long piercing scream from the broken heart of his little girl.

"No, no, not that!" he groaned in sudden terror, his face white with
pain. "I can't kill her, too. No, I must save her, that's why I want to
kill him because he has imperilled her life, and I am about to crush
her at a single blow. God save and help me!--God! Where is God? He
helps those who help themselves in this madman's world. Well, then I'll
look out for my own, too!"

His breath came in laboured gasps as one mad thought succeeded another.

"Yes!" he said hoarsely, "I must save her. I must be cunning. I must
succeed, not fail. I must get what I came here for. I must save my
baby. My own fate is of no importance. She is everything."

[Illustration: "'I must save her. I must be cunning'"]

He watched the dancers, greedily catching the flash of their diamonds,
gleaming tiaras, rings, necklaces, bracelets, each worth a king's
ransom. Suddenly the idea flashed through his mind:

Bivens had taken from him, by fraud, his formula, destroyed his
business and robbed him of all he possessed. The law gave him power to
hold it. He, too, would appeal to the same power and take what belonged
to him. No matter how, he would take it, and he would take it to-night.

Bivens had boasted that his favours in jewelry given in sheer
wantonness of pride to rich guests would be worth twenty-five thousand
dollars. His plan was instantly formed.

He turned quickly and began to search the house until he found the
half-drunken servant arranging these packages under the direction of a
secretary. These favours had been made for the occasion by a famous
jeweller; a diamond pin of peculiar design, a gold death's head with
diamond teeth and eyes surmounted by a butterfly and a caterpillar. The
stones in each piece were worth a hundred dollars. They lay on a table
in little open jewel boxes, fifty in a box, and each box contained five
thousand dollars' worth of gold and precious stones.

The doctor inspected the boxes with exclamations of wonder and
admiration.

The secretary who had lingered long over his champagne was busy trying
to write the names of the guests on separate cards. The doctor bent low
over the table for an instant, and when he left one of the jewel cases
rested securely in his pocket.

He was amazed at his own skill and a thrill of fierce triumph filled
his being as he realized that he had succeeded and that his little girl
would go to Europe and complete h