f it is the last act of my life! Such a
conference never took place, and you know it!"

"'Come, Lawton, be sensible; half a loaf is better than no bread,'"
Blaine quoted slowly. "'There is no blackmail about this--it is an
ordinary business proposition.'

"'It's a damnable crooked scheme, and I shall have nothing to do with
it. This is final! My hands are clean, and I can look every man in the
face and tell him to go where you can go now!'

"You remember that, don't you, Rockamore?" Blaine interrupted himself
to ask sharply. "Do you also recall your reply?--'How about poor
Herbert Armstrong? His wife--'"

"It's a lie! A d--d lie!" cried Rockamore. "I was not in this room
that night! Such a conversation never occurred! Who told you of this?
Who dares accuse me?"

"I do!" A clear, flute-like voice, resonant in its firmness, rang out
from behind him as he spoke, and he wheeled abruptly, to find Anita
standing with her slender form outlined against the dark, rich velvet
of the curtains. Her head was thrown back, her eyes blazing; and as
she faced him, she slowly raised her arm and pointed a steady finger
at the recoiling figure. "I accuse you, Bertrand Rockamore, of the
murder of my father! It was I who heard your conversation here in this
room; it was I who found the vial which contained the poison you used
when your arguments and threats failed! I am not mistaken--I knew that
I could never be mistaken if I heard that voice again, shaken, as it
was that night, with rage and defiance--and fear! I knew that I should
hear it again some time, and all these weeks I have listened for it,
until this moment. Mr. Blaine, this is the man!"

[Illustration: Her head was thrown back, her eyes blazing: and as she
faced him, she slowly raised her arm and pointed a steady finger at the
recoiling figure.]

"Anita, you have lost your mind!" With the shock of the girl's
appearance, a steely calm had come to the Englishman, and although a
tremor ran through his tones, he held them well in leash. "My poor
child, you do not know what you are saying.

"As for you,"--he turned and looked levelly into Blaine's eyes,--"I am
amazed that a man of your perception and experience should for a
moment entertain the idea that he could make out a case of capital
crime against a person of my standing, solely upon the hysterical
pseudo-testimony of a girl whose brain is overwrought. This midnight
conference, which you so glibly quote, is a figment o