The Chief Legatee

e stood in close conference before the last mentioned

ister come to light after fifteen years of supposed burial! I find the circumstance entirely too romantic. Nor does an explanation of this nature fit the conditions. She was happy before she saw him in the church. He isn't her twin sister. I

He has not even had visitors, after that one interview he held with your wife. I have kept careful watc

the moving power in this fraud. For fraud it is and no mistake. Of that I am fully convinced.

ll manage it. If you want to s

e of the halls. They encountered him as they left the elevator. He was standing reading a news

e convulsively on the sheet he was holding, while his lips mutter

as Mr. Ransom stood hesitating, not kn

Do you suppose he is r

words were, 'Here's a damned lie

detective a few step

aid t

ard him di

This man didn't provide her wi

ently

surprised

at him! Nothing yellow there! W

quite apart from that given by his physical disfigurement. He was not simply angry but in a mental and moral rage, and it made him more than hideous; it made him appalling. Yet he said nothing and moved along very quietly, making, to all appearance, for

ing his opportunity, stepped forward and addressed him by the name under whic

stige of passion immediately disappeared from his face, leaving only its natural disfigurement to plead against him. He approached them, and Ransom, at l

ing a keen and comprehensive

. "This gentleman thinks you can give him very valuable

not unmelodious voice. "I am a stranger in New York; a st

have

w Mr. Ran

s; certainly not wedding receptions. I have seen you

w his mouth still further towards his ear; but his manner hard

-sightedness. I did not r

d that this man was only deterred by his marked and unmistakab

Ransom. "My happiness was short lived. Perhaps you knew its uncertain t

ne or not remained to be seen. Gerridge

ination of that day's felicities were in a measure due to you. You see

tion of this nature. Now," said he, turning upon them when they were in the privacy of his small but not uncomf

ur presence at this wedding seemed to disturb my wife, which fact, considering the after occurrences of t

?" inquired the other, with a sl

e who is in m

have disturbed your wife, it very likely did, but I was not to blame for

itation was not personal. It had a deeper root than that. It led, or so I believe, to her

lent passions but remarkable self-restraint failed to relax or gi

s quiet retort. "It professes to give a distinct, if somewhat fantastic, r

you don't

not. It is

from you rather than from the columns of a newspaper.

ge accusation you

enough even to a stranger like myself. I am convinced that if you had not come into her lif

er has a certain amount of truth in it. Her brother, not her sister, has

u a

simply did not return from a well-known and dangerous voyage. The struggle I had for life-you cannot want the details now-has left its indelible impress in the scar which has turned me from a personable man into what some people might call a monstrosity. And it is this scar which has kept me so long from home and country. It has taken me four yea

f. Then something in the man-his unnatural coldness, the purpose which made itself fe

brother, there should be sympathy between us and not

llowed by a

"I do not expect much mercy from strangers. It is hard to make your good int

in two hours of your encounter under Mr. Fulton's roof, she was ta

steady answer. "She did come here and we ha

Mr. Ransom's lips died in a conflict of feeling which forbade any rejoinder that savored of sar

were once very f

d the money which both he and Gerridge had seen in her bag,-an amount too large for her to h

erson she loves makes an appeal for money. She han

check," was the si

ure of his attempt and s

he money in the bag was a blind-she had carried her check-book with her and so could draw on her accou

Ransom's signature had changed a few hours previous

d name promising to no

cashed th

shall endeavor to cash it to-morrow. Some question may come up as to her sanity, an

ondition of her mind. Did you see any token

then; a little shocked and

t she had resorted to a most unworthy subterfu

rnoon if possible, but I never knew what means she

e said something about an event which is usua

he spok

of

e spoke

I am in such ignorance as to her real attitude towards me; her co

ished. All that I could make out of her manner and conversation was the overpowering shock she felt at seeing me again and seeing me so changed. She didn't even tell me when and where we might meet again. Whe

gitation the other may have share

hat you cannot tell me where the w

mation in regard to your wife. I am waiting like yours

et in which her few strange words to him were lying, that

the other of falsehood, yet evidently doubting him from the bottom of

composure: "I have candidly answered all your questions whether agreeable or otherwise, and the fact that I am as much shocked as yourself by these mad and totally incr

ill, had established his claims to the relationship he professed, by various well-attested documents he had at hand. Instinct could not be juggled with, nor cou

r with the perplexed Gerridge. "How shall I settle this new question? By