honorable family to be dragged through tho dust in this way for a crime for which tho accused ac-cused is not responsible." - "He should have had tho manliness to face his accusers," repeated tho inspector. inspec-tor. "No one knows better than jou, judge, that in this world a man must defend de-fend himself. He cannot expect other ivnnlA tn find nT-riisns for him. Hut as nuvujg read thus tar, tno inspector laid down tho paper, and stroked his chin awhilo with a meditative air. "So the young man is drowned, is he?' he said, at length. "The account seeni3 to look that way." "Do you mean there can bo any doubt about it?" exclaimed the judge. "I don't say there is; and as a matter of course, judge, I recognize the sincerity of your attitude. Still, if I were interested inter-ested in the boy, I should think twice before I accepted this news as conclusive. conclu-sive. Have you heard anything" personally?" person-ally?" "Nothing. This is all we know, so far." -well, you are aware that people reported re-ported drowned at sea sometimes have a way uf coming to life again. The sea is a big place, and it's diflicult to be suro what becomes of a man in a heavy storm when everything's as black as pitch. Then again, young Nolen, you must admit, ad-mit, might find it convenient to have it supposed he was permanently out of the way. He could start in under a new name, with very little fear of ever being interfered with. When this affair has blown over or been cleared up, he might come back and all would be right again. 1 don't say that is what has happened; I only say it might be so. And, considering consider-ing that Mr. Martin was a friend of the family, it seems a little odd that he shouldn't have sent a letter giving a full account of the affair. He must have known what a value the mother and Bister would have put upon it." "1 hope with all my heart your theory may be the true one," said tho judge. "But 1 fear the report is correct," he added, after a paused. "There can be no doubt abottt the hurricane, nor that Pn.,, ..,00 ll.o of", ,,,,.,,- Tl, IVflQ u0u umiii you were mistaken, mis-taken, end would refuse to convict; in fact, I don't Wiiiik you could persuado any judge on the bench to (jrant you a warrant." "I wasn't thinking of putting it ou that ground," Pauline replied, coloring a little. "But when I have convinced myself my-self that I know tho man, I would find evidence against him that would convince con-vince the world too. Only let me know him first, and the rest would bo easy." "Well, all I can say is, I hope you'll find him." "I should not have come here to wasto your time merely by telling you this," she continued, looking up at him firmlj. "I wish to tell you something that may indicate who he is, and then you will be able, perhaps, to help me find out where he is and what his record is. I don't suppose you know that Percy was not my only brother?" The detective intimated that he did not. "My other brother's name was Jerrold. He died a few years ago. They had reason rea-son to think that his death was hastened by foul means. The man whom he accused ac-cused of it was tried; the case was appealed ap-pealed several times, but at last, after having been confined for over a year, the accused was acquitted. He said that he would be revenged upon vis. Why may he not have taken this way to be revenged?" re-venged?" The inspector began to be interested. "What was his name?" he asked. "His name was Horace Dupee. Ho was a medical student." "Tell me the circumstances. I may recollect something of it." "When my brother Jerrold left college FROM THIS DIARY OF INSPECTOR r.VKNKi By JULIAN HAWTHORNE, Author of "The Great Bank Robbery," "An Americaa Penman," Etc. (Copyright by O. SL Dunham, and published, through spftciaj arrangement by the American Press Association with C&sseii & Co., New York fcud London.) Snd ourselves high uud dry, ill the port f.e were bound for, and within a dozen lods of the very wharf we should have lain up tol This is a queer world!" "What place do you say this is?" inquired in-quired one of the passengers, drawing near. "This is St. Thomas, sir what there is left of it and no other place in the world. Oh, is that you, Mr. Martin? I'm glad to see you safe and sound; 1 expect ex-pect a good half of us will never speak again. Where is your friend, sir?" "I don't know," replied the other; "I have been looking for him. I haven't seen him since the wind first stopped blow ing out at sea." "It was that big wave that came aboard us, most likely," said the quartermaster, quar-termaster, gloomily. "That carried off the captain and many a good man -with him. You may sail the seas till you're an old man, sir, and never see the like of that storm again." But his interlocutor had moved away, and was beginning a search through the ship in the forlorn hope of finding at least the body of his friend. CHAPTER XIII. TO AWAIT CONFIRMATION. Sill HE day appointed appoint-ed for P 1 c y ' s trial was a week after ho left New York. During this period I119 mother and sister and Judge Ke-telle Ke-telle were the only on-ly persons w n o knew of his es-cape. es-cape. On the morning of the trial the judge dropped into I11- I say, he. may live it down; he is a young fellow yet, and" "Have you seen this morning's paper?" interposed the judge. "I have looked through it. Is there anything particular?" The judge held out the paper, with his finger on a certain paragraph. Tho in-pector in-pector took it and read as follows: "A terrible hurricane is reported as having occurred in the neighborhood of St. Thomas, W. I., on the 18th tilt. It is described as the severest ever known in those latitudes. It was preceded in the morning by a dead calm and exces-sivo exces-sivo heat. Early in tho afternoon weathe'rwise persons predicted a heavy blow. The prophecy was soon verified. "Clouds were observed collecting in the southwest; they rapidly increasd in size and darkness, and advanced toward the northeast, from which quarter a gentle breeze was blowing. The storm burst with terrific fury. The harbor of St. Thomas is a large basin, tho entrance to which is a comparatively narrow passage pas-sage between two headlands. The harbor har-bor was at the time filled w ith shipping, iucluding several steamers and large vessels. ves-sels. One of the steamers was at tho time taking on passengers; flie captain gave orders that this should be stopped, and steamed out of the harbor in tho hopo of weathering the gale. The steamer has not since been heard of, but fragments of it have been picked up at sea, and there is no doubt that she perished with all on board. The storui was accompanied accompa-nied by intense darknes3, greater than that of ordinary midnight without moon or stars. The wind's velocity was estimated esti-mated to reach no les3 than two hundred miles an hour, and tho destruction it caused was terrible. "After blowing for a couple of hours from the southwest it hauled about and blew with equal violence from tho northeast. north-east. All the shipping in the harbor was destroyed, and several vessels were lifted out of the water and carried inland. One large merchant ship was taken up bodily and planted in the midst of a warehouse near tho shore. The houses of the town were unroofed and in most cases annihilated. Upwards of four no necessity of inventing a report of his death; he would be as safe in Mexico or New Zealand as at the bottom of the Atlantic. No, I'm afraid the poor boy is gone. And, as I was saying just now, I trust that no steps will be taken today to blacken his memory. The cause of justice would not be vindicated, and it would add a terrible pang to his mother's moth-er's and sister's grief. Some consideration considera-tion should be shown to them." "Well, let us go down to tho court room," said the inspector, rising and taking his hat. "I don't supposo any one wants to trample on a dead man not even the woman ho was in love with." This surmise proved partly correct. On the case being called, counsel for the plaintiff submitted that their client was disposed to abandon the prosecution. The court asked where the prisoner was, and the report of his death w as put in. The court observed that the prisoner appeared ap-peared to have intended forfeiting his bail, and was of opinion that the evidence evi-dence of death was insufficient. But as the plaintiff wished to withdraw, and there was only a moderate presumption of guilt, the case would be adjourned pending confirmation of the report of death, when the question of estreating the bail would be decided. CHAPTER XIV. A POWERFUL ALLY. EVERAL days, l after this event, U J "10 inspector wa vffi fi mfrme "13t a R lady desired to see V5 5 him' He 8 a v e ViS ' orders that she be S S admitted, and a JFiy, ( young woman I dressed in mourn- rA ing entered the jf'C. ' t-tf room. She was rJ; f pale and hand- some, with pow- ll erful dark eyes tfit .vvgf The inspector rose jt&JJ a"d placed a chair r for her. She sat gan the study of medicine here in New York. He attended lectures and went to the hospitals. He was fond of fun and a favorite with his fellow students, and I suppose he was rather imprudent in his habits. He was good natured and excitable excit-able and the others led him on. "The way the end came was this: There was a supper given to one of the students who had got through his course. He was the Horace Dupee I spoke of. He was a clever man, I believe. I never saw him, and he and Jerrold were great friends. There w ere ten or twelve other young men at the supper. They drank a good deal of wine and became noisy and excited. They began to play practical practi-cal jokes on one another. At last Horace Hor-ace Dupee got up to make a speech. Sly brother, w ho sat near him, kept interrupting inter-rupting him with jokes and laughing. He got angry finally Dupee did and made some threat or said some insulting thing. My brother instantly threw a glass of wine in his face, glass and all. "Dupee rushed at him and struck him with his fist. They began to fight; but my brother was the stronger, and he struck Dupee in the face, so that he fell over a chair. Then the others separated them; and my brother, after a moment, forgot his anger, and wanted to make friends with Dupee again, but Dupee would not for a while, but the others urged him, until at last ho laughed and came and shook hands with my brother, and pretended that he was quite reconciled; recon-ciled; but he said afterwards to one of the young men that he 'would be even with Nolen yet.' "They had been on the point of breaking break-ing up, but after this they got to driuk-ing driuk-ing and talking again; and Dupee came and sat down by my brother, and kept filling his glass for him, but only pretending pre-tending to drink himself, until my brother got quite intoxicated and acted foolishly. It was then after midnight, and the young men began to go home, and Dupee said he would see my brother to his lodgings. My father and mother and myself were not in New York just theq; we had gone down to a southern watering place on account of my mother being delicate, and Jerrold was staying office, with a newspaper in his hand and a very grave face. "I want to call something to your recollection, rec-ollection, inspector," said he; "something "some-thing of importance to me, though you may have forgotten it." "Oh, you mean young Percy Nolen's case, don't you?" returned the chief of detectives. "I remember; ho wa3 accused ac-cused of a robbery in a jewelry storo and you went bail for him in fifteen hundred dollars. Yes, the trial comes on today." "You have a good memory. Well, you are perhaps not aware that Percy left New York on the day following the examination and never returned." "Yes, judge, I happen to be aware of that, tool You see, we anticipated there might be some difficulty of the kind, and so we put a man on to watch him. Mr. Nolen spent that night at Mr. Martin's rooms on Fifth avenue. Tho next morning, morn-ing, somo one whom our man took to be ilartin walked out and went up town. Au hour or two later, Martin himself came out. Instead of following him our man made the mistake of going up stairs to see whether Nolen was in the roomo. In that way they both got off. We did everything in our power to stop them, but it was too late. I sincerely hoped he would think better of it, and come back. I am sorry for you, but there it is!" "As regards myself, I'm not a loser. I don't mind telling you that, a few hours after his escape, I received by letter the amount of tho bail; ifc came, I have rt 1- sua 10 ueiiee, uoiu jj.urun. iiu revcy s outstanding bills were also paid, probably proba-bly by the same band. Of course, Percy shoul i hare stood his trial, and had I bad any inkling of wbat he intended 1 should have used every means to prevent bis departure. de-parture. But at any rate lie left no debts bebind bim." "Ho made tbe mistake of bis life," said the inspector, emphatically. "As the reason why will be known in a few tours, I may as well tell you now. la the first place the evidence against bira was not conclusive, and, taking everything every-thing into consideration, the chances are that he would have been acquitted. His looks and manner and bi3 previous record rec-ord and social standing were in his favor, though it is true that he had beea making a fool of himself hero and there, as boys sometimes will. But a fellow like that is not likely to steal a lady's pocket book in face of the absolute certainty cer-tainty of being suspected of it. The game wasn't worth the candle." 1 "I quite agree with you," replied the judge; "still there was a possibility that the verdict might go against him; and you can understand that a conviction would be A; good a3 death to him." "Even then, if we were innocent, the j guilty party would be sure to turn up sooner or later and he would be vindicated. vindi-cated. I could make a guess, even now, as to who the thief really is; but be has not committed himself yet, and as the money stolen was in bank notes of course it is moro difficult to trace than jewels or any kind of personal property would i be. But that is not the point I was going to make. If be had appeared in court today ho would have been a free man ! ever after." "How can you know that?" "In this way. You have heard ail about that affair of bis with the wife of the plaintiff. No actual harm had been done, but she was compromised and her husband had heard of it; they had had some words about it probably; and when he found Nolen in such an awkward predicament, pre-dicament, lie naturally was not going to j lose the opportunity of jumping on bim. j So he pressed the charge, as we saw. But his wife did what be bad not antici-' antici-' pated she joined him in the accusation, and thereby ranged herself definitely on his side. Of course that took the wind out of his sails; it proved that she hated Percy as much as ho did, and therefore nunureu uvea were reported lost, ana tho harbor was full of corpses, which were devoured by tho sharks. One of the most remarkable episodes of this disastrous dis-astrous storm was that of the U. S. and B. Co.'s steamship Amazon. Sho va3 due at St. Thomas on tho day after that on which the hurricane occurred. She had cleared from New York with six passengers and a full cargo. Sho bad fair weather up to within two bundled miles of St. Thomas, and was somewhat some-what ahead of her schedule time. According Ac-cording to tha narration of tho survivors, surviv-ors, she met the hurr icane about : o'clock on the afternoon of the 13th. She was put about so as to run before tho gale. The wind and waves almost immediately dismasted her, and it was found impossible impos-sible to do more than keep her before the wind, even this taxing all the powers of those on board. At ono time she was pooped by a heavy sea which broke into the forecastle and swept many overboax d. "When tho wind veered about the steamer became virtually unmanageable; 6he drove beforo the gale, and it was expected ex-pected that sho must founder. But after several hours she was suddenly beached; and on the storm breaking it was discovered dis-covered that she was lying in the main street of St. Thomas, close to her own dock. In tbe darkness she must bavo been driven tlirough the narrow entrance of the harbor, mid so across to the tijwn, avoiding by a miracle numberless obstacles. ob-stacles. She is, however, a complete wreck, and half her ship's company were swept overboard and drowned, while many of the others have received severe injuries. Of the six passengers who were on board the following are killed: Alfred Harper, went insane and washed overboard; over-board; Charle3 Tupper, neck broken; James Blair, washed overboard; Percy Nolen, washed overboard. The surviving sur-viving passengers nro Herbert Simpson Simp-son and Valentine Martin. Mr. Ma: '.in occupied tbe same state room with 1L Nolan, and is much affected by his death. He says he saw bim shortly before the time when the steamer was pooped; he was on his way to tho forecastle, under the impression, it is supposed, that thero was greater security there than in the 6tern. "Mr. Martin left for Vera Cruz yesterday. yester-day. It is his intention to return by way of Aspiuwall to hi3 sheep farm iu New Zealand, near Napier. " aown, regarding mm witu great mieni-ness, mieni-ness, as if endeavoring to satisfy herself what manner of man he was. "Can. I be of any assistance to you, madam?" the detective inquired. "I hope you may," was her reply, "for I don't know where to look for help, unless un-less to you. You were officially cognizant, cogni-zant, were you not, of the caso of Mr. Percy Nolen, who was accused of a robbery rob-bery a few weeks ago?" The inspector inclined his head. "It came to my knowledge in the ordinary routine," he said. "It has been adjourned, ad-journed, as you are probably aware, and the chances are that it will not soon be heard of again." "Percy Nolen was my brother," she resumed. "He was lost at sea." Her lips trembled, but she recovered herself the inspector noted that she 6eemed to possess unusual self command and went on. "My mother and I are the only ones of the family left alive; and my mother is an invalid. My brother died with a shadow upon his name, and I consider it my duty to remove it. I am sure that It can be done; and I am ready to make any effort or sacrifice to do it. Nothing would bo a sacrifice that would accomplish accom-plish that result." "I'm afraid you will find it no easy matter, Miss Nolen. Speaking as a professional pro-fessional man, I must say that the prospect pros-pect is not a hopeful one." "I don't expect it to be easy; but I am determined to succeed, and I mean to give all my life and energy to it," said she, in the same quiet tone which she had used from the first, but with immense im-mense underlying earnestness. "Of course, I know nothing about the ways of finding out criminals, and I don't think that, in an ordinary matter, I 6hould make a good detective; but this is a thing I care so much about that it's different. I believe that if tho man who stole that money was to pass me on tho street I should feel that it was he." The inspector dropped his pencil and stooped to pick it up. Tho notion of identifying criminals by emotional intuition intu-ition was not without its humorous side; but he did not wish his smile to be seen; and by the time he had recovered his pencil he had recovered his gravity likewise, like-wise, "Even if you were able to recog- J niza him in that way, Miss Nolen," ho j remarked, "there would be no evidence I in that to fasten the crime upon hhn. in furnished rooms in a boarding bouse. "He and Dupee started off together after leaving the others. My brother could walk, but he was not lit to tako care of himself. The boarding house was on West Twenty-third street, somo way down. The door had a covered porch to it and was nearly on a level with the sidewalk. It was a winter night, but there was no snow on the ground. "It was not quite 1 o'clock iu the morning morn-ing when they left the restaurant to-'gether. to-'gether. At 2 o'clock the policeman whose beat was on that part of Twenty-third street saw some ono lying in the porch of the boarding house. He examined and found that he was in evening dress, with an overcoat on; be was insensible and his pockets were empty. There did not seem to bo any mark of violence on him. The policeman thought be was insensible in-sensible from drink. He knocked up the psople in tlie house, and when he found that my brother lived there helped to take him up to his room. But thero was a physician living in the house, and ho came and looked at my brother and saw there was something wrong. AT last he found a bruise on his head, behind be-hind the ear, made with some blunt instrument, in-strument, for the skin was not cut, but it had produced concussion of tha brain. Towards dawn ho partly recovered consciousness, con-sciousness, and when be was asked about his injuries he mumbled something about Dupee; but they could not get anything definite from bim. A telegram was sent to us at Old Point Comfort, where wo were stopping. My mother was too id to move; I stayed with her, and my father went on at once, but he arrived too late. My brother" Her voice faltered, and she broke off. The story had been told with entire simplicity, sim-plicity, but with intense vividness and earnestness. The scenes which sho described de-scribed seemed to be before her as she spoke, and the emotion which 6he had striven to repress broke forth at last in a few quick sobs. She soon controlled herself and added, "My father had an inquest held; the young men who had been present at the supper wero called upon to testify, and they told of the quarrel and tho apparent reconciliation, and it was shown that Horace Dupee was tho last person seen with my brother. In his examination Dupee said that he i :-'. iiiicu mi jiuuio And left him in his doubt as to iiis guilt is a reasonable one; and supposing liiiu to Lave been innocent, inno-cent, he has certainly received hard treatment; treat-ment; for such an accusation as that, though not proved, is enough to ruin a man's career." 'I do not believe ho was innocent. Inspector In-spector Byrnes! I am ure that he was guilty, and, having escaped punishment for that, he means to do us more injury still. No an innocent man would not have been ruined by an uuju.-i accusation! accusa-tion! It would have stimulated iiini to prove by his after life that he had been wronged." "Do you know what his subsequent life has been?" inquired the inspector. "I have heard enough to know that it Jias been what I should have expected it to be. He has associated with low and dishonest people; he lias gone under different dif-ferent names, and it is probable that he may have been arrested more than once for other crimes. I have always felt that lie was our enemy, and have expected that something like this would happen. I am the only one of us left to fight him. Inspector Byrnes. He killed my eldest brother; he was the means of bringing about the disgrace and death of Percy; my father died of disappointment and grief; my mother is a broken dow n invalid. in-valid. But I am strong and well, and I am determined to bring him to justice! "Will you help me?" Iler eyes darkened and her cheeks flushed as she put the question. The inspector, in-spector, though he could not but perceive per-ceive that the chances were against the correctness of her theory, was touched by her earnestness. "In what way would you expect me to assist you?" he inquired. "You can communicate with the police po-lice in all parts of the country," she answered, an-swered, "and you know, or can find out, the history of all the criminals who have ljeen arrested in New York and in many other places. What I ask you to do is to trace the record of Horace Pupee f rom the time he left tho jail on the termination termina-tion of his trial till now. Find out his associates, and make them give evidence against him; learn what his aliases have been, and whether lie was not in Now York on the day that Mrs. Tuustall lost lier money. If he was and I am sure ; f aase of water iiie advantages of a bay. i hey were also a charm and attraction in theniselws; for they were constantly undergoing the most surprising changes under tlu' ii'lUtence of the mirage; and, being within an eay sail, were often vi.-iU'd for picnicking purposes by the sojourners in the cottages. Baskets of provisions wire carried over, and tho materials for a clambake or a chowder were always obtainable from the sands iuid the sea. The time not occupied in cooking and eating could bo devoted to 1 picking huckleberries, practicing with the riile or shotgun, or. if the age and circumstances of the members of the party pcrmiifd. in quiet flirtations along tho beaches or in the woods. Tho sail home was made by the red light of sunset sun-set or by the white luster of the moon. The winter and spring had passed away without any news having been obtained ob-tained concerning Horace Dupee; if he had really been in New York at the time of the perpetration of the robbery he had entirely disappeared. The only thing to be done was to wait patiently until he came back again, keeping a bright but undemonstrative lookout for him in the meanwhile. As Inspector Byrnes had the matter in charge, it was not necessary neces-sary that ranline should remain in New York; she could be comifiunicaled with at tiny time, and it might even hasten the result she desired if she were known to be out of the city. Accordingly, as summer sum-mer approached, and her mother's health manifestly demanded a change, preparations prepara-tions were made to go down to Squittig Point. Judge Ketelle, for reasons which the reader will perhaps comprehend, arranged ar-ranged to accompany them. He had not as yet made any avowal to Pauline of the nature of his sentiments towards her, but he had leen assiduous in his attentions; atten-tions; and only the greatness of the prize at stake withheld him from putting his fate to the touch at once. They arrived about tho middle of June. Tho cottage had previously been put in order for their reception; curtains unpacked un-packed and put tip; mattings spread on the floors; hammocks swung in the verandas; ve-randas; Venetian blinds fastened over tho windows. The catboat had been routed out of her winter quarters in the j ivoukl have been a much happier man. Dn the other hand, Paulino was quite ible to veil her feelings; and no young tvoman of healthy mind can be expected to show whaA emotion may be in her, r even to acknowledge it to herself, until she has been fairly challenged. At length, having become quite accustomed accus-tomed to the management of the boat, they decided to make t lie tripto the island. The lunch ba ;ket was packed and stowed amidships: fish lines and hooks were placed in the locker, in case they should L-ome across a school of bluefish: cushions cush-ions and wraps were provided for Mrs. Nolen, and extra ballast was put into the liold, in order to keep her steady in case Ihe wind should increase. An early start was made, for the breeze was so light as scarcely to rulHo the water, and set nearly in a direction opposite to that which they wished to go. In order to get out of the little cove it was necessary to use the oars; but after that the wind gently swelled the sail, and, proceeding by long tacks, they slowly made their way toward tho island that seemed to quiver and waver in the heat on the horizon. ho-rizon. About 11 o'clock tho breeze freshened a little, and the boat slipped more swiftly, but still w ith an even, gliding motion, through the water. The judge, who fancied ho detected signs of blue-(ish, blue-(ish, now relinquished the helm to Pauline, Pau-line, and got out his lines. The squid was thrown out astern, and cut a tiny wake through the waves, while the judge, with his finger on the line, watched watch-ed it like a hawk. For an hour, in spite f several false alarms, nothing was caught, but finally there was an unmistakable unmis-takable tug, and, hauling in witli feverish fever-ish rapidity, the judge, in a few moments, mo-ments, had the pleasure of lifting on board a fine largo demijohn, tightly corked, which had been hooked by tho handle. After the laugh had subsided tho judge suggested that the demijohn might contain con-tain something, and he knocked off the head against the gunwale of tho boat. About a pint of salt water came out and then a fragment of wood apparently part of the lid of a cigar box, on which something had been written with a pen-nil pen-nil Tl ivn'tinit t.-ia nlmnst r,l .1 Uni", tn.l 1 It, and, indeed, the distance was proba- bly not beyond her powers. She glanced at him at that juncture, and could not ; have failed to notice thosudden faltering of his expression from its previous joy -I ful expectation; she hesitated, and then, I with a faint blush, held out her arms. , saying: "After all, perhaps you had better bet-ter take me." Tho judge could not speak; the revulsion revul-sion was too sudden. She had never before be-fore done anything which seemed so significant, sig-nificant, and as he received her on his sturdy shoulder he experienced a happiness happi-ness more poignant than he bad ever known. . The action lasted but for an instant, in-stant, but the effect was by no means so transient; on the contrary, it kept glowing glow-ing and increasing in his soul, and quite illuminated his whole aspect. Pauline, too, was in an unusual mood; 6he seemed softer and more accessible than was usual with her. The tears which she had lately shed had brought all the woman in her to the surface. There were tones in her voice that thrilled to the judge's heart like exquisite music. The memory of her brother had done her lover good service. A spot was selected under the shade of a cedar, with clean white sand underneath. under-neath. Here Mrs. Nolan was established with her cushions, and the cloth was spread for lunch. The basket was unpacked, un-packed, the plates and knives and forks arranged, and the good things set out. They had brought a jug of water, but it had become so warm as to be unpalatable; unpalat-able; so the judge proposed that they should go and find a spring; there was sure to be one not far off. Pauline assented and they started, leaving Mrs. Nolan beneath the cedar. 'I did not know whether to be glad or sorry that I was the means of bringing that strange message to you," said the judge, when they were out of earshot. "And yet I could not help thinking that there must have been some providential design in the matter. It was as if Percy had appointed me his messenger to you." "Oh, I am glad I am only glad!" rejoined re-joined Tauline musingly, with her eyes downcast. "It puts my doubts at rest. All this timo 1 could not realize that he was gone. I knew it, of course; but it l.r.1 Kn I,.,!, tAma tn KrtM, noon, and they delayed their starting in expectation of a change later on. The result justified their forecast, for as the moon appeared above the eastern horizon the clouds began to gather in tho west, and the lops of the trees w aved and murmured. mur-mured. The direction of the wind was 6ucli that, after leafing the island, they could make a nearly straight run fur home, keeping the boom over the port quarter. In setting out a long tongue of land extending on the southeast broke the sweep of the w ind, and made it seem much lighter than it really was. The water was smooth and the impulse just sufficient to make them glide along rapidly. rap-idly. But the moment the point of the capo was passed the sudden increase in the violence of the w ind fairly startled them. The judge, who was at the helm, made tho mistake of supposing that it was a gust or temporary squall only, and therefore did not put back into the imooth water and double reef his sail, as he should have done. By the time he had discovered that the wind had come to stay, they were too far on their course to make a return advis-uble. advis-uble. To have done so would have in-Tolved in-Tolved beating up almost in the teeth of Ihe gale, which would not only have been a long job, but one which the height of the waves would have rendered dangerous. dan-gerous. To keep on, on the other hand, seemed comparatively easy, the wind being nearly fair, yet not so much so U3 to involve the peril of jibing; the distance, dis-tance, moreover, was not very great, and the boat, though heavily laden, was going fast. Accordingly the judge grasped the tiller firmly, and kept her headed so as to pass the lighthouse a couple of points to the northwestward. The three occupants of the little craft were all seated, of course, close up on tho weather side, the spread of sail having hav-ing a tendency to bear her down to leeward. lee-ward. The judge sat next the 6tern; Pauline was close to him, and Mrs. Nolen was next to Pauline, her feet being supported sup-ported against tho sheath of the center-board. center-board. But as they sped along the waves ran higher and higher, and began at length to dash over the weather gunwale, gun-wale, wetting Pauline's back and shoulders, shoul-ders, and running down into the well. thrown into the bottom of tho boat. Once there, his remaining strength forsook for-sook him, and he lay unconscious. Pauline Pau-line did not attempt to relieve Uim; she had her hands full of other matters. The boat was almost in a sinking state, and they were still moro than half a mile from port. She watched her chance heedfully to come about, for to ship another wave like the last one might bo fataL TTw boat obeyed her helm promptly, and set off with a plunge and a roll towards her destination. During the pause she had drifted some distance to leeward, so that she was now sailing with the wind very nearly behind her and the boom far out; and although this involved some danger of jibing again, it diminished the risk of taking in water over the quarter, and was in so far an advantage. Pauline's utmost strength was required to hold the tiller, which struggled with her like a wild creature lighting to get loose: yet she was compelled to keepone hand upon the sheet likewise, which might at any moment need hauling in. The strain upon her nerves and muscles was terrible, terri-ble, but she clenchtd her teeth and held on; in courage and spirit, at least, she was equal to the occasion. Once in a while she threw a hasty glance into the body of the boat. Mi s. Nolen had slipped slip-ped down from her seat and had managed man-aged to draw the judge's head and shoulders on her lap. "If 1 save them," said Pauline to herself, her-self, "1 will accept it as a sign." As she spoke the boat gave a leap and was suddenly in smooth water. The sail barely swelled to the breeze. The change was so sudden that it seemed miraculous. They had passed under the lee of the lighthouse, but that appeared inadequate to account for so abrupt and great an alteration. Indeed, Pauline always believed be-lieved and declared afterwards that the gale had actually ceased, without visible cause, in a moment of time. The boat slipped sluggishly through the water on an even keel. There was scarcely air enough to carry her to her moorings in the little cove. "Well, then, I will be his wife," said Pauline to herself, as they touched the pier; "and I think I love him now!" lime blue ores. The hair was cut short; I ny one would have taken the head for that of a Frenchman. This idea would have been confirmed when, the gentleman gentle-man put across his nose a pair of tinted eyeglasses, mounted in gold. Ho regarded re-garded himself critically. "Yes," he muttered, iu the undertone which people use when conversing w ith themselves, "it's a good get up, considering consider-ing the simplicity of the materials. No one can say I am disguising myself; and yet 1 doubt if my own mother God bless her! would recognize mo at the first glance, though my sister might. I must have been intended by nature for an actor; my features lend themselves so readily to a disguise. At one time 1 am an American; then an Englishman; now a Frenchman; to-morrow I may attempt a Turk or a Russian. But what an extraordinary ex-traordinary piece of bad luck that that fellow Clifton should be on this steamer! Does he know that I am on board? Hardly. And yet, what is he here for? It must be on that same business; and in that business I am concerned, however how-ever unwillingly. Perhaps he has come to look up my record. Confound him, why can't he let me alone! I shall have a hard enough time of it without him. Of course he will go straight to Inspector Byrnes, and when the inspector finds out that I am not what's that?" In order to answer this question, it must be observed that the state room occupied by the bearded gentleman was an "outside" one; its window opened on the water, or rather on a narrow strip of deck which intervened between the rail and the wall of the state room itself. This strip of deck was just wide enough to admit of a person sitting there, with his shoulders against the wall and his feet on the rail an attitude said to be a favorite one w-i'.'i Americans, and which any person who has studied the circulation circula-tion of the blood and its action on the brain will gladly put himself into. The window, it should be added, was protected pro-tected by a wooden blind with fine slat3, not noticeable from without. The noise which had caused the bearded gentleman to break off so abruptly ab-ruptly in his monologue had been caused by the Advent of two persons with camp CHAPTER XYII. A nUNTER'S YARN. o 11 N a warm evening even-ing in October the steamship Pilgrim, Pil-grim, of the New York and Fall River line, had just left her dock at the former place and was on her way up the somid. A rather stout but actively made man, with curly red hair and side whiskers, whisk-ers, and rather prominent gray eves, mounted it will turn out so it will be found that lie had money to spend soon afterwards, and perhaps some one of tho bank notes can be traced to him. Oh!" she exclaimed, ex-claimed, lifting one hand with an irrepressible irre-pressible gesture, "if I can see him stand liefore me in the prisoner's dock, I shad have lived long enough!" "Upon my word, Miss Nolen," remarked re-marked the inspector with a smile, "I wouldn't envy the man who had done you an injury, bo he who ho may; and if this fellow Dupee, or any one else, has been guilty of the crimes you charge him with I hope with all my heart you may live to see him convicted of them and a long time afterwards, too! As for my share in the business, I can assure you that all possible investigations shall be made and, if Dupee has really joined the criminal classes, it will probably only be a question of time before wo run across him. It is something to have a definite person suspected in connection with the affair. I don't want to give you any hopes that I cannot fulfill; but lam willing will-ing to say that it is not impossible something some-thing may come out of this." "I don't ask for promises only let something be done!" Paulino replied, rising and giving her hand to the deteet-I deteet-I ive. He felt the strong clasp of her little lit-tle fingers, and smiled again. "You may depend upon my being at least as good as my word," be said kindly, kind-ly, "Your cause is a good one, and, so far as I am connected with it, you may be certain that it will not 6ttffer. Bat you must bo prepared for disappointment, disappoint-ment, and you must be patient." CHAPTER XV. A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA. .11... uccu her, new sheets and halliards rove, and her shvunUen eam3 had been soaked till they were water tight. There she rested at her moorings as gracefully as a sea gull. F.very thing being ready, the party, convoyed by the judge, drove out from the town one fine day and took possession. It was sunset by the time the last trunk w:as moved in. They had supper, and then sat out on the veranda enjoying the pure salt air and the liquid outlook ,.-( t the bay. There was a faint breeze: i:;:le waves made a barely audible audi-ble plash on the shore of tho cove. Tho boat courtesied gently oli the end of the pier, as if welcoming its owners back to nature. The moon rose late and red; it was pa..t the full. To tho right, beyond the i -ii:it, tho lighthouse lamp flashed intermittently; a sloop drifted past half a mile out, and tho sound of a banjo tinkled audibly across tho water. "It's delicious!" murmured the judge, sitting with Mrs. Nolen on one side of him and Pauline on tho other, and a cigar between his lips. "To-morrow we'll go out in the boat and visit the island." Mrs. Kolen gave a sigh. Sho was thinking of her son drowned at sea. Pauline understood what the sigh meant; but she was made of other metal than her mother. "I mean to learn how to sail tho boat myself this summer," she said. "I Uko tho sea; I would like to live beside it, or on it, always. How soft and gentle it is nowl But when the storms coins !" "I can givo you lessons in sailing," observed ob-served the judge. "You know, when I was a boy I Bpent a year before the mast." "I learned something last year from Percy," Paulino replied, "and, now that he has becomo a part of the sea, I shall feel more at homo on it than before." Tho net day, accordingly, tho practice prac-tice of navigation began, and was continued con-tinued day by day thereafter. Paulino showed herself an apt pupil, and was, indeed, in-deed, quicker in an emergency than the judge himself. Mrs. Nolen at first could not bo prevailed on to accompany them; but one warm day they induced her to venture out, and tho experience was so pleasant that she repeated it from time to time. Meanwhile the judge's tiffair was manifestly man-ifestly approaching a crisis. The constant con-stant companionship of the girl he loved was inexpressibly sweet to him, and lie but two or three words, or portions of words, still remained. "See if you can make them out, Pauline," Pau-line," said the judge, after seiutmir.trig tho inscription a few moments. "Your eyes are better than mine." Holding tho tiller in her left hand Pauline took the bit of wood in her right and looked at it. "I can make out part of a name," she said presently, "and some figures a date, I suppose. Ah!" Her lips closed tightly and her eyes dilated. The boat swung round into tho wind and lay with the sail flapping. Sho had forgotten tho tiller. "What is it?" asked the judge in surprise. sur-prise. She met his eyes, and then glanced stealthily toward her mother. "Nothing," said she; and put tho helm overagain. The boat resumed itscourse, the water bubbling under the stern. Mrs. Nolen gazing toward tho island, which was now near at hand, had noticed nothing. noth-ing. After a moment, sho leaned toward him and whispered in his ear: "It is the name of tho steamer iu which Percy sailed, and tho dato of the hurricane. Some one must have thrown it overboard over-board in the storm perhaps it i3 his own writing. Say nothing; mother must not know." She thrust the bit of wood into the front of her dress, while the judgo drew back with a grave, concerned face aud folded his arms in silence. It was a strange event, indeed. That demijohn had been drifting about on the ocean currents for months, to be brought, at last, to tho very hand for which it had been perhaps intended. Pauline did not doubt that Percy had thrown it overboard over-board at tho moment when all hope seemed gone, and probably just before he himself was swept from the deck; and if so it must havo been to her that ho had in his heart addressed it. The incident brought tho picturo of the disaster vividly before her imagination; imagina-tion; she had never realized it so intensely in-tensely before tho plunging hull, tho reeling decks, tho shattered masts, tho whito leaps and seetliing of tho maddened mad-dened seas, f "tie deafening shriek of t "no gale, tho black darkness around and overhead; and her brother, her own beloved be-loved brother, staggering forth into thi3 blind fury of chaos to waft to her the last messago of despair. Sho saw it all; and then, with a Ions indrawnier of tho I can feel that all is well with him. I am glad it came." "It seems a pity that so much of the message should be illegible," remarked the judge. "It would have been well to know for a certainty that it came from Percy's own hand." "Perhaps it will become more legible when tho wood is dried. But I should not care if it turned out to have been written by some one else. It is from Percy's ship the Amazon and in that case it is from him." "I am a little surprised," said the judge, after a pause, "that Mr. Martin lias not written us soruo of the details of the affair. He can hardly have failed to understand that any information, however how-ever slight, would have been precious to you. You have not heard from him, have you?" "No, and I think you are right. lie should have written. But I can imagine why he has not. It was his suggestion that Percy should leave New York. He urged him to go with him; ho took that responsibility. The least ho could do was to guard him from harm. When that 6torm camo he should not have let him go out of his sight. But, instead, he let him be drowned. I can understand why he has not written to me he would not dare!" Sho said this with a passionate emphasis. em-phasis. The judge was secretly conscious con-scious of a feeling of relief, but his sense of rectitude compelled him to say. "It would not be just, I think, to charge Mr. Martin with being accountable tor Percy's Per-cy's death." "Perhaps it is not logically just; but that is the way I feel," was her reply. By this time they had reached tho spring, which trickled out of asand bluff a few feet above high water mark, and filled a barrel that had been 6unk in tho sand below. The judgo knelt down and plunged the jug into the cool water, which gurgled into it with a refreshing sound. Pauline stood, with her hands hanging folded, looking down on him. The blue sea, the sunshine, the warmth were inexpressibly soothing. "How pleasant it is here," she said. The judgo rose, with the jug in his hand. A moment before ho had not meant to speak so soon; but now the words seemed to break from him involuntarily. invol-untarily. "Pauline.will you lie my wife?" he said. Rim took .i Kten backward, and their The effect of this, after it had continued con-tinued for a while, was inevitably to make.the boat sit lower in the water and thus offer less opposition to the inroads of the seas; and it was evident that an effort must bo made to bail her out. There was a tin dipper in the locker-not locker-not without difficulty the judge succeeded suc-ceeded in getting this out, and, stooping down, endeavored to bail with his right hand, while handling the tiller with his left. But it was impossible to hold the boat to her course with one hand in such a sea, and after a minute Pauline took the dipper and intimated that she would attend to that part of the work. She bailed rapidly and steadily and threw out a large amount of water, but the waves continued to rise and overlap the gunwale, so that she was unable to keep pace with the influx, and the boat settled so low that ever and anon a wave would wash in to leeward. This was a serious matter; it meant that swamping was not far off; and with the extra ballast on board she would go the bottom like a stone. And if she did, nothing was more certain than that they would be drowned. It would be impossible for even the strongest swimmer to reach the shore oi. such a night. Mrs. Nolen, after expressing, iu the subdued manner characteristic of her in all circumstances, her horror and despair at the situation the real gravity of which she was, however, probably far from recognizing had relapsed into a sort of lethargic state, half reclining on the narrow seat, motionless, and seemingly seem-ingly unconscious of the water that was dashing over her. This passive attitude was doubtless the best for all concerned that Bhe could possibly have assumed. The judge perhaps suffered more than any of the party; for he felt liimself mainly responsible for the affair, and the idea of death stepping between him and Pauline at such a juncture was almost more than he could bear. Pauline, alone, was apparently perfectly cheerful and composed. She even felt a pleasant exhilaration ex-hilaration in the face of the imminent danger. Theexertion of bailing had put her in a warm glow from head to foot; and though she saw that her labor was ineffectual in-effectual she maintained it with unfaltering unfalter-ing resolution. They were now within a mile of the light house.and as soon as they passed under the lee of it they would be comparatively safe. But it was a question ques-tion whether the boat would hold out so stools to the apparently secure retreat which the narrow strip of deck already alluded to afforded. Having established themselves there to their satisfaction, and lit their cigars, they began to talk in a low tone. But although the blind of the bearded gentleman's stateroom was shut, the window itself was open; and as he had reason to suppose that the conversation con-versation was going to be of particular . . importance to himself he took care to leave the window as it was, and even to sit down beside it. As the reader will already have surmised, the speakers were the two gentlemen to whom we have already al-ready been introduced Henry Chiton and Bob Stapleton. "You went first to New Zealand, eh?" Stapleton was saying. "How happened your man Valentine do you call him? to be there?" "He was the second son, don't you see? and consequently, after he'd run through the money his father gave him, he had only himself to fall back on. So ha started for New Zealand to make his fortune fort-une at sheep farming. When I got there he had been gone the better part of a year or more. The sheep farming had not turned out very well, but he -had'got a sum of money somehow, and had gone off to enjoy it; whether ha would come back again, and where ha had gone, no one could tell me. You may be sure that if he had known that his elder brother was going to die, and let him into full possession of an estate worth three-quarters of a million of dollars, dol-lars, he would have left his address." "It's a most curious thing." observed Mr. Stapleton, philosophically, "how some men will run after a good thing all their lives and never catch it, and another an-other man will .run away from a good thing all his life, and never let it catch him." "Well, as I was saying," Mr. Clifton continued, "this Mr. Valentine as I call him had left fox parts unknown, and my business was to find out where that was. I thought it all over, and made up my mind that America was about the most likely place, for he wouldn't ba likely to go back to England, and, being of a roving disposition, and never having hav-ing visited the States, that was naturally the first place he'd think of. And when a man goes to America he's pretty certain cer-tain sooner or later to fetch up In New York. So it was in New York that I figured I should find him. But before I Horto,! t tl,nrlir it n-r.,,1,1 ho n icoll in the gangway from below, and stood near the door of the saloon. He had just taken a cigar from his waistcoat pocket, and was in the act of cutting off the end of it with his penknife, when a tall personage per-sonage with bony features and a thin neck came in through the door and confronted con-fronted him. He was about to pass on, but, at a second glance, stopped and said, as if to himself: "Henry Cliftou." The red haired man turned sharply. "Bob Stapleton, by jingo!" he exclaimed. They shook hands, evidently pleased at the encounter, eyeing each other all over, as if to make sure that no part of either was missing. "Well, and what have you been doing with yourself these three years past?" inquired he of the red hair, who answered an-swered to the name of Clifton. "Let's see; it wa3 in Liverpool I saw you last, wasn't it? Y'ou were after that forging gang." "Y'es, and I got 'em," responded the other, who had been addressed as Bob Stapleton. "It was a good job; I've had nothing better since. But what brings you over here?" "Oh, a private affair something particularly par-ticularly choice," replied Clifton, sticking his cigar in his mouth. "All expenses paid and twenty pound a month." "Hullo! That's not bad. A hundred dollara and expenses. What is it? 13 Scotland Y'ard after the Fenians again?" "No, no. I don't belong to the Yard any more; doing business now on my own feet. I'm engaged on a case involving., involv-ing., l,T,r,trMl nnd fifrv thousand rounds r had been the custom with the Nolens, during the summer months, to go to a seaside resort known a3 Squittig Squit-tig Point, on the New England 'coast. They own-ied own-ied a 6niall cottage cot-tage there, consisting con-sisting of a sitting sit-ting room, three bedrooms, and a kitchen and a yeranda, the area of which was breath, her eyes beheld tho bluo surface Of the summer sea, the warm aud tender Bliy bending over it, the green shoro of the island toward which they were softly gliding. Her heart melted, ar.d tears wet her cheeks unawares, "I am really glad I came," said Mrs. Nolen, turning round with a smile. "It has been a delightful sail, and tho island Jook3 so pretty I I hope it will bo as nioo going back." "Well begun is half ended," said tho judge, raising the centerboard t;s the boat entered an inlet and rau up on tho beachi "and, if tho worst comes to the worst, we have provisions, enough to stoy here over night." CUAPTEK XVI. A SHUiJOE wooiNct. larger than all the rest of the house. The house stood upon a low bluff directly direct-ly overlooking the beach. Thero wa3 a semi-circular inlet' at this point, r.bout fifty yards across; in this a pier I.a.l been constructed, to the end of which a cat-boat cat-boat was moored. It was a pretty place, but a very quiet one. To reach it it was necessary to drive five or six miles from tho railway station in the neighboring town. Within With-in a radius of a mile thero were perhaps a dozen cottages similar to tho Nolens' and occupied chiefly by artists. Milk, eggs, poultry and vegetables were fur- nished by the farm houses in the vicinity: fish could bo caught by any one with a fishing line and a boat; meat and groceries gro-ceries must be fetched from tho town. It was out of the line of fashionable travel; and those who knew of its existence, exis-tence, and had established themselves there, were united in a conspiracy to keep fashion away from it. If they themselves felt the need of a little dissipation, dissi-pation, thoy could be at Newport in four oi five hours or at Swampscott before night. But here they could always be sura of rest, seclusion, charming scenery and as much fishing, sailing and bathing as they wanted. Of courso they could not hope to keep their secret long; sooner soon-er or later somebody would appear and build a hotel; but meanwhile they en-Joyed en-Joyed it all the moro for feeling that their exclusive possession of it xniiot Le limited. Opposite the point was a line of low Islands, seven or eight miles distant, which served as a natural breakwater egainst the violence of the Atlantic's Waves, and gave to the intervening ex- was unablo to repress some manifestation manifesta-tion of it; yet ho could not decide whether or not Pauline cared enouga about him to accept him as her husband. That she esteemed him highly was evident, evi-dent, and that her affection for him was deep and sincere; but there are many kinds of affection, and the question was whether her affection was of a kind capable ca-pable of beiitgleveloped into the love of a wife. The judge wished with all hi-3 heart that he could do her some immense service, or make for her some noble sacrifice sac-rifice which might serve to draw her nearer to him. But such things cannot be commanded .t will, aud seldom occur w hen they are wanted. It seemed that ho must trust to whatever unaided merit ho possessed to win her heart. Pauline had always been mature for her age; but since the calamity that ltad fallen upon her sho had developed greatly. She was graver aud wore taciturn taci-turn than before, uud her manner was moro thoughtful and controlled, She seemed already to havo outgrown her girlhood and to have attained the strength and experience of a woman. Ail tlds was iu the judge's favor; for his age was the factor in the matter which lie feared most. If they could meet on more nearly equal terms in this respect, he could feel more confidence as to the rest. She conversed con-versed with him on his own intellectual level, and consulted him freely and confidentially con-fidentially on all matters of interest to herself. No friendship between a man and woman could have been more intimate inti-mate and genuine; but it was something moro thau friendship that the judge longed for; if he could have detected a single glow of passion in her cheeks he eyes met. She was startled, and the expression ex-pression of her face at first seemed to indicate refusal. But after a few moments mo-ments the softer look returned to it, mingled with sadness. "Would that be best?" she asked. "Infinitely best for me. But it is you who must decide. I have loved you ever since you were a little girl." "Does my mother know of this?" "Yes, since last year; and she has bidden bid-den mo Godspeed. But I do not wish you to be influenced by that. Decide for yourself alone. I am twice your years, and more; but in my love for you I am young, and shall always be." She stood silent for a while. She was evidently touched by bis words, and by the manly generosity of his appeal; but something was yet wanting to givo the final conviction to her heart, and she was too true to herself to commit herself without it. "There is no man living for whom I caro 60 much aa for you," she said at length; "but I have never thought of earing for you in that way. I have depended de-pended on you and trusted in you, but to be your wife. , . . Oh, you must givo me tune! I do not kuow what f think, or feel But I shall uot be in doubt I will give you an answer soon. It seems to me that if I could love yon as you wish it would be a fortunate thing for me fortunate that a man like you should wish to marry such a girl as 1 am. But give me till to-morrow." "As long as you need," answered the judge, huskily. "It is my duty and my happiness to wait for you and upon you as long a3 1 live." . The breese fell again during the after- long, ana just men an unioie&een catastrophe catas-trophe occurred. As Pauline stooped to fill the bailer, the little vessel gavo a sudden lurch to leeward, throwing the girl forward on her knees in the bottom of the boat. The judge reached out quickly to save her from going overboard; in doing so, the tiller was thrust over; the boat came directly before the wind, the sail jibed, and the boom, as it swung to starboard, struck the judgo on the head, and knocked him into tho water. At the same moment a wave came over the stern and deluged the seat room. The end seemed to be at hand. But Pauline was not a woman to be vanquished without a struggle. As she sprang up and seized the tiller, her mind was perfectly clear as to what should be done. The boat had already fallen off, and was broadside to the wind; she put down the helm, and brought her up in the wind's eye, rapidly rap-idly hauling in the sheet as she did so, and giving it a turn round the cleat. Then she bent her gaze on the dark confusion con-fusion of waters in which the judge had sunk. It was ten to one that he had been carried car-ried to leeward and out of reach. But one circumstance, of which Pauline wa3 not aware, operated in her favor. There was a strong tide running out against the wind; aud when the judge rose his head appeared within a foot of where Pauline sat. She stretched over toward him, grasped him by the sleeve of the coat and drew him toward her. Though half 6tunned by the blow he had received, re-ceived, he managed to get his arm over the gunwale, and, a wave coming to hia assistance, he half scrambled, half waa seven hundred and fifty thousand of your money." "Great Scott! A robbery?" "No; no such common business. A lost heir!" "A lost heir? That sounds good! Come, we've got the evening before us; suppose you spin the yarn." "Humph I I'm not so sure about that," returned Clifton, scratching his whiskers thoughtfully. "This isn't the sort of story that one tells to everybody. However," How-ever," he added, "you're not everybody, though I suppose you consider yourself somebody; at all events, if you promise to keep it dark, I fancy I can trust you. But let's go into some quiet corner as it's a warm evening, suppose we sit outside, out-side, where we can smoke. I have cigars enough, and this yarn will probably last out more than one of them." As they passed out of the door, a gentleman who had been sitting in a chair not far off, with hi3 hat drawn down over his nose, and who had seemingly seem-ingly been asleep, rose quietly from his seat and proceeded to the door of a state room a little way forward of the paddle box. He entered the room and locked the door after him; then he breathed a 6igh of relief. He took off his hat and looked at his reflection in the mirror. It showed the countenance of a man between be-tween 20 and 80 years of age perhaps nearer the latter age than the former the lower part of which was thickly covered with a brown beard, cropped short at the sides aud round the throat, but allowed to grow to a point on the chin. Ihe forehead, cheeks and nose were deeply bronzed by the sun, giving a peculiar appearance to a pair of hand- make the thing certain by sending on a cable message, addressed to certain parties par-ties in New York that you may have heard of, asking whether my man wa3 there. Sending telegrams half round the earth costs money, Bob; but it doesn't cost quite as much as to go yourself, let alone the time and the wear and tear." "However, expenses being paid," said Bob. "That'3 all very well, but parties employing em-ploying one like to have a good account of their money; and a good recommendation recommenda-tion is sometimes worth more than cash in hand. Well, I didn't look for an answer an-swer inside of a week or ten days; but forty-eight hours after I had sent off the dispatch the landlord of my hotel came up to me and told me that he believed I was looking for Mr. Valentine, and that a man had just arrived from Panama who had met a party going by that name in Mexico some six weeks before, and he thought likely he'd be there yet. I told him to bring the man around, and ha came and I had a talk w ith him. "He had seen Valentine, sure enough; I made up my mind as to that. He described de-scribed him as near as could be; for though I had never seen him myself I had all the points about him from those who had, and a photograph taken four or five years before. The fellow said that Valentine had come to Mexico from New York, after' being wrecked in a big gale at St. Thoma3, and a friend of his I'll call him Percy was drowned in the same storm." "You call him Percy, do you?" interposed in-terposed Mr. Stapleton, "and ha wsj drowned in the St. Thomas hurricane? And what might his other name be?' . . k HE judgo pulled off bis, shoes aud stockings and jumped into tho shallow water, and, t u g g i n y manfully, pulled the boat up high enough lo render it an easy matter i- to tiv.nsnort the ladies to the shore. Mrs. No- len he took in his arms and set down on tho ueucu; m on no turned to do the like service for Pauline, and his heart beat at the thought of having her for a moment so near him. But as she stood poising herself in tho bows, light, beautiful and agile, he perceived per-ceived that she meant tot make a leap of "I'm not giving names; I'm telling you Jstorv," retiitneil Mr. Clifton curtly. "That's all rifilit; sonK-tliing occurred fo my luiud, that's all; and a mighty good storv it is you're) telling," rejoined the other nfl'ably. "So Mr. Valentine went over to Mexico, did he? And what did he do there?" "Well, he'd brought some letters, so it seems, introducing him to the president and some other swells; and he handed 'em in, and was received in good stylo. He gave 'em to understand that lu'd come to settle, and grow up with the country, so to speak. "One thing red to another, and at lust they got talking about mines; and with that the president gave him a guide, and sent him off up to a place called Pachu-ca, Pachu-ca, about sixty or seventy miles north of the city. He moused about there he knew something of mining, it appearsand ap-pearsand examined the mines that were working, and some others that hail been given up; and at last he fixed on a bit of ground where there wasn't any mine at all; but he took a fancy to it for all that, and went back to Mexico to see about getting possession ot it. He managed things very cleverly, and got the swells interested, and made out that he wanted to let them into a good thing, and would be satisfied with a very smail share himself, and would take all the trouble of looking after the business oil their hands into the bargain. So what did he do but raise a company, and the company raised a capital you know how those things are worked and tley filed their claim to the land, and appointed ap-pointed him manager, and the first tests he made showed a bigger percentago of silver than had been known in that neighborhood for a hundred years. "That was the news my informant brought me; he said all Mexico was talking talk-ing of it, and that Mr. Valentine's pickings, pick-ings, though they might be small, comparatively com-paratively speaking, were likely to stand .:. : '! 1 H,o0,l Inline fcut if you want to know my history I always carry my papers about with me, j and I've no objection to your looking them over.' And wit!) that ho took a 1 wallet out of his pocket, and handed it i to me. I opened it and exaniTned the j papers one after the other. 'They seem j all right, sir,' I said, 'and 1 suppose I may as well take it that everything is 1 correct and regular;' so then I went on and told him what had happened, how hi3 brother was dead, and he the heir of the property. He heard it all with a sort of strange look on his face; and when I got through at hist he said nothing at all. lie got up and took a turn up and down, smoking his cigar; but at last he comes back, and says he. 'Who's the next heir after me?' "I didn't see just w hat that had to do with it; but I said I supposed it would be his cousin or whatever relative w as nearest near-est his own blood. 'Well,' says he, chucking chuck-ing away his cigar, 'whoever ho is, he may have it. I'm very well satisfied as I am, and I won't have anything to do with it.' Those were his very words, and you may suppose I was a bit surprised. 'You won't have anything to do with a hundred and fifty thousand pounds?' gays I. 'Not with that hundred and fifty thousand, at any rate,' 6aid he. 'But what are you going to do about it?' says I; 'the property is yours, and it's entailed, and you can't get rid of it.' 'Oh, don't trouble yourself about that,' said he, with a laugh. 'It won't be buried in the ground. And if the worst comes to the w orst how do you know that I am the right man after all? I have got the papers and I am called by that name; but you yourself Baid that you never saw me before; ami you could not swear that I am not somebody some-body else. I should have to go to England Eng-land in any case to prove my identity. But I prefer to stay here, and that's the end of it!' "It was the queerest case ever I heard j r 1 i,f t,ol-,.f hears.' 'Hut 1 have proved,' cried tho lady, 'that 1 am tho wife of the heir of that estate: and if this gentleman says he is the heir, I denounce him as an impostor!' im-postor!' "At that, I looked at Mr. Valentine Ho had kept his eyes on the Lady all the while, with a sort of perplexed expression; expres-sion; but now ho smiled very quietly, and said he, 'I think I have heard of this lady before. I wish to say nothing against her. She seems to bo in a dilemma dilem-ma from which there is no way of extricating extri-cating her. If she wishes to lay a claim to the estates, she can do so only by acknowledging ac-knowledging me as her husband. Hut you have just heard us both declare thai we have never seen each other before. But she also declares me an impostor. Suppose I am; she must find the real man before she can profit by the inheritance. If I am not he, where is he? Grant, on theotherhand, that I am he, and this lady is my wife; I still decline to touch a penny of the hundred and fifty thousand pounds; and what I will not accept she cannot share. That is logic and law both, I believe?' " "Upon my word, Henry Clifton," ej.ie ulated Mr. Bob Stapleton at this juncture, junct-ure, "this is about as peculiar a yarn as ever I listened to! It's as good as a play and better too. When you get to New York, do you go straight to a manager and offer to sell it to him; and if he don't give you a good price for it I'm a Dutchman!" "Good or bad," returned Mr. Clifton, "it happened just as I tell it you. When Mr. Valentine said that, the lady seemed staggered for a moment; and then all at once she called out: 'I see how it is! Von two hare arranged this thing between you! You are in a conspiracy to cheat me! You have plotted to get hold of this property and share it between you, and keep me out! But I will have my rights in spite of you! I will denounce both of you to the authorities. au-thorities. For all I know, you may have newly married couple did not entertain, however, owing to the recent domestio n1i.sfortu.ne3 which had overtaken Mrs. Ketelle's family; Ihey received a few friends very quietly and informally, anil made scarcely any calls. Tho judge had not been on the bench for some years previous to his marriage; but he had a large and important pratice as a barrister, barris-ter, and he now devoted hiniself to this with more assiduity than aver. Report had it that he and his wife were very happy together, and though some people admired the judge's intrepidity in venturing ven-turing to appropriate a lady so beautiful and so much his junior, there was nothing noth-ing in their relations to indicate that his choice had not been as prudent as it certainly cer-tainly was enviable, The wedding had taken place about the first of October, on the return of tho Nolens and Judge Ketello from the seaside; sea-side; and after a short honeymoon they settled in their new dwelling c:'.:iy in November. The judge attended to business busi-ness down town every day; his wife spent her mornings at home, and in the afternoons was fond of driving out in the'park in her brougham, occasionally accompanied by her mother, but more ofteu alone. The weather was cold but very fine, and the hue of the autumn leave3 was unusually beautiful. But those who happened to see the face of the young wife at the window of her brougham forgot all about the autumnal foliage and had their thoughts fiihd with the memory of another kind of loveliness. One afternoon, while passing the children's chil-dren's play ground, Mrs. Kete llo caused the coachman to stop his horses in orch r that she might watcli the little creatures at their games, for nothing pleased 'her more than the spectacle of children having hav-ing a good time. After , remaining a few minutes, she was about to give the order to move 011, when her attention was attracted to a gentleman who was standing with his broughams, you must find some greener hand than I am." "I know who she was, just the uuic." retorted the other. "She's the girl th:.t married that follow Ketelle, a mon.h ago.-" "She? the sister of that" He stopped. stop-ped. "The sister of Jerrold Nolen! You remember re-member him, if I aiu't mistaken." said the short man, with a chuckle. "Yes, I remember him; and when the accounts are evened up I'll remember you too, Jack Grush, and don't you forget for-get it!" exclaimed the black haired man, with a sullen fierceness. The fellow he had called Grush laughed but made no reply. "So that was his sister, wiul it? ' the other went on, muttering to himself; "and she's married to tho judge a month ago, and taking fellows to drive in her brougham!" He twisted the ends of hi. mustache, and switched the toe of his boot, as he sauntered along, with the light cane he carried. Let us follow Mrs. Ketelle's carriage. ' After the first few minutes of speechless speech-less and wild emotion w ere passed, Pauline Pau-line relinquished her brother's hand, and shrank away from him to her side of the carriage. A reaction of. feeling had come over her. She felt a sort of indignation indig-nation that she 6hould have been all these months grieving for a calamity that had never happened. "Why did you never let us know that you were alive?" she demanded. "I put it orf from day to day," he said. "I had not decided, at first, what to do. I thought of coming home; then I thought that since I had been reported dead it was better to let it be believed so for a time, until the truth about the robbery rob-bery should be discovered. Besides, 1 knew that detectives would be after me, and I feared that a letter addressed to you or to the judge might betray me. . At last w hen 1 found something to do I decided to wait until 1 was certain of success before communicating with you. They told me what she had said. I had already made up my mind what to do; I gave them the whole history of what had happened since Valentine and I had left New York; I told them what he had told me about his wife, and then I showed Ihem the letter she had just written me. I knew I was risking everything in making mak-ing a clean breast of it, but the fact was I was tired of living under a name that did not belong to me, and I wanted to put an end to it at all hazards." "I am glad of that!" said Pauline. "They v. ere rather upset by the story, and for a while I thought the affair would go against me. But I suspect they considered me too useful a man to lose. I was making a great deal of money for them and doing all the work, and then the woman's letter tipped the beam. They said finally that they would accept me for what I was if I could give them satisfactory proof that I was what I declared de-clared myself to be. Let me show letters let-ters or vouchers from reputable persons in New York bearing out my account of myself and they would accept mo as a full equivalent for what I had pretended to be. I had a power of attorney that Val had given me on the steamer, but of course I could not tell them what had led to my leaving New Y'ork. I could not ask any one here for a certificate of good character until my name had been, cleared of the charge against it. But it . wouldn't do to hesitate, 60 I said, on the spur of the moment, that I would go to &w York, get the evidence they required re-quired and return to them with it. So here I am; but I overheard some conversation conver-sation coming down on the boat between the English agent and a New York detective de-tective which made it seem probable that my affairs will be investigated whether I like it or not, and that meanwhile mean-while the true story of how the robbery was committed has not been revealed yet. How is it?" The answer to this question led to a long conversation, in the course of which. a year, which is enough to keep a man off the parish." "Yes, I should think it might," Mr. Stapleton assented. "And that's the way it is in this world, Henry Clifton; luck goes dead against a man for years and years, and no let up, and then all of a eudden, for no reason that ever anybody can find out, his brother dies and leaves him a million in England, and he goes to Mexico and collars a mine worth a hundred thousand a year. The million ain't enough, and the mine ain't enough; he must have 'em both; that's the way of the world every time!" Mr. Clifton accepted this statement without comment and went on with his story. "As you may suppose, I lost no time in packing my grip for Mexico, and I got there in due season and without accident. I put up at the best hotel, as is always my way, for it costs no more in the end, and gives a man a good standing at the first send off. I made my inquiries, in a quiet, onthand way; and I had no difficulty diffi-culty at all in hearing all I wanted. Mr. Valentine was there; nobody could speak too well of him; he was hand in glove with the president, and he was at that moment out in Pachuca, superintending the putting up of the new machinery in the new mine. If I had any business with liim, that was where I would find him. So the next morning, at 6 o'clock, I took the train at Buena Vista station to Omeltusco, and then by diligence and horse, car to Pachuca, which I reached at sundown, dead tired, and chock full of dust, and a precious cold, disagreeable, 6habby hole Pachuca is, and I don't care who knows it! "But I was on business, and when I learned that Mr. Valentine was camping out about five miles abovo I hired a mule then and there, and a black fellow to show me the way; and by nightfall 1 had him!" it 1 sat there and talked and argued with him for an hour and more, but nothing 1 could say made a bit of difference. dif-ference. He wouldn't have the property at any price, and he'Ldidn"t care what came of it. I gave it over, at last, for the time being, and passed the night in the hut; the next morning I tried him again, but ho was as obstinate as ever. Well, I didn't believe yet that he meant all he said, so I made up my mind to give him a bit more rope. I told him 1 was going to stay in Mexico a week or two, and let him understand that if he wanted to change Iris mind he'd have an opportunity; and then I said good day and rode of. I went back to Mexico, and put up at the hotel, and thought it all over; but the more I thought about it the less I could make it out. . If he was the right man (and everything about him showed he was) it didn't seem in human nature to refuse the property; and if he was an impostor, who had somehow managed to get hold of the right man's papers, and to personate him why, then, what on earth could his object be if not to get the property? If anything, that would be the strangest case of the two. "I had been back from Pachuca just a week when I was told that there was a lady in the houses an English lady that wanted to see me. Think3 I, 'Now, what does this mean?' I brushed myself up a bit and went down to find out. She was sitting at a table iu the patio, with a cup of tea in front of her. She was a ;;ood looking woman, and as I judged mii;!it be something under SO years old. "I made my bow, and she asked me to be 6eated. After a little talk, says .-he, 'I hear you have been inquiring after Mr. Valentine' giving his full name, you understand. I told her that I had. 'Did murdered my husband and taken his papers. But you will not succeed; I will expose you, and you shall be punished!' "Well, that made me a little angry, and I told her that if she wanted to charge me with conspiracy she had better bet-ter set about it at once, and the sooner the better, for I knew who would get the worst of it. As for Mr. Valentine, ho didn't lose his temper, but he said very quietly, 'I am not a murderer, madam, ma-dam, and you will only waste your lime in trying to provo me such. But I can assure you that, if I am not your husband hus-band and I certainly am not no such person exists in tho world. Neither can you sustain the charge that I am aiming either in combination with Mr. Clifton or alone to keep you out of this property. prop-erty. I told him a week ago, before you arrived in Mexico, that I would have nothing to do w ith it, and to that determination deter-mination I shall adhere. The utmost you can attempt to do is to show that I am not Mr. Valentine, and that you are welcome wel-come to attempt. But I warn you beforehand before-hand that all the evidence is on my side, and that you will fail. I adviso you to go back whence you came, and to give up any idea of ever becoming a great English lady. Meanwhile, I have the honor to wish you good morning!' "He bowed to her as polito and cool as Tyou please, and walked out of the patio and I followed him. 'What in the name of wonder does all this mean?" I asked him. " 'Really, Mr. Clifton,' said he, 'I can give you no explanation. You have heard the whole conversation, and you must draw your own conclusions from it, as I do mine. If you believe that that lady is the wife, or tho widow, of the Mr. Valentino who has inherited the estate, es-tate, you are at liberty to act in accord- back partly turned towards her iu a footpath foot-path that here approached the carriage way. Ho was tall and well made; Ik? wore a thin cape ulster of dark tweed and a black felt hat with a curved brim a sort of fashionable modification of the picturesque Tyrolese headgear. Of his face she could see only the outline of the cheek and brow; lie hail a mustache and a short, closely cut beard. Why was it that the Might of this man produced so strange and powerful an impression upon her? She asked herself this question, but could give no satisfactory satisfac-tory answer. Surely he was not an acquaintance ac-quaintance of hers! And yet there was something about him that not only arrested ar-rested her gaze but sent a thrill to her heart, as if particles of ice and firo were being driven through it. Her hands became be-came cold and her tee'h chattered, and yet her cheeks were burning and drops stood on her forehead. The gentleman turned slowly to resume re-sume his walk. As his face came more fully into view Mrs. Ketello caught her breath with a sharp sound, and her fingers fin-gers grasped the frame of the door convulsively. con-vulsively. She could not cry out; her lips were parched and her tongue dry. But her whole soul went out to him through her eyes. Was it a dream? Was he a phantom? Could she be deceived by some marvelous resemblance? Oh, would he pass on without seeing her and vanish forever! He had, iu fact, walked on several paces, and in another minute he would be out of reach. But either accident or one of those mysterious mental impressions impres-sions which many persons have experienced experi-enced in some epoch of their lives caused him suddenly to pause, turn about, and look directly at the face in the carriage window. Their eyes met for a monieul ; And finally, circumstances led to my coming back here unexpectedly invsi'lf." "But Valentine might have wriUen, if you could not." "Valentine! Why, Pauline, don't you know don't you see it was Valentine who was drowned:" "Valentine! Oh, (rod forgive me! -how I have wronged him!" She turned aside and rested her face against the side of the carriage and sobbed for a few moments mo-ments passionately. Hut she was never one to be long mustjivd by emotion. She forced back her tears, and said: "Tell me, tell me all!" "The whole alfuir came about by an accident, without any pieaiiaa.-rement at all. When I went down to liu- pier of the steam-hip, Val had sugge ted my making one or two alterations in my dress and appearance, so that if any one were on the lookout for mo I should pass for Valentine. Afterwards, on the steamer, we found that people were giving giv-ing us each other's names, and we let it be so. We occupied the same state room and I used his things I had brought very little of my own with me. "On the voyage he told me all his private pri-vate history; I afterwards thought that if he had been consciously training me to personate him he could not have done it more effectually. Then came the day of tho hurricane. We were close together to-gether all the time until within a few minutes of the time the wind changed. We were in the cabin; there was a lantern lan-tern bluing, but it was almost quite dark. Val left me and went to our room. I could see him there; he seemed to be writing on something that he held up before him. Afterwards he went towards tho steward's room, holding on by the iron pillars of tho cabin as he went. That was the last I saw of him. He must Percy learned all that had happened during dur-ing his absence, including Pauline's marriage. mar-riage. Theseareh for the thief forwhos& crime he hadsuilered had as yet met with; no success, but it w as still being carried on. After discussing the matter, it was decided that Percy's presence in the city should, for the moment, be kept a secret from every one, even from his mother and Judge Ketelle. He should conceal himself in lodgings in the upper part of the town, where Pauline could visit him from time to time, and report the progress pro-gress of affairs, and learn, if possible, from Inspector Byrnes, what were the object and result of the English agent I'liiton's mission to New York. There might be difficulties in the way, but tha L;,ther and sister were young and believed be-lieved that tho longest lane has a turning- It was late when Pauline drove up to the door of her house, and, alighting, walked up the steps of the porch. Her mind was full of her brother, and she did not notice the tall man with the black mustache who stood on the corner of tha Btreet tapping hi3 boot with his cane. CHAPTER XX. j A CHECK. HAVING seen tha lady into tho house, the man with the black yf Z i m u s t a c h i o a turned on his heel . ' fpV.A and sauntered Lin k away. VV ?! i "r 4. Elack Horace V- i-.. v "fT (as he was known i f J" - y "j to his intimates) CV t !" - ) .'iwas not born to I I V 4 ' ?.; 'J AA ' arriminliroA. CHAPTER XVTII. A DILEMMA. th TT 60 0U Uana"" t.Si, 1 ed him over the 1 '. ? . f- deeds of his cs-tate, cs-tate, and that's " the end of the ''.JiaSr" story?'' said Hi'. W Stapleton interro-yJ&K interro-yJ&K festively. 1 WlVs? "You're going SJflVs-Ja bit t0 fast" the other replied. pyu yt -54 " I he story is just riA J C-'r'ia BoinS to begin; I K J nrf- -'-' v fS J011 '9 merely by (' ! "'P-ti way of esPlaii- y-iiJbfS'iJS ing the situation. Sajj' ."ifehi After chasing a man half round the world, and a little more, you don't expect to get through your business with him in five minutes. When I first saw him he was smoking a cigar by a fire that was built outside of one of them adobe huts, and drinking a Stuff they call pulque, which is the nearest near-est they can get to whisky in that country, coun-try, and pretty poor stuff it is. Well, I stepped up to him and says I, 'Good evening, Mr. ' (giving him his name, you understand) 'for I am told that you are that gentleman.' He looked up at me, and I said to myself that I had made no mistake. He had on a Mexican serape and a wide brimmed hat; but his figure and face answered well enough to my description of him, though instead of side whiskers he had a mustache and chin beard, as if he meant to be a Mexican Mexi-can through and through. "'Yes,' says he, looking up at me; 'and have you any business with me?' " 'Well,' says I, 'I think I may say I have, since I've come some fifteen thousand thou-sand miles to find you.' He stopped a bit and then said, 'From England. Oh? You are right, sir,' said I; 'but before I go further, and to be sure there's no mistake, I must ask you to bo kind enough to give me an account of yourself your family and so forth so tliat 1 may know you ere the man I'm sent to see, and no other.' 'And what if I refuse?' said he. 'Then,' said I, 'all I'll have to do is to go back where I came from; though 1 may tell you that if you are the gentleman in question it will be your loss, and a big loss, too, not to let me know it." " 'As to that,' he says, 'I don't know that you can give me anything I care to nave, whatever you may have brought; you find him?' asked she. 'I did, said I. She seemed a bit excited or anxious, and I began to have my own ideas; but 1 wasn't prepared for what she said next. 'I wish you to know that I am his wife,' she said, 'and whatever is bis business is mine also.' 'I am bound to inform you, madam,' I said at last, 'that bis family has no knowledge of his marriage; they believe him to be a bachelor.' 'I am aware of that,' 6aidshe, 'but fortunately I am in a position to prove what I say,' and with that she took her marriage certificate cer-tificate out of her pocket and showed it to me; it was as regular as the multiplication multipli-cation table; she was married to him three or four years ago, in New Zealand. I hadn't a word to say. 'I understand lie has come into his property,' said she. 'Well, as to that, madam,' said I, 'so he has; but he has refused point blank to have anything to do with it.' She turned white and looked at me very sharp. 'What do you mean?' she cried out. 'Just what I tell you,' said I, and then I w ent on and gave her the story of my visit to him. "Well, that seemed to lloor her, at first; Bhe kept making exclamations, and saying things half to herself, and biting her lips; it was plain she didn't know what to make of it any more than 1 did. 'J must see him!' she- cried out at last, jumping up from the table; 'I must see hini, and' 'Speak of an angel, madam,' says I; 'here he is!" and sure enough, by the funniest chance in the world, in walked Mr. Valentine into the patio at (hat moment. I don't think he was over-pleased over-pleased at the meeting; but it was too late to get out of it, so became up; and I noticed he only glanced at the lady, as if she was some one he had never seen before; then he gave me good day, and took my hand. It was a bit awkward, I said, 'I suppose you will wish to converse con-verse with your wife alone, sir; I will leave you.' 'My wife!' says he; 1 was pot aware there was such a person!' 'Is not this lady your wife?' cried I. He stared at her like a man astonished, and then at me. 'I never saw her till this moment,' said he. 'Come, sir,' said 1. '1 have just seen the certificate of her marriage mar-riage with you.' 'Oh, it's all a mistake." put in the lady. 'I was never married to thi3 gentleman; 1 never saw him: I am the wife of Mr. Valentine.' 'Well, and this gentleman is Mr. Valentine." said I. 'He may have tha same name, but he is another persi :; altogether," said Bhe. 'As to that,' said I, 'you must settle it between you; Mr. Valentine's pa pen are all correct, and there is only 0.10 estate In Eneland with the name that his ance with your conviction. 1 lie most difficult thing will probably be to make other people believe as you do.' " 'That's all right, Mr. Valentine,' said I, 'but there is one thing you can tell me. You said just now that you had heard speak of that lady before, and the inference was that what you had heard was not to her credit. Now what did you mean by that?' " 'Well, Mr. Clifton,' said be, 'perhaps J may have heard of her before, or perhaps per-haps I may bo mistaken in thinking I had; but I don't sco why tho flil'erence to be drawn isnecessarily a bad one. At all evnets, she has never done me any harm, and I don't believe she ever will, ur can; and I have no present intention of harming harm-ing her, either by word or deed. As 1 said before, you must -follow your own judgment; as for me, what I have said 1 stick to, and nothing will change me.' By that time we had got to the door of tlie office of the secretary of the interior, who was a friend of his, and he went in and left me in the street, to do my own thinking." "Well, and what was the upshot of it all?" inquired Mr. Stapleton. "It isn't ended yet," Mr. Clifton replied; re-plied; "but from facts that subsequently came to my knowledge I came to the conclusion that I might learn something by coming on to New York." "Now that I think of it, it's growing a little chilly, too," rejoined Mr. Stapleton, "and as tiie gove' or of South Carolina once remarked to h.j governor of North Carolina, 'it's a long t me between drinks.' 1 have some acquaintance with the head steward on board this boat; suppose sup-pose we go down stairs?" Apparently Mr. Clifton accepted this suggesiiou; for when, a few minutes later, the bearded gentleman pushed open his blind, the two camp stools were vacant. CHAPTER XIX. IN A CARRIAGE. -yj UDGE KETEL-saaatw.1 KETEL-saaatw.1 LE and his young if (-."- ' 2 1 their abode in a I.CI rl,Se, n' T 3 ! 2 :i 1 from the south- I ; Si- 5 . ern boundary ol v3r,'r-- ?V" taking Mrs. No- f 'rtT- 10,1 t0 liV I '?KtA them. The wed-I wed-I . .Jij-ii ding aroused con-lH con-lH f tSif siderable interest ilf-t'-'?i York ' city, the beauty j ami accomplishments of the bride being almost na well known as the forensic and judicial ability of her husband. Thu then the woman covered tier lace wit 11 her hands, and sank back in her seat with a breathless cry of terror, bewilderment bewilder-ment and intolerable joy. Tho gentleman, who also seemed pale and agitated, came over to the road and laid his hand on tho carriage door. "Drive on!" ho said to tho coachman, and with the words he entered tho carriage car-riage and closed the door after him. Then he pulled down tho shades over the windows. The coachman spoke to his horses, nnd they moved ou. This episode had taken place in a short space of time, and with very little visible manifestation of feeling on either side. Nevertheless, it had not entirely escaped observation. Two men had been sauntering along the path side by . side, apparently whiting away the hour or two that separated them from dinner. One of them was a tall, slender, graceful fellow, with sharp but well molded features, feat-ures, black hair' and mustache, and a pair of restbss black eyes. He was dressed quietly, in dark colors, and yet there was a certain jauntiness iu his appearance ap-pearance that suggested the eporting man cr the sharper. His companion was a considerably older man, end J:is facd was of a much coarsji' cast; his clothes were new, but fitted him ill, and lie wore a ilashy necktie and watch chain. His small gray eyes hid noted the littla occurrence above described, and us the carriage rolled tvsy he nudged his friend with lib elbow. "Well, vhat now?" said tlie latter. "Did you eee that?" "What?" "Well, your wits are irool gathering, it seems. Did you cee that 1-Ho ,v get into that carriage?" "What carriage?" "That carriage that was standing here just now with the lady in it. Why, what's got into you, Uorrie? Don't you know who ijho was?" "No, I don't. How should I?" "Well, you might find it money in j your pocket some day, that's ail. Bwell ! women like that don't drive out alone in j tho park for nothing, I reckon! And i m?y be, rather than have their husbands S kjjow what they're after, they might see Their way to paying an obliging person a consideration to keep his mouth shut." "Oh, tiulf! That business is played cut. Tho swells ard on to it, and tho first word that's said they ring- the bell for the police. I don't want any of that in mine, thank you! And if you want (fny one to believe yon know all the ladies that , drive in tho park iu. their own have gone on deck tor wtiat 1 can t imagine im-agine and been swept overboard. No one knew anything of it until the next morning." "Now I know now I know'!" murmured mur-mured Pauline, pressing her hands over her heart. "It was he he did not forget for-get I might have known it!" "What might you have known?" asked her brother. "Nothing; go on. When you found that he was dead what then?" "Wo had agreed bef ore to go to Mexico. Mex-ico. He had letters and papers. I took them and went traveling as Valentine Martin. I saw that in that way I should get a standing in the place w hich I eculd not havo obtained for myself, and that the report of my death would throw otf tho police. I was cordially received in Mexico, and put in the way of doing some valuablo busiucss. Everything prospered with me, as it had never done before. Tha story is too long to tell fully now; but in the midst of my success an extraordinary thing occurred; an English Eng-lish agent of the Martin estate came over imd told me supposing me to be Valentine Valen-tine that by my brother's death I was the heir. I did not wish to enter into explanations, so I simply told him that I did not want the estate, and that it might go to the next of kin. I had forgotten for-gotten that Val had a wife, though, of course, I knew all about her. She had ruined his life in more ways than one, and was no better than she should be; but if his death wero known she would beentitled to a share of the estate. It eecms sho had got wind of the English cgent's business, and had followed him from New Zealand. I had a curious interview in-terview with her; sho charged me fin-r.lly fin-r.lly with having madj away with her husbaud in order by personating him to get his property, and treating my assertion asser-tion that I was not going to touch tlie property as mere buncombe. But the next day I got a letter from her in which she actually offered, in case I would inako common cause with her, to go to England, provo her marriage to Valentine, Valen-tine, get the estate and then divide with me!" "Poor Valentine!" murmured Pauline, with a trembling lip. "When I refused she declared war, and 6aid she would expose me as an impostor im-postor and probable murderer. She learned that I was manager aud part owner of a valuable mine that I bad discovered dis-covered near Pachuca. The other owners were two high officers of the government, govern-ment, She went to them with her story. 'l 1 f and his present position and character char-acter were tho result partly of innate evil and partly of circumstances. He had received an excellent education an4 had graduated from the New York Medical Med-ical school in good standing. Up tr that time, beyond a tendency to loose company com-pany and irregular habits, he had developed devel-oped no noticeably had tendencies. The chances were that he would outgrow his youthful follie3 and become a useful member of society. Almost immediately upon his graduation, gradua-tion, however, his destiny took a sinister turn. At a partiug supper with liiscom-rades liiscom-rades he got into a quarrel with one of them, ending in a scuffle in which blows were exchanged. The quarrel was patched up and tlie two antagonists shook hands and drank together, but Horace secretly bore a grudge and was determined to "get even." At the end Df the evening, his late antagonist being somewhat the worse for liquor, Horace volunteered to see him home. They walked off together, Horace revolving in his mind the scheme of some practical joke. That night Horace's companion was found insensible on his doorstep with the mark of a blow from a slungshot behind his ear. Ho never entirely recovered consciousness, and died the next day after uttering the name of Horace Dupee. Horace was arrested ou a charge of tnuider, aud iu default of bail waa llirown into prison. After a long series of delays extending over a year, he was brought to trial and acquitted. The evidence, evi-dence, though amounting to a strong-probability, strong-probability, was not conclusive, aud tha-jury tha-jury gave him the benefit of the doubt. He went forth nominally a free man, but bis social and professional career were blasted ere they had fairly begun. The lhadow of the mark of Cain, if not tha tnark itself, was upon him. He might have changed his name ami and achieved success iu another country. But half from sullen obstinacy, half from lack of business energy, he did not do this. Instead, he drifted into bad society so-ciety and soon found himself in harmony with it. Tho class of society in which ho had formerly moved ceased to know him. the police began to tako an interest in dim, but he was shrewd and cautioua enough to avoid falling into their hands. Borne of his escapes were verv narrow,, but up the present time his photograph dad not appeared in the rogue's gallery, n such a case, however, detection is sure to come sooner or later. Some oversight Is committed, some "pal" turns state'9 evidence, or some fatality o;cur3. Since the time of his downfall Horace Dupee had wandered from place to place and lived in most states of the Union. But again and again he returned to New York, though he knew that he ran greater risks there than elsewhere. At the time we come up erith him he had been absent from the city for nearly a year. It was on the day after his arrival that his companion, com-panion, Grusb, had called his attention to Urs. Ketelle. Sue was the sister of the man of whose murder be had been accused. This fact was sufficient to inspire him with animosity ani-mosity against her. He had never seen her before. The only member of the family with whom he had ever come in personal contact was Jerrold Nolen. But he owed them all a grudge. If it had oot been for them he might have had a successful career. He was prepared, therefore, to do her whatever iil turn came in his way. It was an additional motive that the ill turn to her could be made of advantage to himself. Grush had suggested this, and though he had turned aside the suggestion he considered it none the less. There was no need 01 letting Grush into the affair. In secret councils was safety. Besides Grush had no claims upon him quite the contrary; he, too, was associated with whatever was disastrous in his life. He made up his mind to carry out his purpose without with-out saying anything to Grush about it. Several days passed. One afternoon Mrs. Ketelle left her house and took a Fourth avenue car uptown. She left it in the neighborhood of Harlem, walked across town a couple of blocks and entered en-tered the door of a small flat that formed part of an unfinished block on a side street. She remained there for upwards of an hour. Twilight was beginning to ' fall when she came out. She had not walked far when sho heard a step behind her, and a voice said, "Good evening, Mrs. Ketelle. How is the judge today?" She turned and saw at her side a well dressed man of dark complexion, who fixed his eyes upon her in a manner she did not like. But his knowledge of her name and of her husband led her to suppose sup-pose that she must have met him somewhere some-where and forgotten him. "You must excuse me, sir," she 6aid, "but you havo the advantage of me." "Indeed, I believe you are right," ho answered, with a short laugh. "The advantage ad-vantage ia all on my side. But tell me, Mrs. Ketelle, how does married life suit you? Does the judge come up to your expectations? For my part I should think twice before marrying a woman so much younger than myself. By the time you are coming into full bloom the judge will be in the sere and yellow leaf. But I suppose you know how to manage liim. He hasn't betrayed any symptoms of the green eyed monster yet, has he?' This speech produced such astonishment astonish-ment in Pauline that she could not find words to interrupt it. But when the speaker paused she stood still and looked him curiously in the face. "You don't seem to be intoxicated," sho said at length. "You may be crazy. sate, at least that she could save him by the sacrifice (so far as this man was concerned) con-cerned) of her reputation as a pure woman. By letting him continue to suppose that it was an ordinary intrigue in which she was engaged, and paying him for his silence for she divined that it was for that purpose he had accosted her she could keep Percy's secret until tha time arrived when it might safely be divulged. The sacrifice was perhap3 as arduous a one as an honest woman could bo called upon to make; but there was no hesitation in her mind a3 to whether or not she should make it. "I havo heard that there were such persons as you, but I never saw one before," be-fore," she said. "You are a blackmailer, are you not?" There was something in her tone that touched a sore spot in him, callous and degraded though he had become. To see her beautiful face and angry eyes gazing straight into his, and to feel that her contempt for him was far too great for her to make any attempt to express it in words, was an experience that even he found trying. Ho remembered, with a pang of hopeless rage, that ha might have so lived as to have the right to meet this lovely woman on term3 of social equality, and to win her respect and perhaps her regard. As it was, it was impossible for one human being to despise another more than she despised him. And yet what right had she to despise him if sho were herself reprehensible repre-hensible before society? The thought hardened him again. "I see you are up to business as well as to some other things," he said. "I have my living to make; you are paid for by j our husband and amuse yourself by deceiving de-ceiving hini. If he divorces you, you may find out what it is to make your own way in the world; as long as yoi:r good looks last no doubt it will be er.sy: but after that you may be ready to t:il.i a few lessons from me. But meantiir.L' I intend to bleed you for what 1 want. As soon as you get tired of paying me I The quietness of anger at white heat was in her eyes and voice, and it scared the man somewhat, as it would have scared a much more doughty rascal. He forced a laugh and struck his boot with his cane. After a moment she turned and resumed her walk up the street. He remained where he was until she was half a block distant. Then he hastened has-tened after her and overtook her. "Look here, Mrs. Ketelle," ho said, "business is business. I'm not a fool. Tell me what you can do, and I'll give you my answer." She replied at once, continuing her walking, but keeping her eyes upon him as she spoke. "I am allowed by my husband fifty dollars a week pocket money. I will pay you twenty dollars a week until in my opinion you have had enough. I will pay you your first month's wages in advance eighty dollars. dol-lars. You must be careful not to apply for more until the month is out. Those are my terms." "They won't do!" said he, blusteringly. "You'll pay me two hundred no and fifty a week, or it's no deal I Come, now I" "If you address me again, except to accept my proposition, I will have you arrested, come what may I" The color rushed to her face and her eyes flashed. She was losing her temper, and sho was evidently in earnest. He was silent a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. "All right, I'll take it," he said. "Hand over the money." "I do not carry that amount in my purse," she returned quietly. "How am I to get it, then?" "You will come to my house liko any other person to whom things are paid. Did you think I was going to make appointments to meet you at the street comers, or in liquor saloons? My husband hus-band will pay you." "Y'our husband! Look here, Mrs. Ketelle, Ke-telle, you are a smart woman; but if you think you can play any gamo on me, leaving mm there. rre3ently he heard her voice and another the judge's in conversation. Then sho opened another door further up the hall and called to him, "Come this way, please." He went forward, and found himself in the library. The judge was seated at a writing table on which stood a student's stu-dent's lamp. He was in the act of taking tak-ing his check book from a drawer. "What amount did you say, my dear?" he inquired, suspending his pen over the inkstand. "Eighty dollars," she replied. The judge began to wre. -"What name?" he inquired, looking up at Du-pee, Du-pee, who stood somewhat in the shadow. "What is your name?" Mrs. Ketelle repeated. re-peated. Dupee now fancied he knew why sho had brought him to the house. In the first place, the check could be traced; then the judge could be called to prove that it had been paid to him; and, finally, she had hoped to surprise him into betraying be-traying his name. But he had gone too far to go back; and as for the name, that was easily managed. It was partly from , a malicious motive that he answered: : "My name is John Grush." "John Grush," echoed the judge, writing writ-ing it down. He signed the check and extended it toward Dupee. "Have you receipted the bill?" he asked. Dupee looked at Mrs. Ketelle. "I did not get a bill," she said. "The check is itself a receipt, is it not?" "Yes, yes, to be sure," rejoined her husband. "Well, that's all right, then; that's all!" "You may go," said Mis. Ketelle, glancing at Dupee as if he were a piece of furniture. When she heard the street door close, she went round to her husband hus-band and kissed him. "You are very good," she said. "What to give you eighty dollars without asking you what you had bought?" he returned, laughing. "Yes; but you shall know some time." "My dearest, I am not curious; I only Ves, I remember! Have you thought who it is?" "It occurred to me last night, or early this morning, while I was lying awake. The name he gave yesterday evening John something" "John Grush." "John Grush yes; that was not the name of the person I am thinking of. I don't mean to imply that his name may not have been John Grush. But he certainly cer-tainly bears a remarkable resemblance to another man whom you, I think, never saw, but whose name will be familiar famil-iar to you." "Who? tell me!" The judge was a little surprised at her impatience. "Mind you, it'sonly a fancy of mine," he said. "Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it; but it had such an odd relation to a matter very near to you. Of course, however, it is impossible impossi-ble that the person who was here last night can be the man I refer to." "But who is it?" "He reminded me of Horace Dupee," said the judge. "Of course you know whom I mean. I was not personally engaged en-gaged in the trial, but I dropped into the court one day, and watched the proceedings pro-ceedings for half an hour. That was the only occasion on which I ever saw Dupee. Du-pee. He was a striking looking fellow, and I retained an unusually distinct memory of his features. This man Grush looks a good deal older than Dupee did though, to be sure, it was several years ago." "Will you have ejme more coffee, dear?" asked Pauline. "No more, thank you. I'll go and smoke a cigar, and then How is your mother feeling this morning?" "About the same. I have an idea it might be good for her to get up to breakfast break-fast in the mornings. I think she could, if she tried. Perhaps a stimulus of some sort would benefit her some great piece of news, for instance." "Possibly. But I hardly think there is any news that would be likely to interest in-terest your mother. She hardly ever bo certain instances, Decdme somfcning Det-ter Det-ter and higher. Only in certain instances, in-stances, mind you! As to Percy's case, there is no reason to suppose that lie would be treated with any special severity. sever-ity. Quite the contrary. It is almost certain that the original prosecutor would not appear; and the government would scarcely take up the matter. No; Percy would be arrested and certain formalities for-malities gone through with, and but, bless my sold, I am talking as if the poor boy were still in this world! God bless him! He is far beyond the reach of worldly justice or injustice now!" With these words the good judge got "op, and after kissing his wife's hand in a chivalrous fashion of his, he went into the library to smoke his cigar. Pauline loved her husband, but she was glad to be alone at that moment. She was wrought up to a high pitch of excitement, and felt the necessity of dealing with her thoughts and emotions in private. She went up to her boudoir and locked herself in. Since the occurrence of the day before she had moi than once been on the point of revealing the whole matter to her husband. Had it concerned herself alone, she would have done so at the outset. But the secret was Percy's in the first place, and she could not tell how she had been blackmailed without revealing his presence in the city. No doubt the judge would keep the secret, for her sake, if for no other reason; but she had reflected that it could do no good to Percy to have him know it; and If Percy's presence should happen to be discovered in any other way it might prove awkward for the judge to have been found in the position of sheltering a fugitive from justice. On the other hand, she could not tell Percy sf the insult that had been put upon her, because he would undoubtedly sacrifice everything to inflict summary punishment punish-ment upon the blackmailer. She had therefore decided to pay the latter a sum of money, giving him to understand that no more would be forthcoming for a until tne proDabllity bad been made a certainty, and then bring him news in which there should be no element of conjecture. con-jecture. She wished, moreover, to enjoy en-joy the pleasure of managing the affair herself, without either her husband's or her brother's help. Having determined in her own mind her plan of proceedings, she waited until her husband had started on his daily trip to his office, and then she put on her cloak and bonnet and went out herself. It was a fine, clear forenoon. It was not the first time she had visited police headquarters, and she knew the way thither. The squalid denizensof Bleecker and Mulberry streets stared at the handsome hand-some lady as she passed by, but she was too much preoccupied by the matter in hand to notice their observation. She mounted the steps of the big white faced building with a light heart, and asked to be admitted to see Inspector Byrnes. She had just put the question to the sergeant when the inspector came out, in hat and overcoat. He recognized her irami .ately, and lifted his hat with a smile. "You are going out," she said. "When can I see you?" "I am not going out," was his reply. "I am going to ask you to come into my office and have a talk. If you had not come here I might have called on you today. Come in." And he conducted her to the inner room. "Now, then," he said, when they were seated, "what is the news?" "It is you who should" have news for me," she returned, smiling. "I'm sure you have had time to find out a dozen such mysteries as the one I asked you about." The Inspector wore an amused look. "When you want to bamboozle an old hand like me," he said, "you must first of all learn to command your face. You must not look happy if you expect me to believe that you are miserable. If you have lost a brother, you must not look as if you had found one!" Pauline blushed and got a little frightened. fright-ened. "Tt was nrvt mv hwtthar that I Whatever you are, I adviso you to go. I do not want you." "No, I suppose not," he replied, returning re-turning her glance insolently. "I am not the lucky man. Tho judge lias no cause to bo jealous of mo. But, on tho other hand, I may be of someuse to him. Of course, it will bo a pity to spoil your little game. Y'ou have managed it all so nicely, even to providing him with lodgings; and he is such a fino looking young fellow, and it is all so love!- and romantic. But, you see, I havo a high regard for the judge, and I can't bear to see him made a fool of. These billings and cooings in the park and assignations in flats they must bo stopped. Society won't stand it. And the best way to 6top it that I can think of is to tell Judge Ketelle." Pauline listened to all this attentively, at first with a dreadful fear that this unknown man had become acquainted with the fact that her brother had returned re-turned to New York. But as he went on she perceived that he supposed Percy to be her lover; and then his object became be-came clear. A deep blush overspread her face. That sho should be thought capable, even by a wretch who did not know her, of an illicit intrigue, filled her with horror and anger. But under-j under-j neath this feeling there was another and a more powerful one. It was a feeling of relief and jo; that her brother waa f . " " I shall go to the judge and you will go to the devil. Is that plain?" "Yes, I understand you. You will certainly earn your money," she remarked, re-marked, with a smile that made him grind his teeth. "Well, then, I will pay you for your silence. Now, as to the amount. Have you thought about that?" "You will hand over live hudred dollars dol-lars this evening. I will fet you know when I want any more." "No," she said decisively, "I will not give you five hundred dollars. That is absurd." "Either that, or your husband knows all about your performances before he goes to bed to-night." ''Very well. But recollect that by betraying be-traying me to him you will free me from every restraint and scruple. I suppose you don't need to be told that I am not kindly disposed toward you. The pleasure pleas-ure of destroying you would compensate me for the loss of social position you speak of. While you are with my husband hus-band I shall be with Inspector Byrnes. I promise you faithfully that you shall suffer the utmost penalty of the law, and after tho law has done with you I will take you in hand myself. When that time comes you will wish that the law had kept you longer. Y'ou will never draw a breath that is not free from pain and terror as long as you live. Look at me. sir. Don't you think I mean what I you are mistaken, lou have more at stake than I have. Don't try to bluff nic!" "If I have tho most at stake, why do you feel uneasy? Y'ou will receive your money in that way, or not at all. It is just as you choose." They had now reached the corner of the avenue; Pauline signaled the down town car that was approaching, and got in. The man followed her. She handed the conductor a double fare, remarking, "I am paying for that person." No conversation passed while they were in the car. Dupee wa3 ill at ease, but he could not see but that he had the best of the situation. She could not afford to betray him. On the" other hand, what if Judge Ketelle should happen hap-pen to know him by sight? No; he was certain they had never met; the judge had taken no part in his trial, either as witness or jurist. Besides, again, was it not her interest to protect him? The car stopped, and they got out and walked across to her house. The door was opened to her ring, and they entered. "Is Judge Ketelle in?" she asked the servant. "Y'es, madam, ne has just gone into the library." "Sit down here," she said to' Dupee, addressing him a3 if he were a tradesman's trades-man's clerk who had called for his bill. "I will let you know when it i3 ready." 1 She passed throufih a door on the right. want you to love me. Do you Know, he added, "I can't get it out of my head that I have met that fellow that clerk who wa3 here just now , ve seen him somewhere before and under odd circumstances, too." "Where?" said she, startled and deeply interested. "Hum! I can't fix it! Maybe I shall remember later. But it's no consequence, after all. Now one more kiss, and I'll go and get ready for dinner." CHAPTER XXI. AT HEADQUARTERS. s I ing, while the I I judge and Pau-I! Pau-I! I I line were sitting "? C I I over their break-bJ&vfe- i fast" he said: "By v-S?Vf p the way, my dar- lwii?fivNfe I ou remeru" w t SfeXst eT my 8 a ' ' n g A &lr i'Rjl yesterday that fclll-'lr fVi that person the $AlbiU M-Tll IS black haired Mil I' ($M " man' whom 1 f If&aU Paid a check to li.ft!i reminded mo of some one?" Pauline, who had been sitting in a listless and pensive posture, instantly brightened up and expectation sparkled in her eves. much as looks in a newspaper. "I don't mean news of that kind. But li, ior mstance, sue snouia near mat uie thief who committed the robbery of which Percy was accused was caught and convicted; or (if it were possible) that Percy himself is not dead, but had in some strange way escaped!" "Ah, yes; such news would give her fresh life, no doubt. But we must not let our imagination take so wide a range." "It is not impossible. Why may not Percy be alive? No one has seen his dead body. Why may he not return some day? Men have often returned who were thought to be lost for years and years." "Why, my dear, do not let your mind run on such thoughts! You are excited already. We must not hope to see Percy After a pause Pauline said, "If he were to come back do you think he would be arrested on that old charge?" "Speaking from the legal point of view, I suppose he would be." "But suppose he were to come back suppose he were in New York now would it be unsafe for him to be seen or to have it known? Would he have to keep in hiding until his innocenra could be proven?" "My dearest .wife," replied the jadge, gently, "the law cannot be affected by sentiment. If it were so, it would cease to be the law. I do not say that, ia ceasing to be .the law, it.mjght tiot. fai month; and in the course of that month she intended to turn all her energies to the task of clearing Percy, by some means or other, of the old charge which so hampered and obstructed him. She would then be free to deal with the blackmailer black-mailer at her leisure, and she intended to punish him to the full extent of the law. But the revelation of the blackmailer's identity changed the whole aspect of the case. To Pauline it had been totally unexpected; un-expected; and yet in looking back she could fancy that she had known him intuitively in-tuitively from the first. Be that as it might, it was a triumph more complete than she had ever dared to anticipate. Dupee was the man who had murdered her brother Jerrold; he (as she believed) was the man who had cast a nearly fatal shadow over the career of Percy; and he, again, delivered himself, bound hand and foot, into her power by perpetrating upon her the crime of blackmail. She had him securely, for though he had given a false name the judge would be able to identity him as the recipient of the check, and the case against him would thus be proved. He would be arrested ar-rested on that charge, and then it would go hard, but the whole truth should come out She regarded Percy as being as good as free, and was strongly impelled to go and tell him the story at once; but, on second thought, she decided to wait asked you to find, Inspector Byrnes," she said. "No, the brother was to be tnrown ui, I suppose! This is fine weather we are having just now, Mrs. Ketelle," he added, add-ed, in another tone. "Capital for exercise!" exer-cise!" "I beg your pardon." He laughed. "You live up near the park," he said. "Would it be too far for you to walk up to One Hundred and Twenty -fifth street, or that neighborhood?" neighbor-hood?" "To One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street?' "Uy tha way, that reminds ma oi something; perhaps you may be able to enlighten me. There is an English friend of mine in town, a gentleman by the name of Clifton. Ho is over here to look after the interests of a valuable English estate. It seems that the hereditary hered-itary owner of this estate lately deceased, de-ceased, and it became necessary to find the next man in the succession. It was known that he had gone to New Zealand, Zea-land, but upon Investigation there it appeared ap-peared that he had left on a visit to this country. Finally news of him was received re-ceived from Mexico. Does the story interest in-terest you?" "Let me hear," she said. "Well, in Mexico a man answering to his name wa3 found; but on 'being told of his inheritance, he declared that he would have nothing to do vith it. That seenied odd; for people are not in the habit of throwing away three-quarters of a million of money. Just then a person appeared on the scene who aftiraied thr-t this man was not the person he represented repre-sented himself to be at all, but an impostor. im-postor. That seemed possible in one way; in the other way, an impostor would be the Uwl man in the world whom one would expec t to let a great property slip between Sis lingers. My English friend was puzzlod; but he knew that this mysterious mys-terious geulleman had lately been in New York, and it occurred to him that it might be a good plan to come on here and see if lie could learn anything more about him. "Now, it so happens that I have an acquaintance ac-quaintance in Mexico who makes a point of knowing what goes on there, and whenever he hears of anytliing that he . thinks might interest me he drops me a line, or sends a telegram, if there is any hurry. He had heard about this affair I speak of, and also that the mysterious gentleman had had an interview with some government officials, and immediately immedi-ately afterwards had left Mexico en route for the United States. He telegraphed this information, together with the alleged al-leged name of the mysterious gentleman. It was a name 1 bad heard, before, and I had even met the gentleman himself. So, when the steamer was announced, I took half an hour and went down to the wharf to say good day to him. And then. Mrs. Ketelle, a curious thing happened." He paused and fixed his eyes on her. She sat before hini with her hands tightly tight-ly clasped in her lap, her lips compressed and her eyes dark with emotion. 'The gentleman whom I saw," continued con-tinued the inspector, "was not the one named in the telegram, but it was an intimate in-timate friend of his, whom I had also met before. He had, however, been reported re-ported dead. But seeing hini alive and well, though somewhat changed in appearance, ap-pearance, I came to the conclusion that perhaps a mistake had been made, and that it was the friend who had died" liut Pauline could restrain herself no longer. She lifted her Iiands slightly and let them fall again. "He was a dear friend of mine," she said, while the tears came into her eyes; "he was a good friend to Percy. I seo you know all, inspector; you seem to know everything! What are you going to do with him?" a banking institution iere in New York, and, as it happened, by the same institution insti-tution where Mrs. Tunstall kept her account." ac-count." 'Then it is provedl He Is the man!" exclaimed Pauline, triumphantly. "No, it is not proved," returned the detective, shaking' his head. "It takes more than that to make a conviction. We do not know that the note was pre-lented pre-lented by Horace Dupee, and even if we did it would still be possible that he had received it from some one else. No, Mrs. Ketelle, we cannot arrest Dupee on that evidence. If we could find any pretext pre-text for arresting him, either on this charge or on any other, then it might be possible to complete our evidence as to this. But the power to do that is unfortunately unfor-tunately wanting." "Do 1 understand you that if any one brought a charge against him on another matter you could obtain a conviction on this?" "I don't promise we would do it; 1 only say it might be possible. But at any rate I think it would do no harm if you would tell me all about your interviews inter-views with Dupee and what came of it." Pauline gazed at the inspector in astonishment. as-tonishment. "You know about that too?" she exclaimed ex-claimed at length. "Why not? What is there so wonderful wonder-ful in that?" he returned, composedly. "I suppose nothing seems wonderful to you," replied she; "but 1 confess I had expected to surprise you in regard to that! Well, then, if you know that I have seen him, I suppose that you know all that passed between us, also?" "No, no," rejoined the inspector, laughing, laugh-ing, "my knowledge stops at the fact of the interview. What you said to each other you will have to tell me if you wish me to know it." "It was in order to tell youthatl came here," said Pauline; and she went on to give an account of the whole affair, the inspector listening to her with close attention. at-tention. Her narrative was clear and precise. "Do you think that he was aware that you were the sister of Jerrold and Porey Nolen'f" he asked, after she had finished. "He must have known it. I was married mar-ried only a short time ago, and my maiden name was in the papers." "Does it not seem odd that ha should have made this attempt upon a woman whose brother he had murdered? Mur- i.other'a lodgings to Harlem. What he lid there you know. But Orush had distrusted him, and found out thedouble game ho was playing. He bore him a grudge for it; and early this morning he sent word to me that he had something some-thing to t'inmunieate. I went down stairs and saw him in his cell. He told me of Dupee'8 bad faith, and said that I would find that Dupee had actually received re-ceived money from you. I acted as if 1 placed no credit in his accusation; and upon that he went on and declared that Dupee bad, a year ago, committed a robbery rob-bery for which an innocent man was arrested. ar-rested. Yes, Mrs. Ketelle, it was the Tunstall robbery that he mentioned, i asked him how be knew and he said that he was intimate with Dupee at the time, and that when Percy Nolen was arrested Dupee had laughed and remarked re-marked that it was a good job; he was glad to have done a Nolen an ill turn, and that he hoped Nolen might rot in jail while he was spending the money Nolen was imprisoned for." "Oh, the villain!" murmured Pauline, with dilating eyes. "I told Qrush," continued the inspector, "that I believed, if Dupee had had anything any-thing to do with the robbery, that Grush had been equally guilty. He denied it at first, but finally admitted that he had discovered the fact that Mrs. Tunstall was in the habit of going about town with large sums of money in her pocket, and upon my pushing him still further he added that be had pointed her out to Dupee on the morning of the crime, and had waited outside the jeweler's shop while Dupee was doing the work inside. According to his account, Dupee had not acted squarely with him on this occasion occa-sion either; he had refused to give him a fair share of the plunder, but Urush had postponed betraying his dissatisfaction until be could give it some practical effect. Be gave a number of details which coincided with facts that I had previously ascertained, and convinced me that his story was substantially tine." "Thank heaven!" exclaimed Pauline. "OU, my dear brotherl" "Wait a moment!" lejoined the detective. de-tective. "We are not quire out of the woods yet! On making a review of the evidence at our disposal, I doubted whether it would be safe to cause Du-pee's Du-pee's arrest on the robbery charge. If we should fail to hold him we might bid her husband. Well, if that were her idea, she would discover her mistake. He would reveal her shame, w hatever tho consequences to himself. He would blast her life; not only her husband, bill the wholo world should know what she had done; and if he suffered imprisonment imprison-ment for it, at any rate the time would come when he would again be free, and then he could seek her out and taunt her with her ignominy. For time would bring no freedom to her. This bitterness of malice on his part was partly characteristic of the nature of the man; but there was in it an element ele-ment of exceptional animosity. Almost all criminals who have fallen from a higher social position lay the responsibility responsi-bility of their degradation at the door of some person or combination of circumstances circum-stances outside of themselves. So it was with Dupee, who dated the beginning of his misfortune from the day when he was arrested on the charge of murder liy the father of Jerrold Nolen. Pauline and her mother were the only living representatives rep-resentatives (as he believed) of that man. They should suffer a vicarious punishment. punish-ment. So strong was his desire to see this punishment inflicted that he half hoped Mrs. Ketelle had really played him false. The longer he thought over the matter, however, the less likely did it seem that this could be the case. Whatever What-ever she might think as to the probability probabil-ity of bis failing to carry out his threat, the possibility that he would carry it out was too serious a one to invite. Recognizing Recog-nizing this, Dupee prepared himself for either contingency. He would go to Judge Ketelle's office and inform him of the refusal of the check, as if he supposed it to be an ordinary business error. If the judge redeemed the check, well and good; the matter might stop, for the present at any rate, where it was. If, on the contrary, resistance should be offered to bis claim, he would know how to defend himself. It was about 11 o'clock when he mounted mount-ed the steps of the judge's office on Pine street. The rooms were on the first floor; there was an outer office and two or three inner rooms opening into one another. an-other. Two or three clerks were writing in the outer room when Dupee entered He asked one of them if Judge Ketelle were within. "I'll see, sir,"replied the clerk, looking up. "What name shall I say?" "Say Mr. Grush wants to see him a ance with you, you will perceive the propriety of this precaution." "I don't regard the matter in thai light," answered Dupee, who was begin ning to lose his nerve. "I am not ac countable to the firm. I sold the goods and I must request you to pay mc tin money." There was a book lying on the judge't desk, and at this moment, apparently b accident, a- movement of his elbow caused this book to fall heavily to tin-floor. tin-floor. "The affair concerns Mrs. Ketelle more directly than it does me," he observed "I will communicate with her, and il she authorizes the payment I will make it." At that moment the door into the outer office opened. "And by the way.' continued the judge, "here is Mrs. Ketelle Ke-telle now. We can settle this thing here." It was, in fact, Pauline. Her face was pale and grave, but her eyes sparkled like stars. Dupee knew not how to interpret in-terpret her abrupt appearance. The look that she bestowed upon him did not tend to reassure him. But he summoned all his resolution and resolved to fight if brought to bay. "My dear," said the judge, as his wife came over to him and stood by his chair, "this person tells me that the check I gave him at your request has been stopped, and he wants me to write him another." "It was stopped by my orders," said Pauline, turning her eyes again on Dupee. Du-pee. "The money will not be paid." "Why won't it be paid?" retorted Dupee. Du-pee. "Do you mean to deny that it is due?" "I owe you nothing," she replied. "Oh! we'll see about that! Do you wish me to tell your husband what it was you bought of me and paid eighty dollars on account?" "I owe you nothing and shall pay you nothing," was her answer. "You are an impostor and a thief. Your name is not John Grush, but Horace Dupee. 1 have waited for you a long time." "Never mind what my name is or what I am! I know what you are and what you have donel And unless you pay me, here and now, not eighty dollars dol-lars but eight hundred, your husband shall know as much as I dot" "Not so loud, sir, if you please," interposed inter-posed the judge. "I don't think you can tell me anything about Mrs. Ketelle that telle and Percy were to meet him there and effect his discomfiture. There was nothing left for him to do except to retire re-tire like the baffled villain in the melodrama, melo-drama, muttering, "Foiled! but I will yet be avenged!" or words to that effect Dupee, however, failed to grasp the dramatic opportunities of the situation; but he said, as he moved towards the door, "You have been known as a pickpocket, pick-pocket, Percy Nolen, and it'll stick to youl" With that he opened the door, and would have gone out of it, had lie not been confronted there by a broad sheuldered, athletic gentleman, with a brown mustache and piercing eyes, who was accompanied by a dejected personage person-age wearing the familiar aspect of Mr. John Grush, the only true and genuine proprietor of that name. The broad shouldered man, after handing hand-ing Grush into the room, followed hini and closed the door. "Good morning, Mrs. Ketelle and gentlemen," he said, oheerfully. "Well, Horace, you seo I have a friend of yours here. Jack ha3 been complaining to me of you. He says you not only stole his name, but infringed in-fringed his patent blackmail scheme. And 60, by way of retaliation, lie ha3 been telling very bad tales of you. I'm afraid you are in for a good deal of trouble, Horace." "There's no need of making a fuss about this affair, inspector." said Dupee, assuming a nonchalant air. "There's been no blackmail that 1 know of. It is true that Judge Ketelle paid me a worthless worth-less check the other day; but thero has been no pecuniary transaction, properly speaking, and 1 don't know what this man," indicating Grush, "is grumbling about. I know very little of him." "He has the advantage of you, then," returned the inspector, "for he knows a great deal about you. I have been waiting wait-ing for you for a year. I knew you'd bo back here, so I didn't bother to disturb you in San Francisco; but I've got that thousand dollar note up at the office; and Grush has filled up any little gaps in the chain, though we could have done very well without him. Hold out your hands!" The last words were spoken in a voice so different from the good natured banter ban-ter of the foregoing sentences that Dupee gave a start and mechanically extended his wrists, and the next moment the handcuffs were round them. The moment mo-ment after that, however, he seemed to and, to my thinking, hanging is too good for either of them!" The little audience which had been involuntary in-voluntary spectators of this violent and ugly scene drew a breath of relief when the door closed behind the two convicts. It was a long time before the nightmare impression wore off. "That last turn was unexpected," observed the inspector, deprecatingly. "It wasn't on my programme. I think Dupee probably told the truth about it. You remember, Miss Nolen, I always doubted his having committed the greater crime But on the whole I think we may congratulate ourselves on having made a very good end of the affair. af-fair. You will not have to return to Harlem, Mr. Nolen, unless you wish to. And, on the other hand, w hen you go back to Mexico I fancy you will find no difficulty in carrying with you all tho guarantees, social or business, that you want." "Thanks to you, inspector," said the young man, with feeling, grasping tho officer by the hand. "Oh, no; that is where your thanks belong," be-long," the latter returned, bowing toward Paulino with a smile. "She deserves most of the credit for the successful issue is-sue of this affair. No sister, I'll make bold to say, ever stood by a brother so faithfully as she has by you. I havo done little besides back her up now and then; and, if 1 hadn't, I believe sho would have done the whole thing alone by herself!" and evading further thanks and praises the chief detective made a comprehensive salute to the company and vanished from the room. "He's what I call a man!" said Percy. "And a general!" added the judge. Pauline said in a whisper, "God bless him!" Judge Ketelle and his beautiful wife continue to live in New York, and now that the shadow is lifted from them they are the sunny center of a charming society. so-ciety. Mrs. Nolen lives with them, in the enjoyment of a serene old age. Percy returned to Mexico, and is still living there, having become quite wealthy; and his betrothal is reported to the daughter of one of the chief men in the government. Mrs. Valentine Martin is believed to be in England, intriguing, without much prospect of success, for the possession of her late husband's estates. es-tates. Dupee i3 behind the bars; Grush contrived to cheat the gallows. Inspector In-spector Byrnes is hard at work, but hard work agrees with him. THE ESD. CHAPTER XXIL JOHN GRUSH. v . . HAT am I going i V to do with him?' Wl the inspector re- fcl f PesLted- "Why-i . Am ' ? have been under ' V tue 'mPress'ou - . 3 li tnat ne was ready in the best t'tVJ. of hands and f'i jL' Jrtf (1 would need noat-Jjw-Jri tentionfromme!" IV WS' "Ah, don't -'-'- iySm' laush at mel If M fey i-3i, yu mean harm if' to him, let me by my advice that lie kept in hiding. If he were arrested here it would ruin his position in Mexico, even if he were released re-leased again immediately." "Now, Mr3. Ketelle, let us understand "each other," said the inspector, becoming grave. and business like. "You asked me, a year ago, to clear the memory of your brother, whom you believed to be dead, ot the stain that had been put upon it, by discovering and punishing . the real perpetrator of the crime he was . accused of. I told you that I would do what I could, and I have kept my word. By and by you discover that your brother isjiot dead after all, and is in New York. " Don't you think it would have been a "kind and courteous act on your part to "have come to me and1 told me of it?" "He is my brother," was her reply. "I could think of nothing before his welfare. wel-fare. I have told no one that he is here, or that he is alive not even my mother nor my husband. I know that you are an officer of the law, and that when you saw your duty you would have no choice . but to execute it. I hoped that the real ' criminal would be found, and so all turn out right." "I don't know as I ought to expect you to care more for the law than you do for your brother," remarked the detective, " stroking his chin; "and perhaps I should " feel complimented that you expected the ' real criminal, as you call him, to be , tracked and captured out of hand. But . America is a large place, and the po-. po-. police have a number of things to look after; and, as you know, it is one thing . to suspect a man, and another to convict ucicia am uoumijr uimo uuuui, u Homing Hom-ing else. I think we shall find, Mrs. Ketelle, Ke-telle, that he is innocent of that crime. As regards the robbery I say nothing; but I have never thought it likely that a fellow like Dupee would commit a murder mur-der so peculiarly cold blooded and comparatively com-paratively unprovoked as that would have been. But if he was wrongly charged with it it is quite conceivable that he may have embraced this opportunity oppor-tunity to revenge himself upon a member of the family that brought him to ruin." "You may be right." "I believe it will turn out so. Bat there is another point suggested by your story. It is quite certain that he did not know your brother, for if he had ho would not have attempted to blackmail you on his account or, at any rate, not on the ground that he put forward." . "Yes, there can be no doubt about that," Pauline assented. "Then don't you see it has a bearing on the robbery? Your theory has been that he committed the robbery partly, at least, in order to have your brother arrested ar-rested for it. But as he did not know your brother by sight that theory will not stand. If we consider him to have been the thief, his in vol ving your brother in the scrape must have been merely a coincidence. Your brother happened to be talking to the lady, and his overcoat pocket happened to be the one in which the purse could most conveniently be dropped. If Mrs. Tunstall's husband, instead of your brother, had been in your brother's place, the evidence, so far as the purse was concerned, would have pointed at him." "That is logical I cannot deny It," said Pauline. "But it does not show his innocence of the robbery; it only shows that he bad not the motive for committing commit-ting it that I supposed he had; it was not revenge it was vulgar pocket picking!" "Well, that is as it may be. But let me refer to another point in your story. You said that the name he gave to your husband was Grush John Grush?" "Yes, but of course it was an assumed name." , "No doubt; but it is curious that he should have assumed that particular name instead of another." "Why not that as well as any?" "Because it is the name of another man a real man; that is, a fellow who him good-by; he would never be seen here again. But if I could get from you a confirmation of the blackmail story, and especially if you could prove actual payment of money, then our course would be much simpler.. We could arrest ar-rest and hold him on that ground without with-out any doubt, and the rest, unless I am greatly mistaken, will come of itself." "I can certainly prove the payment," said Pauline. "My husband and the check are both In evidence." "Very good; and now," said the inspector, in-spector, lowering his voice and leaning forward, "let me explain to you a little plan I have formed for bringing this thing to a head." CHAPTER XXHL tBEE SHADOW LIFTED. 5Y 10 o'clock the next morning all Inspector Byrnes' preparations -jjr tfc. ere complete, ASv Hlrr-, down to the least n '(jSvJslr detail; and there j (rsgX was nothing left ft .SVK t0 u' wa't to ".- V y A into the web. B tW Horace Dupee, t after receiving 4v Myypilir ms check, put it rff1 YvflT in his pocket with '' " the intention of getting it cashed at the bank on the morrow. mor-row. But in order to do this it would be necessary that he be identified. This would not be a particularly easy matter in any case, and the less so because the name on it was not his own. At length he decided to get it cashed through some friend. He was reluctant to have it known to any one that he had had any dealings with Judge Ketelle, and it was partly on this account that he had given Grush 's name. But it was an annoyance and a risk even so, and he promised himself him-self that be would not be caught with a ebeck again in a hurry. Late that night he succeeded in cashing cash-ing the check over the bar of an inn in the lower part of the city, where he was lodging. The landlord of the inn was a depositor at the bank on which the check was drawn. This was on Wednesday. Tho nprt ilnv Tliiirorlin, ItVia Hm, r.t Po,.- moment Mr. John Orush. The clerk went into the inner room and soon came back with the request that Mr. Grush would step inside. Dupee Du-pee passed through the door, which was closed behind liim. He found himself in a handsomely furnished parlor, beside the window of which Judge Ketelle sat at his desk. Tho judge turned in his chair and asked him to be seated. "I think you were up at my house the other evening," he remarked. "I recognize the name and the face." "You are quite right, judge," replied Dupee, assuming an easy air, "and it is on a matter connected with my visit to you on that occasion that I have ventured to trouble you now. There was a check, you remember?" "Perfectly. A check for the sum of eighty dollars. Well?" "Well, there seems to hare been some difficulty or misunderstanding probably proba-bly the cashier at the bank made some stupid mistake; but, anyhow, the check was returned yesterday, marked no good.' I thought you would wish to know about it" ' "Hum! I am not in the habit of having hav-ing my checks returned, certainly," said the judge. "Let me see; on what bank was the check drawn?" "The Battery bank," replied Dupee. "I will tell you how such a mistake might occur, Mr. Grush,'rsaidthe judge, after a short pause. "I keep accounts at several banks. Sometimes one or other of these accounts runs out before I am aware of it. My wife has a separate account, which is at the Battery bank. In writing the check the other evening I may have inadvertently used her check book, my own account being exhausted. The fact that she had money there would of course not warrant the cashier in paying pay-ing my check. I do not assert that this is the explanation; but it might be." "To be sure; nothing more likely," rejoined re-joined Dupee. "But, at all events, the check having been returned, I suppose you will have no objection to writing another?" "There would be some other considerations consider-ations involved in that, Mr. Grush," said the judge, bending an intent look at Dupee. Du-pee. "May I ask you, in the first place, what this payment was for?" "It was for a purchase made by Mrs. Ketelle, sir," said Dupee, somewhat con- I do not already know. But if you think otherwise I am ready to hear you, and I fancy Mrs. Ketelle will not object." Pauline Inclined her head contemptuously, contemptu-ously, "Let him speak 1" she said. "Oh, I'm going to speak don't make any mistake about that!" Dupee exclaimed, ex-claimed, beside himself with mingled fear and rage; for he was wholly unable to account for the security of Pauline's demeanor. de-meanor. "I'm going to speak, and what I say shall be heard not only by your husband, who imagines you to be a virtuous virtu-ous and respectable woman, but by all New York, or wherever else she may go. I tell you, Judge Ketelle, that the sooner you turn that woman into the street the better it will be for your credit and repu-tationl repu-tationl She has deceived you ever since she was married to you! Let her deny it if she cant Let her deny that she visits a fellow her lover in his lodgings in Harlem, and drives with him in the park! Let her deny that if she daresl She meets him every day; he is a younger man than you are, judge, and better looking, look-ing, and they laugh at you for an old fool when they are together. And they are together every day. I say, the sooner you kick her into the street the better, or you will have all New York laughing at youl I've got the facts, and I'll make 'em known, and prove 'em, too!" "Are you prepared to maintain," said the judge, in a quiet tone, "that there is anything unseemly in the relations of the gentleman you speak of and Mrs. Ketelle?" Dupee laughed harshly. "Ask him!" he returned. "Bring him and her together to-gether and ask them what their relations are!" "I am fortunately able to do that," answered the judge, "because the gentleman gen-tleman In question happens to be at hand. I will summon him." And stepping step-ping to the door of the inner room, he partly opened it and aaid, "Come in." The next moment the figure of a tall young man appeared on the threshold and advanced into the apartment He was the very man whom Dupee had seen in the park and afterwards traced to the Harlem flat But how came he to be in waiting here? What was the meaning of it all? "Is this the gentleman you speak of?" inquired the judge of Dupee, indicating the, naimmtr umo hi mo oi6i.u.uii.o ui iiu. hid inspector in-spector had said. He turned and cast a very malignant glance at Grush. "You will find evidence against me, will you!" he cried, in a grating tone. "You did that job on the lady in the jewelry store, and put it off on him." returned re-turned Grush, nodding toward Perry, and speaking with a swagger. "You know it, and I'll take my oath to it any day. You played a low down game on me, and that's what you get for it!" "You'll give evidence that I'm a pickpocket, pick-pocket, will you?" repeated Dupes, staring star-ing at the man with a strange . expression, expres-sion, half leer and half scowl. "Well, you may do it or you needn't, just as you please; for I did rob the woman, and I don't care who knows it, now! But you gave it away too quick, Jack Grush; this is the worst day's work you ever did; it would have been worth something to you to have found out, first, whether I had any little stories to tell about you!" The inspector, who had been on the point of putting an abrupt end to their dialogue, seemed to change his purpose at the last sentence; and the others present pres-ent involuntarily listened to what might follow. "You can't tell anything to hurt me!" retorted Grush. "I've got my medicine, and I'm going to take it Y'ou can't change it." "We'll see if I can't. I know some-flung; some-flung; I've known it for years for years, do you hear, Jack Grush! I haven't said anything about it; it was too good a thing to give away until the time came! It was a whip I could drive you with any time, and I kept it till I should want it Little you imagined that 1 have had the whole thing, pat by heart, ever since the first month I wasoutof the prisoner's dockl I knew better than to let you suspect it But I've waited long enough, and you might as well have it now as later." "Blessed if I know what he's chattering chatter-ing about!" said Grush, addressing the company in general with an air of perplexed per-plexed innocence. "I suspect he's gone off his head a little. "When I left the prisoner's dock, acquitted ac-quitted of murdering Jerrold Nolen," Dupee went on, with intense emphasis, "you were one of the first to make up to me and say that, since society had kicked me out. I was iustified in kicking against him. As to Mr. Percy Nolen, I will only say, at present, that I have thought it sufficient to keep one eye on him; bis arrest ar-rest is not necessary at this stags of the proceedings." "I thank you, Inspector Byrnes," Pauline Pau-line said, "whether you considered me in your action or not. But have you heard . nothing of of Horace Dupee?" . . The inspector raised his head and contemplated con-templated her gravely. "So you continue to think it was Horace Hor-ace Dupee who stole the money?" he said. .. . "Oh, I am sure of it!" "But would you go on the stand today : and swear to it?" "I could not do that," she replied reluctantly. re-luctantly. "I have not the evidence; I only feel that it was he." "Then, if you had the evidence, it would be all right?' "Yes, indeed. Have you found anything?" any-thing?" she asked eagerly. "Well, that depends on what one con- eiders anything." He opened a drawer end took out some papers. "There seems : to be reason to think that Horace Dupee - was in New York at the time the robbery - -was committed." "Ah; I knew it!" "It also appears that immediately after the robbery, he left New York and went to San Francisco.'' "Yes, yes, I knew it! He fled to escape arrest!" "Shortly after his arrival there," continued con-tinued the inspector, impassively, "a thousand dollar bank note was presented to be cashed there, which was issued by has been a companion and Ultimate of Dupee's for some years past John Grush went with Dupee to California and returned re-turned with him. It was he who pointed you out to Dupee in the park, the day you first sav your brother. It was he who suggested to Dupee tljat it might be a profitable job to blackmail you." "How did you learn all that, Inspector Byrnes?" "I might tell you that I learned it by detective intuition, or some other sort of witchcraft But the simple truth is that John Grush told met" "He told you? He is one of your men, then?" "Not at all! But be has done me good service on this occasion, nevertheless." "But I don't think I understand!" under-stand!" "it is such a thing as happens every day. John Grush was arrested Jast night-for night-for attempting to take a man's watch in an elevated train. It is not the first time we have had dealings with him, and when he was brought in he realized that be would probably be sent up for a long term. So he resolved to get even with a man who had 'gone back on him,' as he expressed it And that man was Horace Dupee." "They had quarreled?" "Precisely. And the quarrel was about you. When Grush proposed blackmailing you, Dupee had pooh-poohed pooh-poohed it; but he did so only in order to have all the profits to himself. Having got rid of Grush, as he supposed, he followed fol-lowed you about, and traced you to your line's Interview with the inspector), the check wag sent to the bank to be turned in with the-other receipts. Ou Thursday evening the check came back marked N. G. Dupee was not in the hotel at the time; but be entered about 11 o'clock. The hotel keeper called his attention to the dishonored check, and demanded from him payment of the face amount Dupee had by that time spent a good deal of the eighty dollars; but rather than have any disturbance he deposited fifty dollars, dol-lars, and promised to go to the bank the next day and have the thing straightened straight-ened out But though he carried it off with a composed face, be was in reality filled with rage and apprehension. What could be the meaning of it? A check signed by Judge Ketelle refused at his own bank! Was it a mistake, on accident, or a deliberate plan? A mistake mis-take it could hardly be; there was nothing noth-ing ambiguous in the wording of the check, and Dupee had made sure that the date and all the minor details had been correctly entered. The probability was greater of its being an accident. Judge Ketelle might have inadvertently overdrawn his account If this were the case, the matter could be easily rectified But. on the other hand, the third contingency contin-gency remained that tho check bad been stopped by special direction. 11 that were so, it meant that Mrs. Ketelle bad declared war. She had resolved to defy bjm. She fancied, perhaps, that lie WQuld not have the courage to carry out bis threat and reveal her intrigue to fused by this unexpected question ; "a purchase at at our store I am a salesman sales-man there, and" "What store is it you speak of?" demanded de-manded the judge. "Castellani's, on Broadway," replied Dupee, giving the first name that occurred oc-curred to him, and feeling a little uneasy at the turn of the conversation. "Castellani, the jeweler?" said the judge. "I know the place well. It was there that the robbery of Mrs. Tunstall's pocketbook took place last year." Dupee bit bis lips. But it was necessary neces-sary to carry out his part, and he could not resist the temptation to aim a blow at the judge. "You are quite right, judge," he said, "the robbery for which young Percy Nolen was arrested." "Yes; he was arrested for it," returned the judge, gravely; "but it lias been discovered, dis-covered, Mr. Grush, that the robbery was the work of another man. That man," he added, fixing his eyes upon the other, "is known to the police and will undoubtedly expiate his crime. But to return to this check. How does it happen that the money was payable to you instead in-stead of to the company? That seems peculiar." "Well, you see, I I have an interest in the business and am authorized to receive re-ceive payments personally." "Ah! Still, as the matter, from a pecuniary pe-cuniary point of view, concerns the company, com-pany, and not you, it can make nodiffer-ence nodiffer-ence if I cause inquiries to be made at Castellani's before writing you another check. As I have no Dersonal -miaia "Oh, I suppose they have fooled you with some clever lie or other," said Dupee, Du-pee, with a snarl. "All the same, what I tell you is the truth; and the world will believe it, if you don't!" "You seem to know so much, sir," answered an-swered the judge, "that you probably do not need to be informed that Mrs. Ketelle was formerly Miss Nolen, and that she had two brothers. One of them died from the effect of injuries received mysteriously, mys-teriously, while in the company of one Horace Dupee, several years ago. The other brother, Percy by name, was accused, ac-cused, a year since, of a robbery at Castellani's Cas-tellani's jewelry store. He left New York and was reported drowned; but the report turned out to have been an error. He returned to New York about ten days ago; but his presence was not generally made known, owing to the fact that the true perpetrator of the robbery had not yet been identified. The identification has now been made, however, and therefore there-fore the necessity of concealing Mr. Percy Nolen's presence no longer exists. " "Well, and what has all this rigmarole rigma-role to do with me?" demanded Dupee defiantly. "What have I to do with Percy Nolen?" "I am Percy Nolen," said the gentleman gentle-man in question, regarding Dupee with a very stern expression, "and this lady is my sister." Dupee saw at once that he had been outwitted and trapped. The check had been stopped in order to induce him to come to Judge Ketelle's office; and it had been urevteusly arranged that Mrs. Ke. society and living by my wits. But, all the time, if I had been convicted, you would have let mo hang, you hound, sooner than say a word to save me! and yet you were the scoundrel who crept up to a drunken man Hold him, inspector!" in-spector!" ' Grush, in fact, had suddenly made a leap at Dupee like a wild beast. But the inspector's hand was stretched out like a flash and grasped him by the back of the collar with an iron hold. The fellow made one tremendous but vain effort to break loose, and then stood still, shaking all over, but -dangerous no longer. The inspector gave a sharp whistle; a sergeant ser-geant entered the room, and at a nod from his superior had Grush manacled in a jiffy and stood up against the wall. The inspector straightened his shirt cuff and said, "Come, Horace, make an end of this business; we can't 6tay here all the morning to hear you two scoundrels abuse each other." ; "I say," said Dupee, with a sort of excited ex-cited shriek in his voice, "that after I took Jerrold Nolen to the door of his house and left him, so help me God, alive in the stoop there, though so drank he didn't know what he was about, that devil there came up to him and robbed him, and gave him the blow behind the ear that killed him! I say it, and I can prove itl And when he feels tho ropi about his neck, let him remember that it was Horace Dupee put it there!" "Take them out, sergeant," said the inspector, abruptly; "I will be at the office presently. They're a pair of them, |
