Constance Dunlap

to bay at last in Carlton Dunlap's face as he let himself i

tered quietly, although there was no apparent reason for such excessive caution. Then he locked th

. In the dim light of the studio apartment he looked anxiously for the figure of his wife. Constance was not there, as she had been on other nights

ng that her every faculty was keenly alive

ar, as she moved with a little well-feigned start at being suddenly wakened, "

wisp of her dark hair in order to hide from him the tears that still lingered on her flushed cheeks. "You can say

hard lines, but coul

d two and two, when the same man but different women compose each two, do not make four, according to my arithmetic, but three, from which,"-she finished al

st into

ing her arm gently to l

" She was now facing him, standing in the high-ceilinged "studio," as they called the room where she had kept up in a desultory manner for her own amusement the art studies which had in

t up. I don't know. But, Constance, I-I must leave for the west on the first train in the morning." He did not pause to notice her startled look, but raced on. "I have worked every night this week trying to straighten out those accounts o

upted, "what is the m

fumbling in his pocket and now laid down a pi

d-when I am settled-in a new life," he swallowed hard and averted his eyes further from her startled gaze, "under a new name, somewhere, if you have just a little

k his head into his hands and bowed it to

e, with every man's hand against him, he who had never in all his life felt so or had done anything to make him feel so before. He groaned as the sweat of his mental and physical agony poured coldly out on his for

r. We talked it over. I stayed and in time became cashier at five thousand. But you know as well as I that five tho

to himself, that to her even a thousand dollars a month would have been only a beginning. It was not that she had been accustomed t

p to me that I was unable to make good to the degree of many of our friends in purely commercial lines. All you have ever said is the truth. A ba

ke happy the woman who stood now, leaning on the table in cold silence

my care of it. It was taking the best in me and in return was not paying what other businesses paid for the be

d was a chance to employ a little of the money that I saw about me-not to take it, but to employ it for a little while, a few d

d it. Anybody in my position could have done it-for a time. It would not interest you anyhow. But I did it. The first venture was successful. Also the spending of the money was

ad made a bad bet and five thousand dollars was wiped out, a whole year's salary. I tried again, and wiped out five thousand more. I was at my wits' end. I have borrowed under fictitious names, used names of obscure per

rror of the situation was burned into her soul. He ra

nt, an expert in installing systems and discovering irregularities. Here I am, faced by certain exposure," he went on, pacing the f

a hoarse whisper. "I must cut loose. I have scraped together what I can and I

t has not. There is no other way out. In despair I have put this off until the last moment. But I have thought of not

hands. He groaned as he thought of the agony of packing a bag and slink

had misjudged him. There had been no other woman in the case. As he spoke, there came

cing. She passed her hands over her eyes, but there it was still, not a dream but a harsh reality. If she could only have gone back and undone it!

mind. She steeled herself at last to speak. She hardly knew what was in h

disgrace, and you are going to do the best you can to ge

im to the quick. He had killed love. He was alone. He knew it. With a final effort he tried

ower of will he co

le, bending over and at last forcing him to look her in the eyes, "do

"How could you do it?" instead of burning denunciation of him for

wly. "What would you have

her head co

ce it?" he h

fixed on his. "Think! Is there no way that you could avoid discovery jus

his hea

, trying to put into it some of the feeling which she would never have put into words for him. On the walls of the apartment were pen

s head agai

and pen and ink like regular artists. Think-think! Is there no way that we-tha

scinated. He placed both his hands on hers.

nt, and then they understood. They were partners in crime,

a new crime to the list? As he looked into her eyes he felt a new strength. Together they could do it. Hers was the brain that had conceived the wa

y color. One was of tartaric acid, the other of chloride of lime. It was an ordinary ink eradicator. Near the bottles lay a rod of glass with a curious tip, an ink eraser made of finely spun glass threads which scraped away the surface of

, "there is a way, Constan

now. It was cold, hard fact and they understoo

otective coloring tint on some canceled checks of his own. Carlton must get a check of a firm in town, a check that bore a genuine signature. In it they would ma

w life, Carlton was the first at the office in the morning. His hand trembled as he ran through the huge batch of m

habitually kept hundreds of thousands on deposit at the Gorham Bank. It fitted

1. Dec.

AM NATIO

er of....... G

/100 .........

.00

REYNOL

. M. BRO

over his shortage. The Reynolds firm was a big one, doing big transactions. He slip

fact that he had met no one he knew either at the office or outsi

d, hardly waiting for his reply

on it with a check punch," she observed as she ran her quick eye over it while he

work, my dear. My knowledge of check punches, watermarks, and paper will furnish the rest. I'll be back direct

e smoothed down the roughened surface of the paper so that the ink would not run in the fibers and blot. Over and over she practised writing the "Thousand" in a hand like that on the check. She already had the capital "T" in "Twenty" as a

stopped to wonder at herself. She was amazed and perhaps a little frightened at how readily she adapted herself to the crime of forgery. She did not know

figure "25." A comma and three zeros following it were inserte

h as little loss of the protective coloring on the surface of the check as possible. Then afte

it. There was much delicate matching of tints and careful painting in with a fine camel's hair brush, unti

o the harsh action of the acids and the glass eraser. Still, painting the whole thing over with a little resinous l

marks. There they were, a star cut out of the check

ng this check with some of those which had been practised on last night, to see whether she had made any improv

stars until there was one which in watermark and scroll work co

ned the edges ever so lightly with glue on the end of a toothpick, and pasted it back again. A hot iron completed the work of mak

0's, and a star after the 25, making it $25,000. Finally the whole thing was again ironed to give it the smoo

1. Dec.

AM NATIO

r of... The Car

ousand 00/100.

000.

REYNOL

. M. BRO

been the result of their honest efforts of years. They were now pen and brush crooks of the first caliber, had reduced forgery to a fine art and demonstrated what

own bank, unless he wanted to leave a blazed trail straight to himself. Only a colossal bluff would do, a

ious of a man and might have asked many embarrassing but perfectly proper questions, he accepted the woman without a murmur. At her suggestion he even consented to take his new tenants around to the Uptown Bank and introduce them. They made an excellen

a stranger, before the window of the paying teller to cash a check for twenty-five dollars he would almost be thrown out of the bank. Banks will certify at a glance practically any check

propose to waste that time, so that the next day found him at Green & Co.'s, feeling much better. Real

alarming nature had happened. The new month had already begun and as most firms have their account

eraser, the water colors, and other paraphernalia in a wholesale raisi

urged him. "Why quit yet? A few days mo

resented himself at his new bank with a sheaf of new checks which

to a broker's and placed an order for the stocks he had used on which to borrow. He could now replace everything in the safe, straighten out the books,

tenographer and secretary. Once having embarked on the hazardous enterprise she showe

ilful pen and brush of Constance had secured them a balance, after straightening out Carlton's debts, that came well up to a

ise. It had been her idea; the execution of it had been mainly her work; Carlton had furnished merely the business knowledge that she did n

out of her sight. She felt a sinking sensation every time he mentioned any of the happenings in the banking h

have its book balanced at any time now. From day to day small amounts in cash had already been withdrawn until they were twenty thousand doll

boy was at the head of the line. He had passed the check in and his satchel was lying open, with voracious maw, on the ledge below the wicket for the greedy feeding of stacks of bills. Why did the teller not raise the wicket and sho

shed from his coign of observation, out of the b

olding up our check. They have discovered something. Take a cab and drive s

thousands. But nevertheless it was their story. There was only one grain of consolation. It was in the last paragraph of the news item, and read: "There seems to be no

rything was destroyed. Constance even began a new water color so

t problem was to conceal it and themselves. They had lost, yet if ever before they loved, it was as n

tive safety as contrasted with the uncertainty of the hours now. But the first day after the alarm of the discovery passed off all right. Carlton even discussed the case, his case,

. Yet never before had they seemed to be bound together by such ties as knitted their very souls in this crisi

a man who gave the name of Drummond called a

ttle bill of twenty-five doll

this man was a detective. "I can't s

emed to nerve him up, as he asked: "Look up our account with Reynolds, and see i

think it has been paid. It is a small matter, but we sent them a dup

ut then, he reasoned, it was only a question of tim

"I thought not. Somewhere along the line that check has been

ard to show just the right amount of s

f this clever realty company swindle? W

to do all in our power to coopera

ryly. "I may as well tell you that I fear s

ail?" repeated Dunlap

in the eyes. Carlton did not flinch. He felt a new power within himself, gained durin

ed that he could never cover up the deficit in his books. With an almost superhuman

Drummond was in the office to-day, my dear," he said. "Some one in the

el

if they su

on't suspect. They'll arrest,

was, after all, herself on whom he depended, that it was she who had been the will, even though he had been the intellect of their ent

alment about him now. He said frankly that he was from the Burr Detect

f that check is especially good. It shows rare skill. But the pitfalls in this forgery

e in a little too late to be of practical use in preventing the forger from getting his money at first, but they come in very neatly later in c

inted with a resinous substance to restore the glaze, to the eye. Well, a little alcohol takes that off, too. Oh, the amateur forger may be the most dangerous kind, be

steries of the new detective art produced its effect. They were getting closer, and Dunlap knew it, as Drummond inte

ehind him. In the shadow down the street a man dodged quickly

excitedly as he hurried upstairs with the

her fertile mind, as ever, hitting directly on a plan of action. "If we separate,

it will be best for you to stick to your original idea of going west. I shall go to one of the winter resorts

ind that they were to be separated now. Dissolve their partnership in crime? To him it seemed as if they had jus

nts," she said, speaking rapidly as if to bolster up her own res

ng him away from her, not to save herself but to save him. Vainly he attempted to protest. She placed her finger on h

lways do that more easily than a man. Don't worry about me. Go somewhere, start a new life. If it takes years, I will wait. Let me know where you are. We can find

id the same. The bottom had dropped out of everything, yet try as he would to reason it out, he could find no other solution but hers. To stay was out of the question, i

closely. They were shadowed. In despair Carlton turned toward his wife. A sudde

spered. "Take the second and fol

numbers of the cab. Constance had thought of that. She stopped a

ed him if there was no way to avoid discovery and had suggested it herself in the forgery. He reached over and ca

ife, hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles apart, Carlton realized as never before what it all had meant. He had loved her through all the years, but never with th

him in the old way and all the pent-up love that would have, that had done a

many from her and all would be lost. She flung her arms about him and kis

f from his arms, gathered

travel-stained and worn with the repressed emotion of her sacrifice. She had appeared to show no interest in anything, to take her

anded out to her, as a matter of habit, the STAR. Yet no one ever saw her read it. Directly afterward she would retire to her room. There she would pore over the first page, reading

sed, until it was nearly two weeks since the parting in New York. D

personal to the paper: "Weston. W

re was no reply and no hint of reply. Had they captured him? Or was he so closely pur

ated. Perhaps she had missed one, though she knew that she could not have done so, for she had looked at them a hundred times. Where

he beautifully appointed hotel. Her desire t

s when, on the evening of another newsless day, she was passing the news-sta

pe of the headin

ORGER A

name. He had shot himself in a room in a hotel in St. Louis. She ran her eye down the colum

EST CON

rgive me, for by this act I am a confessed embezzler and forger. I could not face you and tell you of the double

husband, CA

from fainting-"wronged and deceived you," "the double life I was leading." What did he mean? H

guided him, he had seen no other way out. And in his last act he had shouldered it all on hims