aring her sorrow, actually
smiled.

"Helen," he said; "I have a great surprise for you. A friend has
accompanied me here. He called at your house to-day, but you had just
left, so he called on me. You have not seen him since he sailed away
three months ago on the _Mauretania_."

She listened bewildered. Her color came and went. What did he mean?
Could it be possible that--no, had not Keralio said he was dead?
Trembling with suppressed emotion, she whispered:

"Tell me--what is it--tell me----"

For all reply, the lawyer went to the door and beckoned to someone who
had waited in the outer hall. A moment later a man entered, a tall,
well set figure that was strangely familiar. Straining her eyes
through her tears, it seemed to her that her mind must be playing her
some trick, for there before her, stood Kenneth, not the impostor her
instinct had warned her to detest and avoid, but the real Kenneth she
had loved, the father of her child. With a joyous exclamation, she
tottered forward.

"Kenneth!" she cried.

The man, his athletic form broken by sobs, opened his arms.

"My own precious darling!"

A moment later they were clasped in each other's arms. Ah, now she
knew that he had come home! This, indeed, was the husband she loved.
There was no deception this time. Wonderingly, she turned to Steell.

"How did it happen?" she asked wonderingly.

"We'll tell you later--not now," he replied.

She shuddered as she asked in a low voice.

"But where is his brother?"

"Dead! He shot himself at the club. Kenneth and I went to confront
him at the club before coming here. It was his only way out."

The detective stepped forward. Addressing the lawyer and holding out
two enormous diamonds that sparkled like fire in the sunlight, he said:

"We've just found these, together with a lot of counterfeit money."

The lawyer laughed as he took charge of the diamonds.

"It'll please Mr. Parker to see these. Come, Dick. Our work is done."

Kenneth put his arms around his wife.

"Safe in port at last, dear."

"You'll never go away again," she murmured through her tears.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASK***

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