h. Having finished her
meal she sat back and asked:

"Do you mind explaining what all this means?"

"No, indeed; I'm glad to explain," replied the woman, raising her
eyelids an instant to flash a glance of approval at her prisoner. "I
have already said that I was obliged to annoy you in order to reach
your father. The dear father is an elusive person, you know, and is
determined to avoid paying the money he owes me. I haven't been able to
locate him, lately, but I have located you, and you are mighty precious
to him because if he loses you he loses the income from your fortune.
Therefore it is my intention to hold you here until Jason Jones either
pays my demands or allows the probate court to deprive him of his
guardianship. The proposition is really very simple, as you see."

"Still," said Alora, "I do not quite understand. How did you know of my
value to my father?"

"I witnessed your mother's will," was the reply.

Alora remembered that this was true.

"But why does my father still owe you money? You were paid for nursing
my mother. And, if your demands are merely blackmail, why does not my
father defy you?"

"I'll tell you," answered. Janet. "It is a bit of ancient history, but
it may interest you. Your mother renounced your father when you were
scarcely a year old. I met Jason Jones soon afterward, and
believing,--as your own deluded mother did--that he would become a great
artist, I gambled with him on his career. In other words, I supported
Jason Jones with all my earnings as a nurse for a period of six years and
in return he signed an agreement which states that one-half of all the
money he received in the future, from whatever source, must be paid to me
in return for my investment. Doubtless we both thought, at the time, that
any money he got would come from the sale of his pictures; neither
could have dreamed that your mother would call him to her on her
death-bed and present sent him with your income until you came of
age--seven years' control of a fortune, with no other obligation than to
look after a child and keep her with him. But the agreement between us
covered even that astonishing event. Imagine, if you can, Jason Jones'
amazement when he entered your mother's sick chamber to find me--his
partner--acting as her nurse. He was also annoyed, for he realized I
knew the terms of the will and would demand my share of his income. Can
you blame me? He hadn't made good as an artist and this was my onl