s at the same time immensely
wealthy, yet who cared nothing for human life so long as he amassed a
colossal fortune.

"All this, Mr. Garfield, is most astounding!" she declared, gazing
with bewilderment around the room. "It seems incredible!"

"Yes, Miss Tennison, I know it does," I replied. "But have patience,
and I will prove to you the true depth of the villainy of our mutual
enemy and his well-paid sycophants."

Then, of a sudden, I grasped her soft hand in mine and for a few
seconds held it. I looked steadily into her wonderful eyes, and then
slowly I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it.

"Gabrielle," I whispered, bending to her in deep earnestness. "My
triumph over your enemies is yours--_yours_! Wait, and I will reveal
to you the whole facts--facts more astounding than have ever been
conceived in the most sensational pages of modern fiction."

She did not withdraw her hand, and by her inert attitude, I realized
with indescribable joy that she really reciprocated my love!

I am not an emotional man, neither am I an ideal lover. I am only a
mere man-of-the-world. Hence perhaps the reader will forgive me if I
fail to describe all the ecstasy of affection which I experienced at
that moment.

I loved Gabrielle Tennison with all my soul, and I now knew that she
loved me. That surely was all-sufficient!

With Gabrielle I had been a fellow-victim of a deeply laid and most
foul plot. That I had been purposely marked down with the aid of De
Gex's accomplice and sycophant, Gaston Suzor, was made more than plain
as I pursued my inquiries.

The plot by which De Gex had hoped to secure his partner's fortune was
indeed worthy the evil ever-scheming mind of the mystery-man of
Europe; the man whose unseen influence made itself felt in every great
political move on the Continent--the man whose hundred agents were
ready in secret to do his bidding and perform any dirty work for
payment.

After the Conde de Chamartin had been secretly attacked in the train
on his way to Paris and had died in the hospital at San Sebastian,
Oswald De Gex suddenly found to his dismay that whatever claim he made
upon his late partner's estate, practically the whole would go to his
daughter. Therefore, while being a little apprehensive lest orosin
could be detected in a body after death by an expert pathologist, he
resorted to that elaborate and remarkable plot in order to exhibit to
me what I presumed to be the body of Gabrielle Engled