have had a very vital
motive in getting you out of the way, for his story was a lie from
start to finish; his papers a deliberate forgery!"

"If you have proof of that, Mr. Thode, you have indeed rendered me a
service I can never repay!" she cried. "Once more I am in your debt!"

"My news does not surprise you?" he asked, with a quick glance at her
face.

"No. I have suspected it from the moment Starr Wiley announced his
discovery, for he had threatened me with it in advance; had tried to
bargain with me, in fact." Willa paused. "I had intended to go on
from here to the Flathead Lake country in Montana and then to Arizona
in an effort to establish what you have discovered. I am anxious to
know how you stumbled upon the truth."

It was only when they had reached the little hotel sitting-room and
established themselves before the replenished stove that Kearn Thode
enlightened her.

"You may remember, Miss Murdaugh, that I knew Starr Wiley before I met
him again in Limasito, and that knowledge alone would have impelled me
to distrust at sight any claims which he might produce, no matter what
their nature," he began. "When Winthrop North told me that our friend
had been the means of proving you were not the granddaughter of Giles
Murdaugh, I doubted, and when I learned the name which Gentleman Geoff
was supposed to have signed to the adoption papers with the trapper, I
knew the whole thing was a frame-up. Gentleman Geoff's name was not
Abercrombie."

"How do you know that?" Willa asked, amazed.

"He told me the truth himself, just a little while before he died,"
Thode responded. "I gave him my word to keep his confidence, but now
in your interest I know that he would have me speak. He was Geoffrey
Rendell, of a fine old family, university bred and with a brilliant
future before him, if he had so chosen. I have traced as much of his
career as anyone can ever know now and I will never betray the reason
for his ultimate choice, but you may rest assured that his nickname was
no label of chance or whim. He was a gentleman always in the truest,
finest sense of the word."

"Nothing could ever make me doubt that for an instant," Willa said with
glowing eyes. "There could have been nothing discreditable in his past
and he was a clean sportsman in the life he chose, square and
philosophical; a game loser, a generous winner! Poor Dad! Mr. Thode,
tell me how you succeeded in learning the truth."

"When I was c