That was how things stood that Tuesday evening. The Traders' Bank had

suspended payment, and John Bailey was under arrest, charged with

wrecking it; Paul Armstrong lay very ill in California, and his only

son had been murdered two days before. I sat dazed and bewildered. The

children's money was gone: that was bad enough, though I had plenty, if

they would let me share. But Gertrude's grief was beyond any power of

mine to comfort; the man she had chosen stood accused of a colossal

embezzlement--and even worse. For in the instant that I sat there I

seemed to see the coils closing around John Bailey as the murderer of

Arnold Armstrong.

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Gertrude lifted her head at last and stared across the table at Halsey.

"Why did he do it?" she wailed. "Couldn't you stop him, Halsey? It was

suicidal to go back!"

Halsey was looking steadily through the windows of the breakfast-room,

but it was evident he saw nothing.

"It was the only thing he could do, Trude," he said at last. "Aunt Ray,

when I found Jack at the Greenwood Club last Saturday night, he was

frantic. I can not talk until Jack tells me I may, but--he is

absolutely innocent of all this, believe me. I thought, Trude and I

thought, we were helping him, but it was the wrong way. He came back.

Isn't that the act of an innocent man?"

"Then why did he leave at all?" I asked, unconvinced. "What innocent

man would run away from here at three o'clock in the morning? Doesn't

it look rather as though he thought it impossible to escape?"

Gertrude rose angrily. "You are not even just!" she flamed. "You don't

know anything about it, and you condemn him!"

"I know that we have all lost a great deal of money," I said. "I shall

believe Mr. Bailey innocent the moment he is shown to be. You profess

to know the truth, but you can not tell me! What am I to think?"

Halsey leaned over and patted my hand.

"You must take us on faith," he said. "Jack Bailey hasn't a penny that

doesn't belong to him; the guilty man will be known in a day or so."

"I shall believe that when it is proved," I said grimly. "In the

meantime, I take no one on faith. The Inneses never do."

Gertrude, who had been standing aloof at a window, turned suddenly.

"But when the bonds are offered for sale, Halsey, won't the thief be

detected at once?"

Halsey turned with a superior smile.

"It wouldn't be done that way," he said. "They would be taken out of

the vault by some one who had access to it, and used as collateral for

a loan in another bank. It would be possible to realize eighty per

cent. of their face value."




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