e, and that
there was no Eleventh Hour for us." Then, in passionate pleading, facing
Madison: "God cannot mean that--it is we who cannot see. There is some
way out--there must be--there _must_ be."

"It begins and ends with the Patriarch," said Madison monotonously. "We
can't sacrifice him--can we! What's the use of going over it again? It
all comes back to the same point--the Patriarch."

"Yes, yes; I know, I know," she said piteously. "But think,
Doc--_think_! See now, we just send back all the money and jewels--we
know to whom they belong."

"Well, what reason do we give?" Madison said heavily. "The Patriarch is
alive and well. The immediate corollary is that from the moment we do
that, to-morrow morning for instance, every gift, every offering here is
suddenly refused. What reason do we give? If it were only the donors who
were to be considered it might be done. It's human nature that
ninety-nine out of every hundred of them"--his voice rose a little
bitterly--"would probably be only too glad to get their money back--and
the mere statement that you, as the Patriarch's grand-niece, his only
relative, on mature thought did not consider the project as planned
advisable might suffice. But this thing goes beyond that, beyond even
the remaining few who are earnestly interested and would cause us
trouble--it is world-wide in its publicity! Every newspaper in the land
would snatch at it for a headline, and ask--why? And they would not be
content with simply asking why--this thing is too big for that--too much
before the people's eyes--too good 'copy.' They'd start in to find
out--and the result is inevitable. Our safety so far has lain in the
fact that there has been no suspicion aroused; but snooping around a
bank vault at midnight with a mask on and a bull's-eye lantern fades to
a whisper as a suspicion-arouser compared with anybody willingly
coughing up a bunch of money once they've got their claws on it--and a
yellow journal, let alone an army corps of them, on the scent of a
possible sensation has all the detective bureaus in the country pinned
to the ropes--they'd have us uncovered quicker than I like to think
about it--and that means--"

He stopped, and with a hurried motion, carried his hands across his
eyes--Helena, pure as one of God's own angels now, to come to that, to
come to--

It was the Flopper who completed the sentence.

"Ten spaces up de river," said the Flopper, and shivered, and his tongue
sough