t turns
out, was identical in character to the one used by Sagon."

"A bayonet," cried Pendleton. "By George! So it was."

Just then Stumph announced Allan Morris.

The latter was pale and haggard; his clothes were neglected, and there
were some days' beard upon his chin. He seemed astonished at sight of
Pendleton; however, he only nodded. Then he said inquiringly to the
investigator:

"You are Mr. Ashton-Kirk?"

"I am. Will you sit down, Mr. Morris?"

Morris sat down dejectedly.

"Tobin advised me to come see you," he said. "I refused at first; but
in view of what the newspapers contain this morning, I reconsidered
it."

Ashton-Kirk nodded.

"If you had, come to me in the first place," said he, "you'd probably
not have fallen into this mess, and you'd have saved yourself a great
deal of suffering." He regarded the young man for a moment, and then
went on. "Miss Vale, I suppose, has told you of her dealings with me."

"She has," said Morris. "She's been very candid with me in everything.
If I had been the same with her," bitterly, "I should have acted more
like a natural human being. You see, we were to be married; she was
very rich, while I had comparatively nothing. But this in itself
would not have been sufficient to have prevented our wedding for so
long. The fact was that I had gotten myself into trouble through
speculation; I had a fear that my position might even be considered
criminal from some points of view. And I allowed myself to get nervous
over it.

"However, there was a way by which it was possible for me to
extricate myself. To explain this I'll have to go back some years."

"Take your own time," said Ashton-Kirk.

"Well, my father had worked for years perfecting the plans of a
heavier-than-air flying machine," Morris resumed. "At the time of his
death he told me that it was all complete but the constructing, and
that I had millions within my reach. But Hume had the plans--my father
had borrowed money of him--a considerable sum--and had given him the
plans as security.

"Hume had always derided the idea of the monoplane. Tobin, who knew
them both, tells me that he was forever mocking my father upon the
subject. And when the time came when the plans could be redeemed, Hume
denied having them. There was no receipt, nothing to show that the
transaction had ever occurred. The man declared that the whole thing
was a drunken dream. He had never seen any plans; he had never paid
out any mone