he doctor
called me up he spoke only the name Glassman, not the name Monte. He
tells me he calls up here because he finds in her room where she died a
card with the name Lobel Masterfilms on it. And likewise also I just
remembered that in the excitement of getting such a sad news over the
telephone I don't tell him who really she is neither."

"Holy St. Patrick!" blurted Quinlan, up now on his feet. "You mean,
Lobel----"

"Wait, wait, I ain't done--I ain't hardly started!" With flapperlike
motions of his hands Mr. Lobel waved him down. "It's easy--a pipe.
Listen! To date her salary is paid. The day she went away I gave her a
check in full, and if she done what always before she does, it's in the
bank drawing interest. Let it go on staying in the bank drawing
interest. So far as we know, she ain't got no people in this country at
all. In the old country, in Hungary? Maybe, yes. But Hungary is yet all
torn up by this war--no regular government there, no regular mails, no
American consuls there, no nothing. Time for them foreigners that they
should get their hands on her property one year from now or two years or
three. They couldn't come to claim it even if we should notify them,
which we can't. They don't lose nothing by waiting. Instead they
gain--the interest it piles up.

"Should people ask questions, why then through the papers we give it out
that Miss Vida Monte is gone far off away somewhere for a long rest;
that maybe she don't take no more pictures for a long time. That should
make The She-Demon go all the better. And to-morrow up there in that
little rube town very quietly we bury Sarah Glassman, deceased, with
the burial certificate made out in her own name." He paused a moment to
enjoy his triumph. "Boys, when I myself think out something, am I right
or am I wrong?"

He answered his own question.

"I'm right!"

By the look on Quinlan's face he read conviction, consent, full and
hearty approval. But Geltfin wavered. Inside Geltfin superstition
wrestled with opposing thoughts. Upon him then Lobel, the master mind,
advanced, dominating the scene and the situation and determined also to
dominate the lesser personality.

"But--but say--but look here now, Lobel," stammered Geltfin, hesitating
on the verge of a decision, "she might come back."

"Geltfin," commanded Lobel, "you should please shut up. Do you want that
we should make a lot of money or do you want that we should lose a lot
of money? I ask you.