tern railroads in which he was supposed to be
interested; a devastating strike had developed in his lumber camps in
Oregon, and the legislature of the State of California, which has no
love for its makers, was preparing open war against him.

Ordinarily he would have accepted battle ere it was offered, and have
waged a pleasant and unscrupulous campaign. But now he sat limply, his
soft black hat pushed forward on to his nose, his big body shrunk
inside his loose clothes, staring at his boots or the Chinese junks in
the bay, and assenting absently to the secretary's questions as he
opened the Saturday mail.

Cheyne was wondering how much it would cost to drop everything and pull
out. He carried huge insurances, could buy himself royal annuities, and
between one of his places in Colorado and a little society (that would
do the wife good), say in Washington and the South Carolina islands, a
man might forget plans that had come to nothing. On the other hand--

The click of the typewriter stopped; the girl was looking at the
secretary, who had turned white.

He passed Cheyne a telegram repeated from San Francisco:

Picked up by fishing schooner _We're Here_ having fallen off boat great
times on Banks fishing all well waiting Gloucester Mass care Disko
Troop for money or orders wire what shall do and how is Mama Harvey N.
Cheyne.

The father let it fall, laid his head down on the roller-top of the
shut desk, and breathed heavily. The secretary ran for Mrs. Cheyne's
doctor who found Cheyne pacing to and fro.

"What--what d' you think of it? Is it possible? Is there any meaning to
it? I can't quite make it out," he cried.

"I can," said the doctor. "I lose seven thousand a year--that's all."
He thought of the struggling New York practice he had dropped at
Cheyne's imperious bidding, and returned the telegram with a sigh.

"You mean you'd tell her? 'May be a fraud?"

"What's the motive?" said the doctor, coolly. "Detection's too certain.
It's the boy sure enough."

Enter a French maid, impudently, as an indispensable one who is kept on
only by large wages.

"Mrs. Cheyne she say you must come at once. She think you are seek."

The master of thirty millions bowed his head meekly and followed
Suzanne; and a thin, high voice on the upper landing of the great
white-wood square staircase cried: "What is it? What has happened?"

No doors could keep out the shriek that rang through the echoing house
a moment later, when