Harrington Chase paused in his restless pacing of the private
office to regard his partner with troubled eyes. "We've got to make a
big killing or we're due to go under, and you know what that'll mean."

Wiley flung himself around in his chair to face the other.

"I've moved heaven and earth to find that old she-devil!" he exclaimed.
"The biggest obstacle is out of our path now, as you very well know,
and if Tia Juana would only turn up, we could put it all over her.
Gentleman Geoff's Billie is no longer in a position to interfere if she
wanted to, thanks to my fortunate discovery of the adoption papers in
Arizona, and when I get my hands on the old woman----"

"You've been saying that for the last month," Chase observed, adding
with a sly smile: "I'm not undervaluing the lucky chance that put those
documents in your way, my dear fellow! What has happened, anyway, in
regard to that affair? Until the Halsteads and North have proved the
validity of the papers they won't make any premature announcement, of
course, and I'm only supposed to share the knowledge, common in their
circle, that Willa Murdaugh has gone to spend the winter in the South."

"Oh, they'll spring the news about the beginning of Lent, I imagine,
when the social calendar is clear and they won't have so many
explanations to make," Wiley responded carelessly. "It's bound to be a
nine-days' wonder, but things move rapidly in this town and she'll be
almost forgotten by Easter."

"What's become of the girl herself?" asked Chase. "Where did she go
when she took herself off in that high-handed fashion?"

"Search me!" Wiley shrugged. "She's eliminated, anyway, from the
scene."

"Not if we happen to shift the scene to Mexico!" retorted the other.
"What if she has gone back to Limasito?"

"Well, she hasn't." Wiley announced briefly. "Our men down there have
their instructions to keep a lookout and let us know the minute she
appears, but there hasn't been a sign of her. Personally, I didn't
expect it."

"Why not? Where else would she go?"

"My dear Harrington, if you had made as close a study of feminine
psychology as I have, you would know that she would rather go anywhere
else in the world than return to Limasito in defeat. With her pride it
would be intolerable after the eclat of her departure as an heiress to
slink back as merely Gentleman Geoff's Billie once more."

"That's some satisfaction," Chase muttered, resuming his nervous tread.