f his anger. He turned
stupidly as though he had not heard aright. "What?" he asked. From the
easy chair the butler regarded him with sullen, hostile eyes.

"No!" he repeated. "We don't think you'll help us. You never meant to
help us. You've never thought of any one but yourself."

The face of the older man was filled with reproach.

"Jim!" he protested.

"Don't do that!" commanded the butler sharply. "I've told you not to do
that."

The Judge moved his head slowly in amazement. The tone of reproach was
still in his voice.

"I thought you could understand," he said. "It doesn't matter about him.
But you! You should have seen what I was doing!"

"I saw what you were doing," the butler replied. "Buying stocks, buying
a country place. You didn't wait for him to die. What were we getting?"

With returning courage, Rainey nodded vigorously.

"That's right, all right," he protested. "What were we getting?"

"What were you getting?" demanded Gaylor, eagerly. "If you'd only left
him to me, till he signed the new will, you'd have had everything. It
only needs his signature."

"Yes," interrupted Garrett contemptuously; "that's all it needs."

"Oh, he'd have signed it!" cried Gaylor. "But what's it worth now!
Nothing! Thanks to you two--nothing! They'll claim undue influence,
they'll claim he signed it under the influence of mediums--of ghosts."
His voice shook with anger and distress. "You've ruined me!" he cried.
"You've ruined me."

He turned and paced from them, his fingers interlacing, his teeth
biting upon his lower lip. The two other men glanced at each other
uncomfortably; their silence seemed to assure Gaylor that already they
regretted what they had done. He stood over Garrett, and for an instant
laid his hand upon his shoulder. His voice now was sane and cold.

"I've worked three years for this," he said. "And for you, too, Jim. You
know that. I've worked on his vanity, on his fear of death, on his damn
superstition. When he talked of restitution, of giving the money to
his niece, I asked Why?' I said, Leave it for a great monument to your
memory. Isn't it better that ten million dollars should be spent in good
works in your name than that it should go to a chit of a child to
be wasted by some fortune hunter? And--then--I evolved the Hallowell
Institute, university, hospital, library, all under one roof, all
under one direction; and I would have been the director. We should have
handled ten millions of