n and what few scruples she had were pushed
aside, I think I should have strangled her.

"You are going to be awfully sweet to me to-night, Bertie," she began,
with honey on her tongue. "You are going to be my good angel. I need
a lot of money, and I want you to be nice and get it for me."

"No," I refused briefly. "You've bled me enough."

"Just this one more time, Boy," she coaxed. "I've simply _got_ to have
it, you know."

"Why don't you get it from your father?"

"He has quit," she said, with a toss of the shapely head. "Besides,
you are so much easier."

"How much do you want, this time?"

She named a sum which was a fair measure of my entire checking account
in the Cripple Creek bank; no small amount, this, though by agreement
Gifford, Barrett and I had set aside a liberal portion of the mine
earnings as undivided profits. When I hesitated, fairly staggered by
the enormity of her demand, she added: "Don't tell me you haven't got
it; I know you have. You don't spend anything except the little you
dole out for me."

"If I have that much, I am not carrying it around with me."

"I didn't suppose you carried it in your pocket. But you are well
known here in Denver, and you can get your checks cashed at any hour of
the day or night, if you go to the right places. You've done it
before."

I was desperate enough to be half crazed. Not content with making me
lose the love of the one woman in the world, she was preparing to rob
me like a merciless highwayman.

"Nothing for nothing, the world over," I said, between set teeth. "I
mean to have the worth of my money, this time."

With a quick twist on the arm of the chair she leaned over and put her
cheek against mine. "There are others," she laughed softly, "but there
has never been a day or an hour when you couldn't make them wait,
Bertie, dear." And then: "No; I haven't been drinking."

"You will give me what I want, if I will pay the price?" I demanded.

"You heard what I said," she whispered.

I made her sit up and tried to face her.

"This is what I want. Four years ago you and your father sent me to
prison for a crime that I didn't commit. Go over to that table and
write and sign me my clearance--tell the bald truth and sign your name
to it--and you shall have your money."

In a flash she slipped from her place on the arm of the chair and stood
before me transformed into a flaming incarnation of vindictive rage.
In spite of the pace s