It was uncanny as Kennedy rushed along in his reconstruction of the
scene, almost unbelievable. The girl watched him, fascinated.

"John Fletcher was wakeful that night. Somehow or other he heard you
at work. He entered the library and, by the light streaming from his
bedroom, he saw who it was. In anger he must have addressed you, and his
passion got the better of his age--he fell suddenly on the floor with a
stroke of apoplexy. As you bent over him he died. But why did you ever
attempt so foolish an undertaking? Didn't you know that other people
knew of the will and its terms, that you were sure to be traced out
in the end, if not by friends, by foes? How did you suppose you could
profit by destroying the will, of which others knew the provisions?"

Any other woman than Helen Bond would have been hysterical long before
Kennedy had finished pressing home remorselessly one fact after another
of her story. But, with her, the relief now after the tension of many
hours of concealment seemed to nerve her to go to the end and tell the
truth.

What was it? Had she some secret lover for whom she had dared all to
secure the family fortune? Or was she shielding someone dearer to her
than her own reputation? Why had Kennedy made Fletcher withdraw?

Her eyes dropped and her breast rose and fell with suppressed emotion.
Yet I was hardly prepared for her reply when at last she slowly raised
her head and looked us calmly in the face.

"I did it because I loved Jack."

Neither of us spoke. I, at least, had fallen completely under the spell
of this masterful woman. Right or wrong, I could not restrain a feeling
of admiration and amazement.

"Yes," she said as her voice thrilled with emotion, "strange as it may
sound to you, it was not love of self that made me do it. I was, I am
madly in love with Jack. No other man has ever inspired such respect and
love as he has. His work in the university I have fairly gloated over.
And yet--and yet, Dr. Kennedy, can you not see that I am different from
Jack? What would I do with the income of the wife of even the dean of
the new school? The annuity provided for me in that will is paltry. I
need millions. From the tiniest baby I have been reared that way. I have
always expected this fortune. I have been given everything I wanted.
But it is different when one is married--you must have your own money. I
need a fortune, for then I could have the town house, the country house,
the yacht, the m