loud voice. Mrs. Graham let her arm fall without
dealing the third blow for which she had raised it as a man entered the
room in anything but mild and pleasant manner.

"What are you doing, Mrs. Graham?" he demanded. "What did I tell you
about this conduct of yours? Do you realize that you are bringing things
to a climax where I'll wash my hands of the whole affair?"

The speaker was Pierce Langford.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE GIRLS WIN.

Mrs. Graham looked uncomfortable--not ashamed or abashed. Doubtless the
conflict within her was between the cruelty of her nature and the fear
of financial reverses in consequence of that cruelty. She did not answer
the rebuke of her confederate attorney.

The latter drew a knife from his pocket and in a moment was severing the
rope that bound the child to the chair. After he had released the boy,
who looked gratefully toward him as a protector, the man threw cold
water on little Glen's natural feeling of confidence toward him by
saying:

"Now, mind you, Mrs. Graham, my interference is not moved by any
sentiment of sympathy for the kid. I merely want to inform you that
things are coming to such a pass that I may be forced to drop out of
this game purely as a move of self-salvation. For instance, it appears
very unwise to make any further attempts to frighten that bunch of
girls. They simply don't scare. See that?"

Langford indicated the object of his question by taking off his hat,
which he had neglected to remove when he entered the house, and
caressing gently with two or three fingers a badly swollen wound on the
side of his head almost directly over his right ear. Mrs. Graham looked
at it curiously, not sympathetically.

"Where did you get that?" she inquired.

"Those girls did it, or one of them, I presume. I thought my make-up
would paralyze them, but instead they nearly paralyzed me. I think they
fired some rocks at me, for something of that description struck my
head, and you see the result.

"I drove my machine into the timber a little farther up the road and put
on my ghost outfit. Then I walked through the woods to the girls' camp
and stalked past them. You would have thought my appearance was enough
to freeze their veins and arteries. Well, they pretty nearly put mine in
cold storage for eternity. Now, what do you know about 'first aid to the
injured?' Will you get some cold water and alcohol or liniment? I'm
going to have a fierce swelling. I don't suppose I