he promoter's plan, he who relieved
Murky of the suit-case hid it later just where few would suspect it might
be hidden.

That place was almost within gunshot of the very spot where the money
would have been distributed had it reached those for whom it was intended.
This not only suited Mr. Grandall's convenience, but kept Slider in a
comparatively safe locality, as well. So many men had been engaged on
the work near Opal Lake that the presence of any kind of person in working
clothes, in that vicinity, would occasion no remark.

Thus had Slider secreted the suit-case in a decaying heap of drift along
the identical little stream beside which the great gravel road had ended.
There had Grandall found and quietly removed the riches the very next
day. Then the dishonest treasurer limped back to his hotel, for he was
supposed to be scarcely able to move, owing to his "injuries," as a result
of the robbery.

Nearly three years passed. The suit-case lay undisturbed where Grandall
hid it and its valuable contents were intact. If the Longknives' treasurer
had had occasion to make use of this money, meanwhile, he had been
either afraid or unwilling to do so. But he knew where it was. He knew
that in an emergency he could lay hands on a moderate fortune whose
existence he believed none suspected. The thought bolstered his courage
in scheming the method of more than one piece of trickery and dishonesty.

Then came the end, as sooner or later in crooked plans it must
come--Failure! They all fail,--it is inevitable,--at last. The
wrong-doer faced the necessity of flight.

Grandall's defalcations in the bank did not appear at once. A small
matter--the "padding" or falsely increasing of some petty bills for
material furnished the city--had started an investigation. It was to
the amazement of everyone who knew the man that a long, long chain of
shady operations and even petty stealing, even the robbery of his own
friends, was by slow degrees uncovered.

Toward the last, it was apparent, Grandall had been driven to the most
painful desperation. Night and day he must be on guard to keep his
deceptions covered up. Constantly he must devise new practices in deceit
to conceal others that once had served, but now, daily and hourly, were
opening at most unexpected points revealing the treachery, falsehood,
hypocrisy and rottenness they erstwhile had secreted.

Like a common thief, the guilty Grandall stole away in the night. Behind
him