were in existence because he had seen them, and which he had
supposed were left in his own safe the night the man talked with him,
but which could not be found. As the wife had just been brought
back from the hospital and was still in a very critical condition,
father would not do more than ask if he might go through the house
and search. And that woman sent back a very indignant refusal,
charging father with having been at the bottom of her husband's
failure, and even the cause of his death, and telling him he had
pauperized her and her little helpless daughter. And the daughter
began treating me as a stranger whenever we chanced to meet----"

Allison's face darkened and his eyes looked stern and hard. He said
something under his breath angrily. Jane couldn't catch the words, but
he drew her close in his arms and held her tenderly:

"And were those papers never found, dear?" he asked after a moment:

"Yes," said Jane wearily, resting her head back against his shoulder,
"I found them, after father died."

"You found them?"

"Yes, I found them slipped down behind the chest in the hall. It was a
heavy oak chest, a great carved affair that had belonged in the family
a long time, and it was seldom moved. It stood below the hat-rack in
the alcove in the hall, and I figured it out that the man must have
meant to keep those papers himself, so there would be no incriminating
evidence in father's hands, and that he must have picked them up
without father's noticing and started to carry them home; but that
when he was going away, putting on his overcoat, he had somehow
dropped some of them behind that chest without knowing it. Because
they were not all there--two of them were missing. Father had
described them to me, and three--the most important ones with the
empty envelope--were found. The other two were probably larger, and
looked like the whole bundle, which explains how he came to think he
had them all. But the two he had and must have had about him when he
was killed would not in themselves have been any evidence against him.
So, my father was arrested----!"

The tears choked Jane's voice and suddenly rained into her sweet eyes
as she struggled to recall the whole sorrowful experience.

"Oh, my darling!" cried Allison, tenderly holding her close.

"Father was very brave. He said it was sure to come out all right, but
he wouldn't accept bail, though it was offered him by several loyal
friends. He saw that they susp