, and his eyes very keen.

"I do most emphatically refuse to give you any information whatever. I
decline, indeed, to hold any further communication with you," (Keith was
yet quieter,) "and I may add that I consider your entrance here an
intrusion and your manner little short of an impertinence." He rose on
his toes and fell on his heels, with, the motion which Keith had
remarked the first time he met him.

Keith fastened his eye on him.

"You do?" he said. "You think all that? You consider even my entrance to
ask you, a minister of the Gospel, a question that any good man would
have been glad to answer, 'an intrusion'? Now I am going; but before I
go I wish to tell you one or two things. I have heard reports about you,
but I did not believe them. I have known men of your cloth, the holiest
men on earth, saints of God, who devoted their lives to doing good. I
was brought up to believe that a clergyman must be a good man. I could
not credit the stories I have heard coupled with your name. I now
believe them true, or, at least, possible."

Mr. Riminon's face was purple with rage. He stepped forward with
uplifted hand.

"How dare you, sir!" he began.

"I dare much more," said Keith, quietly.

"You take advantage of my cloth--!"

"Oh, no; I do not. I have one more thing to say to you before I go. I
wish to tell you that one of the shrewdest detectives in New York is at
work on this case. I advise you to be careful, for when you fall you
will fall far. Good day."

He left Mr. Rimmon shaken and white. His indefinite threats had struck
him more deeply than any direct charge could have done. For Mr. Rimmon
knew of acts of which Keith could not have dreamed.

When he rose he went to his sideboard, and, taking out a bottle, poured
out a stiff drink and tossed it off. "I feel badly," he said to himself:
"I have allowed that--that fellow to excite me, and Dr. Splint said I
must not get excited. I did pretty well, though; I gave him not the
least information, and yet I did not tell a falsehood, an actual
falsehood."

With the composure that the stimulant brought, a thought occurred to
him. He sat down and wrote a note to Wickersham, and, marking it,
"Private," sent it by a messenger.

The note read:

"DEAR FERDY: I must see you without an hour's delay on a matter of the
greatest possible importance. Tripper-business. Your friend K. has
started investigation; claims to have inside facts. I shall wait at my
house for