tence
or to earn his bread without a little excitement. A dangerous man, and
the more dangerous from his enormous vanity and utter want of moral
principle.

Having made Steel promise not to arrest him, nor to make any use of his
revelations to endanger his own liberty, Dane cheerfully proceeded to
betray those he had sworn secrecy to. Wicked as was the gang, and evil
as was the purpose of its formation, Giles could not help feeling a
contempt for the traitor. There should be honor amongst thieves, thought
Ware. But Dane did not believe in the proverb, and explained himself
quite complacently.

"I met Denham--as he usually called himself many years ago in Italy--at
Milan," said Dane; "he had a house there. His daughter--let us call Miss
Anne his daughter, although I am glad to hear she is not--lived with
him. She was then about fifteen and was at school at a convent. She and
I got on very well. I adored her for her beauty and kindness of heart. I
was starving for want of money, as my remittances had not arrived from
America. Denham took me in. I made myself useful, so there was no
charity about the matter."

"Still, he took you in," suggested Giles, "that was kind."

"A kindness to himself," retorted Dane. "I tell you, sir, Denham wanted
what he called a secretary and what I called a tool. He found such a one
in me. I don't deny that I did all his dirty work, but I had some
feeling of gratitude because he rescued me from starvation."

"You contradict yourself, Dane."

"No, sir, I do not," replied the man, with true Irish obstinacy, "but
I'm not here to argue about my conduct but to tell you facts."

"Facts we wish to know," said Steel, taking out his note-book.

"And facts I tell," cried Dane vehemently, then resumed in a calmer
tone. "Miss Anne was all day at school. Denham never let her know what a
devil he was. He was always kind to her. She thought him a good man.
Then thinking she might get to know too much, he sent her to a convent
for education and removed to Florence. There he called himself George
Franklin. He told me that he expected to get money by taking that name."

"Then he admitted that he was not George Franklin," said Giles.

"He never admitted anything. At one time he would say that his real name
was George Franklin, at another declare he was really Alfred Denham. But
he had so many names in the course of his career," added Dane, with a
shrug, "that one more or less did not matter. Besides, h