, 1917-10-25

guish, grief, ran the gamut across
those classic features. Then tbev
hardened to some desperate decision
She arose.
"You whom l have heard Of" she
said slowly, coldly to Marvel, Il will
tell o that l have a million to CARY
out my purposes; that / hesitated AT
no peril of the faint of crim,nality to
mature my fixed, just plans. l am re-
sponsible for all that has peer done
l have directed, ' have paid for the
service exacted. You step in. Very
well. Then hearken! l abandon SLOW
torture and ruin for Howard Suther-
land, butt shall kill him!"
Marvel had penciled something OF a
card while the woman spoke. 1t dL.
rected me to go for the banker at
once. AS l returned with him and We
entered the room Isora Giglia sprapg
to her feet. l caught the cold glitter
of an unsheathed s~tilleto. The ready
hand of Marvel had disarmed her, but
she stood with clenched fists, her eyes
emanating fire as she viewed Howard
Sutherland.
Look" she Missed al him, pointing
to the shrouded portrait. Dare you
stand there and look upon my mother,
the woman you lured from the side OF
my heartbroken father and left t. die
in a wretched Mexican howell"
II do not understand" spoke the
banker in a dazed. bewildered way.
But, as the woman raved on, as she
told Of the man who, claiming to be a
banker from New Orleans, had flashed
into the society of her home town in
Mexico, to borrow money from new
friends, to sell to innocent investors
securities in a fraudulent railroad
scheme, the light suddenly broke over
the mind of the banker.
A man had impersonated him, he
now recalled, using his name. Such
was the fact. a man now in prison in
Texas serving a long term sentence.
his name Archibald Dover, slowly dy-
ing, he had heard, of consumption.
With the magic skill Of an expert
unraveler of mysteries, Resilius Mar.
vel soon had woven a fabric Of clarity
and fact from the disordered threads
of the strange case he had brought to
a focus.
After her father had died, Isora Gig.
liza, left a large fortune, had started
out with but one motive in life-a ven.
gence, vendetta against the nan
who had lured her mother to a sor-
rowfui death. Now that the truth
came the instinct of justice
caused her to reveal the intricate
workings of her plots. She had hired
emissaries to assist her in her plans
to ruin the Sutherlands financially.
Nina had been her ally-Nina who.
drugging Chespa, had donned his
clothes and had stolen the notes from
the bank. Nina who. through forged
letters, had co-%operated in estranging
Mrs. Sutherland and Miss Vernon
from father and son.
Recompense she was ready to make
willing, insistent. Then-to cit 20
the, prison where the real object or
her vengence was. and to gloat over
his sufferings while he lay dying inch
by inch!
1t was at the Sutherland home that
the case was gone over in detail that
evening. There were present the
banker, his son, Chespa, Marvel and
myself. l noted a dusky horror gath
er over the face of the half-breed as it
was revealed to him that he had been
made the unsuspecting victim of the
perfidy of the woman he had trusted.
Then the emotion aroused by the
high sense of honor and fidelity in
stilled into him when a child, gave
way to a. dull, sullen expression. I
turned away as l read a lurking some
thing l could not really analyze in his
frowning face.
Watch that man-call him back!"
ordered Resilius Marvel, as Chespa
left the room and we heard him scale
the upper staircase like a deer hound.
We were toe late. A door Jared
above us. Then a long, curdling
shrek rang out. The door of the ante
room to the apartment of the newly
welded pair was ajar, the case where
Chespa had kept his Indian relics was
open.
He had leaped from a window and
disappeared after one word withs the
woman who had deceived him-going
back, back to the old life where truth
and loyalty at, least were held In
honor.
In the center of the next room lay
a writhing form-a meet victim OF
savage justice. 1t was Nina, and her
hands were clasped above her bleed
ing head, and beside her lay-a scalp
ing knife.