to the enjoyment of the
place. Gee, what air! what ozone! what trees----" Suddenly stopping, he
scratched his hand vigorously. "And what mosquitoes! Now, in the first
place, Ricaby, I'm your witness--you can depend on me. I can prove that
Jimmy needed money--and that he was compelled to resort to desperate
means to raise it."

The lawyer looked at him keenly.

"Are you aware," he said, "that it will involve your mother?"

"Your mother!" cried Paula, astonished. "Oh, no! You--can't do that. Oh,
Tod, your mother!"

"She's all right," cried the young man. "She has left Jimmy----"

"Left him!" cried Mr. Ricaby.

"Yes, left him for good and all! I explained his dastardly conduct to
her, and when I refused to live in the same house with him, she said:
'If you won't live with him, neither will I.' So she just left him, and
if I can help it she'll never go back to him. You can count on mother
and me, and I think that between us we ought to bottle up Jimmy and Mr.
Cooley."

The lawyer held out his hand.

"I've done you a wrong, Mr. Chase, but I--you'll forgive me, won't you?"

"Don't speak of it," laughed Tod good-humoredly.

"You may be of great value," went on the lawyer hastily. "Of course, it
depends on what kind of evidence you have. What proof have you?"

"The best of proof," replied the young man mysteriously, "but don't let
us bother her with it-- I'll show you my proofs later on."

Mr. Ricaby's face brightened. Perhaps they might yet be able to trap the
wily Cooley, after all. Thoughtfully he said:

"If you could persuade your mother to furnish us with some evidence of
his intention to defraud----"

Paula protested.

"Oh, don't ask him to do that! Betray his own mother," she exclaimed.
"It seems so--so--unnatural!"

Tod laughed. Looking at the girl fondly, he said:

"Paula, for your sake I'd--I'd commit every crime on the calendar!
Anything short of murder goes with me. Desperate diseases require
desperate remedies. My stepfather and Bascom Cooley are the most
desperate diseases I've ever encountered." Looking out of the window, he
continued, with pretended enthusiasm: "Gee! but this is a lovely spot!
Look at that sunlight shimmering on the water! This air is like the
cocktail that exuberates but does not intoxicate! I'll be writing poetry
if I stay here long."

The door leading to the wards suddenly opened and Mrs. Johnson
appeared. Advancing toward Paula, she said:

"Dr. Zacharie thinks it adv