glar expeller."

It was Douglas himself. He was staring angrily at his wife and the
stranger with her.

"Well!" he demanded with cold sarcasm. "Why this--this burglary?"

Before he could quite take in the situation, with a quick motion,
Constance struck a match and touched it to the papers in the fireplace.

As they blazed up he caught sight of what they were and almost leaped
across the floor.

Constance laid her hand on his arm. "One moment, Mr. Douglas," she said
quietly. "Look at that!"

"Who--who the devil are you?" he gasped. "What's all this?"

"I think," remarked Constance slowly and quietly, "that your wife is
now in a position to prove that you--well, don't come into court with
clean hands, if you attempt to do so. Besides, you know, the courts
rather frown on detectives that practice collusion and conspiracy and
frame up evidence, to say nothing of trying to blackmail the victims. I
thought perhaps you'd prefer not to say anything about this--er--visit
to-night--after you saw that."

Constance had quietly laid one of the erased checks on the library
table. Again she dipped the sponge into the brownish liquid. Again the
magic touch revealed the telltale name. With her finger she was
pointing to the faintly legible "Helen Brett" on the check as the
sulphide had brought it out.

Douglas stared-dazed.

He rubbed his eyes and stared again as the last of the flickering fire
died away. In an instant he realized that it was not a dream, that it
was all a fact.

He looked from one to the other of the women.

He was checkmated.

Constance ostentatiously folded up the erased vouchers.

"I--I shall not--make any--contest," Douglas managed to gasp huskily.

CHAPTER XI

THE DOPE FIENDS

"I have a terrible headache," remarked Constance Dunlap to her friend,
Adele Gordon, the petite cabaret singer and dancer of the Mayfair, who
had dropped in to see her one afternoon.

"You poor, dear creature," soothed Adele. "Why don't you go to see Dr.
Price? He has cured me. He's splendid--splendid."

Constance hesitated. Dr. Moreland Price was a well-known physician. All
day and even at night, she knew, automobiles and cabs rolled up to his
door and their occupants were, for the most part, stylishly gowned
women.

"Oh, come on," urged Adele. "He doesn't charge as highly as people seem
to think. Besides, I'll go with you and introduce you, and he'll charge
only as he does the rest of us in the professio