t he insisted."

"He said there were other heirs and they might contest his will. Did
he mention the heirs?"

"No, sir. I don't think so. I don't remember that he did."

"He did not by any chance refer to the other grandparents of the two
children? Mr. and Mrs. Oakby, the father and mother of the father of
Victor and Bettina?"

"He didn't refer to them, I'm sure. Yes, I am quite sure."

"Did he say that his money would be left in trust for his grandchildren?"

"No."

"And he gave you twenty thousand pounds just out of generosity?"

"Yes. Yes, Mr. Verrinder."

"It was a fairish amount of money for messenger fees, wasn't it? And
it came to you while you were carrying those letters to Nicky?"

"No! Sir Joseph had been ill. He had had a stroke of paralysis."

"And you were afraid he might have another?"

"No!"

"You were not afraid of that?"

"Yes, of course I was, but-- What are you trying to make me say--that
I went to him and demanded the money?"

"That idea occurs to you, does it?"

She writhed with disgust at the suggestion. Yet it had a clammy
plausibility. Mr. Verrinder went on:

"These messages, you say, concerned a financial transaction?"

"So papa told me."

"And you believed him?"

"Naturally."

"You never doubted him?"

All the tortures of doubt that had assailed her recurred to her now
and paralyzed her power to utter the ringing denial that was needed.
He went on:

"Didn't it strike you as odd that Sir Joseph should be willing to pay
you twenty thousand pounds just to carry messages concerning some
mythical business?"

She did not answer. She was afraid to commit herself to anything.
Every answer was a trap. Verrinder went on: "Twenty thousand pounds is
a ten-per-centum commission on two hundred thousand pounds. That was
rather a largish transaction to be carried on through secret letters,
eh? Nicky Easton was not a millionaire, was he? Now I ask you, should
you think of him as a Rothschild? Or was he, do you think, acting as
agent for some one else, perhaps, and if so, for whom?"

She answered none of these. They were based on the assumption that she
had put forward herself. She could find nothing to excuse her.
Verrinder was simply playing tag with her. As soon as he touched her
he ran away and came at her from another direction.

"Of course, we know that you were only the adopted daughter of Sir
Joseph. But where did you first meet him?"

"In Berlin."

The sound of tha