meeting Bartlett.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Then you are--"

"Out, at any rate," was the somewhat bitter reply. "Where have you been,
Gerry?"

"Away. I couldn't stand it around there."

"I suppose you know they have been looking for you?"

"Looking for me? Oh, you mean Colonel Ashley wanted some information
about certain business matters. Well, I didn't see that I owed him any
explanation about private matters between Mr. Carwell and myself, so I
didn't answer.

"You know what the imputation is, Gerry?" questioned Bartlett, as each
man sat in his car, near a lonely stretch of woods.

"I don't know that I do," was the calm reply.

"Well, Viola has told me of the finding of the papers in her father's
private safe. I told her I would see you, if I could, and get an
explanation. I did not think I would find you so soon."

"I didn't know you were looking, Harry, or I would have come to you.
What do you mean about papers in a private safe?"

"I mean those which indicate that Mr. Carwell owed you fifteen thousand
dollars."

"Well, he did owe me that," said the captain calmly.

"He did?" and Harry Bartlett accented the last word.

"Yes, but it was paid. He did not owe me a dollar at the time of his
death."

"That is astonishing news! There is no record of the money having been
paid!"

"Nevertheless the debt is canceled," insisted the captain. "I sent the
receipt and the canceled note to LeGrand Blossom."

"It's false!" cried Bartlett. "He hasn't any such documents!"

For a moment Captain Poland seemed about to leap from his car and
attack the man who had given him the lie direct. Then, by an effort, he
composed himself, and quietly answered:

"I can prove every word I say, and I will take immediate steps to do so.
Mr. Carwell paid me the fifteen thousand dollars on the twenty-third,
and I--"

"He paid you the money on the twenty-third? the very day he died?" cried
Harry.

"Yes."

"Then--Why, good heavens, man! Don't you see what this means? It means
you were with him just before his death, the same as I was. We're both
in the same boat as far as that goes!"

"Yes, I admit that I was with him, and that he paid me the fifteen
thousand dollars shortly before his unfortunate end," returned Captain
Poland. "But our meeting was a most peaceful one, even friendly, and--"

"You mean that I--Oh, I see!" and Bartlett's voice was full of meaning.
"So that's what you are driving at. Well, two can play at that gam