thousand backward will either restore your loss of memory, or, as I have
taken care to warn you gravely in advance, cause you to go insane. It
must be done rapidly, and in a given space of time. In my belief the
remedy is by far worse than the malady. I feel, somehow, as though I
ought not to have told you about it."

"Nonsense," said Lester. "You need have little fear of my trying it."

He thought of it, however, as the cab rolled rapidly along.

"I wonder if harm would result from my trying it?" he mused. "I have
unusually strong nerves, and--and, if anything disastrous should come of
it, there is not one soul on the wide earth that would be injured. There
is no mother to weep, no fair young sister to grieve, no father or
brother to be bowed down with sorrow. I am alone in the world. My
foolhardiness would injure only myself--only myself."

He had been thinking so deeply that he had not noted the flight of time,
nor that the street lamps had grown fewer and far between, at last
ceasing altogether, and that they were traveling a country road.
Suddenly the vehicle came to a stop. The driver jumped from his box and
opened the door with a jerk, remarking:

"This is the place."

Lester alighted, looking about him in a rather mystified manner, but
before he could make the inquiry that rose to his lips the driver
hastened to say:

"The path that leads to the house, which is just beyond that clump of
trees, is so narrow that we cannot drive there. We will have to walk. It
is but a short distance. You will see the house at the first turn in the
path."

And as the man uttered the words he gave a peculiar cough.

"Who is the person who sent for me?" Lester queried, stopping short. The
man made an evasive answer, which aroused his suspicions that all was
not as it should be.

"Why do you not answer my question? I refuse to proceed a step farther
until you have satisfied me on this point," declared Lester, haughtily.

"That's your opinion. I think differently, my fine fellow," answered the
man insolently. "I'd advise you to come along quietly."

Lester Armstrong saw at once that he had been lured into a trap. It was
natural for him to jump to the conclusion that it was for robbery, owing
to the fact of his coming into possession of the great Marsh fortune so
recently, and a sudden sternness settled upon his face. He was not used
to broils, but this fellow should see that he was not quite a stranger
to the manly art