h
at the trial--all the truth, I mean? Was that really all you
remember?"

"Yes, dear," he replied a trifle wearily. "When I left Mr. Blaine's
office that day, I was hurrying along Dalrymple Street, when just
outside the Colossus Building, a boy about fifteen--that one who is in
the reformatory now--collided with me. Then he looked up into my face,
and grasped my arm.

"'You're Mr. Hamilton, aren't you?' he gasped. 'Oh, come quick, sir!
Mr. Ferrand's had a stroke or something, and I was just running to get
help. You don't remember me, I guess. I'm Mr. Ferrand's new
office-boy, Frankie Allen. You was in to see him about ten days ago,
don't you remember?'

"Well, as I told you, 'Nita dearest, old Mr. Ferrand was one of my
father's best friends. His offices were in the Colossus Building, and
I _had_ been in to see him about ten days before--so in spite of Mr.
Blaine's warning, I was perfectly unsuspecting. Of course, I didn't
remember his office-boy from Adam, but that fact never occurred to
me, then. I went right along with the boy, and he talked so volubly
that I didn't notice we had gotten into the wrong elevator--the
express--until its first stop, seven floors above Mr. Ferrand's.
They must have staged the whole thing pretty well--Carlis and
Paddington and their crew--for when I stepped out of the express
elevator, there was no one in sight that I remember but the boy who
was with me. I pressed the button of the local, which was just
beside the express--there was a buzz and whirring hum as if the
elevator had ascended, and the door opened. As I stepped over its
threshold, I felt a violent blow and terrific pain on the back of my
head, and seemed to fall into limitless space. That was all I knew
until I woke up in the hospital where Mr. Blaine had taken me
after discovering and rescuing me, to see your dear face bending over
mine!"

"One of Paddington's men was waiting, and hit you on the head with a
window-pole, as you stepped into the open elevator shaft," Blaine
supplemented. "It was all a plant, of course. You only fell to the
roof of the elevator, which was on a level with the floor below. There
they carried you into the office of a fake company, kept you until
closing time, and got you out of the building as a drunkard, conveying
you to Mac Alarney's retreat in his own machine. Nobody employed in
the building was in their pay but the elevator man, and he's got his,
along with the rest! Paddington's scheme w