s been as intelligent as they were villainous, your scheme would
have succeeded. It was necessary to drug me anew on the voyage, as the
effects were wearing off. They did not drug me enough, and when they
scuttled the old hulk and rowed ashore to flee with their blood money,
the cold water rising in the sinking vessel awoke me, brought me to
full consciousness, and I easily got ashore on some planking. I saw at
once what the plot had been. I realized I had a desperate man to deal
with. I had no money and it would take me some time to get from
northern Wisconsin to Chicago. In the meantime, every one would have
come to believe you William Leadbury, and who would believe me, the
ragged tramp, suddenly appearing from nowhere and claiming to be the
heir? You would be coached by your lawyers, have time to concoct lies,
to manufacture conditions that would color your claim, and in court
you would be self-possessed and on your guard. Therefore I felt that I
must await the psychological moment when you could be taken off your
guard, when, surprised and in confusion, you would betray yourself. I
secured employment as your butler, the psychological moment came, and
you stand, self-convicted, thief and would-be murderer."

"Send for the police at once," said Judge Bording.

"No," said the late captain in the Foreign Legion. "He may reform. I
wish him to have another chance. That he may have the wherewithal to
earn a livelihood, I present him with the contents of this room, the
means of his undoing. In my uncle's library are many excellent
theological works of a controversial nature, and these, too, I present
to him, as a means of turning his thoughts toward better things. I
will not send for the police. I will send for a dray. Judge Bording,
by the recent concatenation of events, I am become the host. Let us
leave Walkley here to pack his effects, and return to the
drawing-room."

Clarissa preceded the others as they slowly descended, with all her
ears open to hear whatsoever William Leadbury might say to Eulalia
Bording, and it was so that she noted a strange little creaking above
them, and looking up, saw poised upon the edge of the balustrade in
the upper hall, impending over the head of William Leadbury and ready
to fall, the great barber chair! With a swift leap, she pushed him to
the wall, causing him to just escape the chair as it fell with a
dreadful crash. But she herself was not so fortunate, for with a
wicked tunk th