h his quick volley of abuse.

"I 've got your number, Elsie Verriner, alias Chaddy Cravath," he
thundered out, bringing his great withered fist down on the table top.
"I 've got every trick you ever turned stowed away in cold storage. I
've got 'em where they 'll keep until the cows come home. I don't care
whether you 're a secret agent or a Secretary of War. There 's only
one thing that counts with me now. And I 'm going to win out. I 'm
going to win out, in the end, no matter what it costs. If you try to
block me in this I 'll put you where you belong. I 'll drag you down
until you squeal like a cornered rat. I 'll put you so low you 'll
never even stand up again!"

The woman leaned a little forward, staring into his eyes.

"I did n't expect this of you, Jim," she said. Her voice was tremulous
as she spoke, and still again he could see on her face that odious and
unfathomable pity.

"There 's lots of things were n't expected of me. But I 'm going to
surprise you all. I 'm going to get what I 'm after or I 'm going to
put you where I ought to have put you two years ago!"

"Jim," said the woman, white-lipped hut compelling herself to calmness,
"don't go on like this! Don't! You're only making it worse, every
minute!"

"Making what worse?" demanded Blake.

"The whole thing. It was a mistake, from the first. I could have told
you that. But you did then what you 're trying to do now. And see
what you 've lost by it!"

"What have I lost by it?"

"You 've lost everything," she answered, and her voice was thin with
misery. "Everything--just as they counted on your doing, just as they
expected!"

"As who expected?"

"As Copeland and the others expected when they sent you out on a blind
trail."

"I was n't sent out on a blind trail."

"But you found nothing when you went out. Surely you remember that."

It seemed like going back to another world to another life, as he sat
there coercing his memory to meet the past, the abysmal and embittered
past which he had grown to hate.

"Are you trying to say this Binhart case was a frame up?" he suddenly
cried out.

"They wanted you out of the way. It was the only trick they could
think of."

"That's a lie!" declared Blake.

"It's not a lie. They knew you 'd never give up. They even
handicapped you--started you wrong, to be sure it would take time, to
be positive of a clear field."

Blake stared at her, almost stupidly. His mind was gropin