accurately refolded, had gone to join the pocketed
letter. "You are certainly an ornament to an honorable profession."
Then, stepping into the cell and standing aside: "You may go. We'll know
where to find you when you're needed."

Whitredge's vanishing was like a trick of legerdemain; one moment he
stood before us, and at the next he was gone. At his going, Cummings and
the turnkey also disappeared and I was left alone with Benedict. There
was a hearty handgrasp to assure me that I was not dreaming, and then I
said:

"I had given you up, Benedict. I thought they had you tied hand and foot
back yonder in the big hills."

"Myers is handling that end of it," he returned. "I had other irons in
the fire, and they've been getting hot in such rapid succession that I
couldn't leave them. But I did what I could by wire--got the warden's
promise that he would hold your case 'in suspension' until I could show
up in person. Have they been treating you well? I'm afraid they
haven't. You're not looking quite up to the mark."

I was beginning to understand--a little.

"When did you telegraph the warden?" I asked.

"Immediately; from Cripple Creek, and as soon as Barrett had told me your
story. We had our reply at once, and I took the first train for
Glendale, your old home town. What I have been able to dig up in that
little dead-alive burg is a great plenty, Bertrand. Your arrest has
turned out to be just about the most unfortunate thing that could
possibly have happened for certain persons who were most anxious to bring
it to pass--namely, two old rascals who made use of the traveling-man
Barton's story and started the pursuit in the right direction."

"Call me Weyburn," I broke in. "That is my name--James Bertrand
Weyburn--and I'm going to wear it, all of it, from this time on."

"I know," laughed the big attorney, drawing up the stool and seating
himself beside the cot much as Whitredge had done at an earlier hour of
the same day. "They call you 'Bert' and 'Herbert' down yonder in your
home village, and they don't seem to know that your middle name is
Bertrand."

"You say you have been digging: what did you find out?" I questioned
eagerly.

"Some things that I was looking for and some that I wasn't. I had the
advantage of being a total stranger to everybody, and all I had to do was
to stroll around and ask questions. Let me ask you one, right now; do
you know who the owners of the Lawrenceburg are?"