when a broken-hearted wife had kneeled to him, begging her husband's
life. Yet it was broad daylight and he wide awake.

"Are you Malachi Wadislaw?"

"I--I--thought you were dead!"

"No, not dead. Alive and come at last to make you right the wrong you
did my father. To make you open his prison doors and set him free."

"Are you Philip Romeyn's wife? Her hair--his eyes--I--I--am
confused--Adrian!"

"Yes, father. I am here. Margot!"

Her glance passed from the father to the son but there was no
relenting kindness in it. When the young suffer it is profoundly, and
the inmost depths of Margot's nature were stirred by this first sight
of her father's enemy.

"Philip Romeyn's wife lies in the grave, whither your persecution sent
her. I am her daughter and his, come to make you do a tardy justice.
To make you lead me to the place where you have hidden the bonds, the
gold, you said he stole! For if stealing was done it was by your own
hands, not his."

"Margot--MARGOT! This is my father!" cried Adrian, aghast.

"Yes, Adrian, and my father--my father--wears a convict's garb this
day because of yours!"

"No, no! No, no. I tried to save him, but he would not save himself! I
begged him, almost on my knees I begged him, the little shaver, to
confess and get the benefit of that. But he would not. There was no
hope for him from the beginning. None. They found me all but dead. The
money gone. He by me, the steel rod in his hand with which we used to
fasten the--that very safe. I---- Why, I can see it all as if it were
to-day, even though they lifted me for dead, and found him standing,
dazed and speechless. When they questioned him about the money he
said: 'Ask Malachi Wadislaw. I never touched it.' That was all. But
they proved it against him. I was dead--almost--and I was beggared.
Beggared!" his voice rose to a scream, "by that brave little shaver
who had once--once saved my life. Robbed and murdered--his benefactor,
who had made him rich and prosperous. Should he not suffer? Aye,
forever!"

The silence that followed this speech was intense. The builder ceased
his inquisitive tapping and listened spellbound. Old Joe stood rigidly
behind the girl whom he had followed. Adrian scarcely breathed.
Accused and accuser faced one another, motionless.

Then: "Where--was--it?" demanded Margot. "Show me--the place."

"Here. Here, in this very sanctum to which nobody had the entrance but
us two. There--is the monster safe that