ok it, then, as he read the figures, his face paled. Crushing
it in his palm, he rose, and in a voice harsh with fury unloosed a
stream of profanity that surprised his hearer.

"You contemptible, short-bred loafer!" he concluded. "What do you take
me for? What makes you think I'd do such a rotten thing as that?"

Murray smiled. "You'll _have_ to, old man. It isn't pleasant, of course,
but you won't allow Muriel and the children to lose that money. I like
your spirit, but I shall kill myself just the same, and it's up to you
to see that they are not ruined."

Again Herkimer became incoherent.

"Oh, swear as much as you please, I'm going to do it, nevertheless. I've
made a wretched failure of everything else, but I intend to right one of
my wrongs while there is time."

"Right! Wrong!" bellowed the physician. "Damn it, man! You're asking me
to help you steal a million dollars. Does that occur to you?"

"The end justifies the means in this case. You're not rich. That
twenty-five thousand--"

Herkimer flung the paper at the speaker.

"Well, if you won't take my money, you'll have to help me, out
of friendship. At nine o'clock to-morrow morning I shall be dead.
Knowing the truth and all it means, you'll _have_ to come.
You--_can't--stay--away_."

"Oh, is that so?" the doctor mocked, furiously. "I'll show you whether I
can or not." He jerked his watch from his pocket and consulted it.
"There's a train for Boston in twenty minutes and I'm going to take it.
I couldn't get back here in time even if I wanted to. Now, kill yourself
and be damned to you." He seized his hat and rushed out of the room,
slamming the door behind him.

A moment later Murray heard a taxi-cab whir noisily away from the
club-house door.

Manifestly, there were more difficulties in the way of this enterprise
than he had counted upon. Without the co-operation of some reliable
physician the clubman dared not do away with himself in New York;
coroners are curious, medical attention is too prompt, he was too well
known, the very existence of that tremendous amount of life insurance
would lead to investigation. He decided to go hunting, and he knew just
the right place to go, too, he thought.

Several years before he had joined a gunning club which owned a vast
expanse of rice-fields and marsh lands in North Carolina, and, knowing
the place thoroughly, he concluded that it offered perfect facilities
for such an action as he contemplated. According