have done no more
than gone to the police and told them where to find you. But I don't want
to do that; I hate to do it after what I saw last night. You have your
child, and she loves you. Could I unmask you before her eyes?"

"You would kill her," Rawlins said, a little unsteadily; "and you would
kill me, I verily believe. That child is all the world to me. I committed
my first theft so that she could have the change the doctors declared to
be absolutely necessary. I intended to repay the money--the old, old
story. And I was found out by my employers and discharged. Thank
goodness, my wife was dead. Since then I have preyed on society.... But I
need not go into that sordid story. You are not going to betray me?"

"I said before that I should do nothing of the kind."

"Then why do you let me know that you have discovered my identity?"

"Because I want you to help me. I fancy you respect my sex, Mr. Rawlins?"

"Call me Smith, please. I have always respected your sex. All the
kindness and sympathy of my life have been for women. And I can lay my
hand on my heart and declare that I never yet wronged one of them in
thought or deed. The man who is cruel to women is no man."

"And yet your friend Reginald Henson is that sort."

Rawlins smiled again. He began to understand a little of what was passing
in Chris's mind.

"Would you mind going a little more into details?" he suggested. "So
Henson is that sort. Well, I didn't know, or he had never had my
assistance in his little scheme. Oh, of course, I have known him for
years as a scoundrel. So he oppresses women."

"He has done so for a long time: he is blighting my life and the life of
my sister and another. And it seems to me that I have that rascal under
my thumb at last. You cannot save him--you can do no more than place
obstacles in my way; but even those I should overcome. And you admit that
I am likely to be dangerous to you."

"You can kill my daughter. I am in your power to that extent."

"As if I should," Chris said. "It is only Reginald Henson whom I want to
strike. I want you to answer a few questions; to tell me why you went to
Walen's and induced them to procure a certain cigar-case for you, and why
you subsequently went to Lockhart's at Brighton and bought a precisely
similar one."

Rawlins looked in surprise at the speaker. A tinge of admiration was on
his face. There was a keenness and audacity after his own heart.

"Go on," he said, slowly. "Tell