rooks overreach themselves. Clever as they are, they usually leave
some mark which betrays them. For example, in printing this bill which
bears the head of Lincoln, they have spelled his first name
'Abrahem'--in other words, the engraver made an 'e' when it should have
been 'a.'"

Ray jumped up, quite excited. Her eyes flashing, she cried.

"Isn't that strange! I have a new $10 bill, and I noticed to-day the
queer spelling of Abraham. Wouldn't it be funny if I had one of the
counterfeits?"

The lawyer smiled.

"It wouldn't be funny; it would be a tragedy, considering that in a
short while from now I am to pay your bills. Where is the bank note?"

"I'll run up and get it. It's in my purse."

When she had disappeared, Steell turned to his hostess and said:

"Have you seen Signor Keralio lately?"

"Hardly--you know I dismissed him from the house."

The lawyer sat thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the table.
Musingly, he said:

"Somehow I have a hunch that that fellow knows something about the
diamonds. Does Kenneth ever see him?"

"I asked him the other day. He said he did not."

"That's strange!" exclaimed the lawyer. "It was only yesterday morning
that I saw them together in a taxicab."

"Where?" demanded Helen, surprised.

"Away uptown. I had business up in the Bronx. I was driving my car
and was near 200th street and going north when suddenly I had to steer
to one side to allow a taxicab to pass. There were two men in it. I
just chanced to glance inside and, to my surprise, I recognized your
husband and Keralio."

"What time was that?"

"Very early--about nine o'clock."

"What direction?"

"They were coming south."

"Then he must have been with Keralio all night, for he didn't come
home."

The lawyer was silent. Certainly here was a mystery which needed more
detective talent than he possessed to clear up. Yet he would not rest
until it was solved. To-morrow he would get Dick Reynolds busy, and
they would go to work in earnest. The first thing to find out was what
took Keralio and Kenneth to the Bronx.

"Does Keralio live in the Bronx?"

"I don't know," said Helen.

"I'll find out," said the lawyer, grimly.

At that moment Ray returned, holding out a new ten-dollar bill.

"I was right," she cried. "The name Abraham is spelled with an 'e.'
Do you really think this is a counterfeit?"

The lawyer took the bill and examined it critically.

"I have no doubt of it," h